One of the most rewarding parts of animal rescue is witnessing animals who have experienced traumatic lives and seeing them learn to trust humans.

When you look at Bobbie today, a beautiful affectionate and loving cat, it is hard to imagine that her background is one of such abuse and neglect.

The BFFR team remembers the first time they met Bobbie. A skinny, sick and terrified 10 month old, who was also pregnant, but nobody knew that yet.

The team arrived at a hoarding property to transport a car load of cats to rescue, greeted by such a strong smell of urine that it was hard to imagine but impossible to forget. The ammonia in the air was so thick that the team’s eyes and throats burned. Bobbie had been caught by the property owner in a trap weeks before, then cruelly left inside the tiny filthy cage with only newspaper to cover her to stop her from panicking in fear. She was so malnourished that it only later became apparent that she was carrying a litter of kittens.

It was a long and bumpy road to get Bobbie and her kittens healthy so that they could then be vet worked ready to find forever homes. They had countless visits to the vet to overcome heavy flea and worm burden, lice, chlamydia and on top of all that, ringworm too. Thousands of dollars went into giving this beautiful family the best care, but sadly the one thing we couldn’t fix was the permanent damage to both of Bobbie’s eyes due to her not getting treatment in the months before she came to us.

Bobbie saw the lovely specialist ophthalmologist at Melbourne Eye Vet who diagnosed her eye condition as Symblepharon – where the conjunctiva of the eye becomes adhered to the cornea. In Bobbie’s case it was decided that since the condition was not causing any pain and would most likely reoccur, it was best to monitor her eyes and not to operate.

Despite the fact that she had been treated poorly by humans, Bobbie put so much trust in Kat, her foster carer, even though she was so nervous and fearful of every new thing to begin with. Despite her timidness, it was as if Bobbie knew she was safe now and that all of the vet visits and scary new situations (like medicated baths and eye medications) were to help her get better.

Nowadays, Bobbie is sweet, affectionate and playful, the kind of cat who loves a good carefree excited zoomie through her favourite cat tunnel. While her first year was hard, and it took a lot of patience, care and love to bring out her personality, Bobbie has a long life ahead of her in her new forever home. She is healthy and happy, a true rescue success story.

All of Bobbie’s three kittens were also adopted and are out living their best little lives where they will never have to go through the experiences their mother did. From now on Bobbie and her kittens will only know love and care from their forever families.

Message from Bobbie’s forever paw-rent –

“Bobbie is settling in quite well, she is the cheekiest and snuggliest cat I’ve known. We have become super close, she follows me everywhere! My family get jealous how she only had eyes for me at the moment! She still teases my other family members by not letting them give her pats or cuddles, thats all they want to do! But she’s not scared of them anymore! My boyfriend comes and visits on the weekend, she no longer hides when he comes over and she actually likes him, which is a massive step for her She now officially has 2 scratching posts, 2 beds and many toys to play with. Her new favourite food is the royal cannin intense beauty . And she loves getting brushed every night“