Rescuing a stray cat like one of these and finding a home for it turned out to be quite a feat for one man, with sanctuaries full to bursting. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

Petrified and trembling, a black kitten curled into a ball as cars swerved around it in the middle of the busy Luqa Road in Qormi.

Ignoring the hooting horns, Max* slowed down, brought his car to a halt and picked up the terrified ball of fur. He immediately set about locating a sanctuary to welcome the distressed kitten.

However, several phone calls and car trips later, a frustrated Max was left holding the kitten, after being repeatedly told there were was no place where a physically uninjured stray could be taken in.

“The SPCA told me they had no space for any more cats. I repeatedly tried phoning the Animal Welfare Department but didn’t manage to get through.

“I then phoned the Animal Ambulance but was told that unless the animal was injured, they would not pick it up. I tried explaining that it was under great distress and that I couldn’t leave it there as it would surely have died... but to no avail.

The message I got from all this is next time don’t rescue a stray

“It’s incredible. There is no place where you can take a stray cat after rescuing it.

“I was told to knock at the doors of the cat sanctuaries scattered around the island and see which one of them was willing to take it in – the message I got from all this is next time don’t rescue a stray.”

Max was unable to keep the kitten himself as he had just welcomed a new puppy into his family.

Eventually, as he was about to take it to one of the island’s cat villages, a friend managed to locate a woman who was willing to take the kitten in.

When contacted, Animal Welfare Department assistant director Lorna Scehmbri said the Animal Ambulance should have picked up the kitten.

“Unfortunately, we’re unable to take in each and every stray. But in the case where animals are injured, in danger or in distress, they should be taken in. I’ve only been in this role for three months but we’re slowly trying to change the mentality.”

The Għammieri centre has a clinic where recovering animals from the San Franġisk Animal Welfare Centre and kittens which need to be bottle-fed are cared for.

It houses around 25 such cats. A further 70 are kept in a room with pens.

SPCA manager Miriam Casha told Times of Malta that the organisation was not happy to turn down animals but the small premises in Floriana were packed to bursting point.

“Only yesterday, a woman phoned asking us to keep a kitten. When we had to turn it down, she said, ‘Don’t tell me you don’t have space for only one kitten?’

“I told her, ‘Madam, we’ve had six other people phoning today with the same request’.”

The SPCA provides shelter and care for 40 kittens, which are kept in cages, more than 30 cats, as well as 80 dogs and puppies.

“Ninety per cent of the time, stray cats would have the cat flu, ring worm or eye infections,” Ms Casha said.

“We would need to keep them in isolation while we give them medication and tend to them. We can only take a limited number in isolation.

“Even if the kitten is healthy, we would still need to put it in quarantine as it’s stressful for them to go from running about in the streets to being in a cage.”

Adoption, Ms Casha added, had decreased in recent years, meaning that re-homing took longer.

Neutering, she stressed, was an essential step in reducing the number of strays.

* Name has been changed