Royal Navy sailors save litter of kittens in Bahrain
Royal Navy sailors have stepped in to raise a litter of kittens in the punishing heat of Bahrain.
The hearts of personnel serving at the UK Naval Support Facility, which provides round-the-clock support to UK warships operating in the Red Sea, Gulf and Indian Ocean, were touched by the plight of the tiny cats.
The five kittens were found – or rather heard – crying for help, living under a shipping container having lost their mother.
Estimated to be about three weeks old and not yet weaned, the tiny creatures were immediately taken under the care of Royal Navy personnel.
Working collectively between shifts supporting operations, personnel became foster parents, hand-feeding and helping to rear the kittens – while at the same time trying to find someone in the local animal rescue/fostering community to offer the litter a permanent home.
Without the sailors' intervention, the kittens would have perished with temperatures in the small Gulf kingdom already topping 40 Celsius by day.
'We knew the mother, whom we fondly named 'Michelle',' explained Petty Officer Kirsty Scott, one of the sailors who became one of the kitten carers.
'When we discovered her kittens, we were upset to find she had passed away and they were left to fend for themselves. They would come running out crying from the shipping containers at the sight of personnel looking for food, there was no way we could leave them suffering.'
'It was impossible to ignore the desperate cries of five tiny kittens knowing they wouldn't survive one day on their own in the punishing heat – they were too young even to eat or drink by themselves,' said Lieutenant Nathan Boal, who serves in the Royal Navy's operational headquarters in Bahrain.
'I witnessed the caring side of our sailors as well as incredible teamwork to save these helpless animals and I'm relieved that our efforts saved them.
'Alongside managing the challenges operational deployments can bring, these sailors showed incredible empathy in making time for animals desperate for help, and no doubt this will be an enduring memory of their time in Bahrain.'
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