Mayhew are celebrating International Cat Day (8th August) and showing the world how beautiful and brave cats can be, especially when they don’t have the best start in life, such as gorgeous Herbie.

Handsome Herbie was roaming the streets alone while suffering from a painful abscess before being rescued by Mayhew.

The gorgeous ginger and white cat is slowly coming out of his shell on foster care and is ready for his forever home.

The five-year-old domestic stray was first discovered by a member of the public who saw him wandering the streets close to their home in North West London.  They felt sorry for poor Herbie, so fed him and left out fresh water.

When they noticed that he was suffering from a severe abscess on the side of his face, they called Mayhew right away. Our Animal Welfare officers managed to pick up Herbie, who was very nervous and obviously in a lot of pain.

Animal Welfare Officer, AJ Ford, brought Herbie to be seen by our Head Vet, Dr. Ursula Goetz, in Mayhew’s Community Vet Clinic right away. He was given pain relieving medication before his abscess was cleaned out and treated so that he could settle into our cattery feeling a lot more comfortable and secure.

Herbie hadn’t been microchipped so to ensure he wasn’t lost we put up posters locally to see if his owners would come forward, but no one did.

Herbie has now been neutered, microchipped and cared for back to full health. He is feeling a lot calmer and confident and even enjoys our cattery volunteer, Pete, singing to him!

Mayhew’s Animal Welfare Officer, AJ Ford, said: “Thankfully Herbie is well on the road to recovery. We can’t say how long he had been roaming the streets for, but he was in a very poor way and his abscess was causing him severe pain.”

“We do not know if Herbie was lost or abandoned, but he wasn’t microchipped and no one came forward for him. Where pet owners are having difficulty, we urge them to contact us first and we will see what we can do to help.

“We also strongly urge pet owners to have their animal microchipped to significantly increase your chances of being reunited should your pet becomes lost or is stolen, and for dogs, it is a legal requirement.”

It’s also so important to keep details up-to-date on the microchipping database and to notify the chip company if you change phone numbers, address, or if your pet goes missing. Unfortunately, we see many pets come in who have been microchipped but don’t have their owners’ current details registered to the chip, so we are unable to get in contact with the owner.

Microchipping is cheap, harmless and takes seconds. We offer low cost microchipping services at our Community Vet Clinic. Please call 020 8962 8017 or email [email protected] to book an appointment.

If you are interested in adopting Herbie or any of our cats, please visit our adoption page here or call 020 8962 8009. We’re celebrating all the brave cats like Herbie on International Cat Day.

This International Cat Day please consider a donation to help us help more cats like Herbie by clicking this button below: