Hi All

Thanks for all your messages of support about little Finlay, the kitten we rescued.

It’s always nerve wracking taking on the hand rearing of any animal, but especially one that is potentially so precious as Finlay. We are delighted to say that he is now thriving and seems to be in perfect health and developing well. We will be providing regular updates going forward. He is simply incredible to observe so we hope that you will enjoy seeing him grow up.

We have had hundreds of emails and messages and we wanted to provide more detail about his rescue. The couple who recued him are called John and Angela and they live in a chalet close to woodland, in the central highlands. John was outside chopping wood and heard what sounded like a bird. He didn’t think much of it and carried on with his work. However the next day he heard the noise again and so went to investigate. That was when he saw a kitten cowering and bedraggled under some cover. John immediately picked up the kitten which in his words ‘was close to death’ and brought it inside for some warmth as hypothermia was a real risk. This happened during the recent storms and it is highly unlikely that Finlay would have survived much longer had John not have found him. What is clear from these circumstance is that Finlay’s mum was clearly no longer around. A female wildcat’s maternal instincts are extremely strong and she would never willingly abandon or leave a kitten. There was at least 24 hours between John first hearing the noise and then finding Finlay. Sadly his mum was never coming back for him. We are just extremely thankful that John was there to rescue him. You can see Finlay having his first bottle feed in the video above. He clearly enjoys it and must have been starving.

This of course raises the question of what happened to mum. In short, we simply don’t know but we can only fear the worst and assume she died. Wildcats face many threats in the wild, including being trapped, shot, run over or suffering from diseases spread from domestic cats. It is deeply concerning and we will be investigating this further and also doing camera trapping in the area to look for evidence of other wildcats.

Another question that many of you have rightly asked is what happened to Finlay’s siblings. Finlay was alone but it is highly likely that he would have siblings, as litter sizes are typically 3 or 4. Finlay would have been born in a den with his siblings and at the age he was found (around 4 weeks), he would not have been venturing out of the den at all, let alone on his own. Unfortunately it was desperation and hunger that forced him to leave the safety of his den, in a bid to find his mother. It’s heart-breaking to think of the stress, panic and fear he must have experienced as he scrambled around in search of his mother. An extremely thorough search was carried out of the whole area and unfortunately, no more kittens were found. Indeed even the den sites wasn’t found. Unfortunately we can only sadly assume that his siblings died in their den. Perhaps Finlay was the only one strong enough to make it out. We just don’t know for sure, but the fact that no den was found in the vicinity of the rescue site means that he must have crawled a reasonable way.

A lot of you have also asked where he was found. We can’t of course give exact locations but he was found in the central Highlands and well within the Wildcat distribution range.

We hope this updates provides some interesting, yet in parts sad, information about Finlay’s background. It also shows that Finlay is a fighter and like all of his kind, has an unwavering will to survive. He is safe now and doing well and he is on the road to his return to the wild, where he was born. More updates will follow shortly. 

If you want to support our work you can adopt a Scottish wildcat either for yourself or as a gift for a loved one at:

https://www.wildcathaven.com/wildcat-adoption/adopt-a-scottish-wildcat

Many thanks

The Wildcat Haven Team