**RIP Ben and Beatrice**

Last week two abandoned newborn kittens were brought into our care. Both had deformities on their back legs and tails. The lady who found them got them warmed up and feed them through the night until they could be brought to one of our foster homes the next day. They were taken immediately to be seen by our vet who determined that the wee boys deformities were so severe that his quality of life, should he survive would be very poor. He would require both back legs to be amputated as well as what resembled his tail. Infection was already setting in on the joints. On this advice he was peacefully put to sleep. The wee girl (we say girl, but her deformities made it almost impossible to determine sex) was very tiny and weak but it was decided we would continue to feed her and see how things progressed. Her ‘tail’ was twisted and attached to her back. It was unclear how much this would/might effect her and she would need assessing regularly as she grew. She fed well, even enjoying some nursing from the resident mummy cat Harmony but sadly, yesterday she passed away. Despite feeding well she didnt thrive. We could see the external deformities but there may have been internal issues that we couldn’t see.