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Twelve years ago, I was driving back from the evening penguin tour, I had a bunch of German tourists with me in the van. I’d been telling them about the conservation work with predator control being the biggest part of protecting the penguins - when four feral kittens ran across the road, right in front of us!

I screeched the van to a stop, ran outside and threw my coat over the cat family. They were all tangled up in it, but unfortunately, most of them escaped and to be honest, I don’t know what I would have done if I had caught them all, we were halfway back to Akaroa and I had nothing to hold them in.

I did, however, have one of them, a hissing noise came from under my coat. I scooped it up and dropped it on my passenger seat, Unfortunately, it untangled itself and was now loose in the van! My German tourists quickly put their legs up, worried looks in their eyes, they were wearing shorts and didn’t look too pleased with their crazy guide. “ Sorry guys, we can’t have feral cats in the penguin colony!” Luckily the feral kitten stayed under my seat the whole way and didn’t scratch anyone.

They seemed to understand and waving goodbye told me Goodluck. Once I got home I had a major problem. How would I catch it again, It was now in a very tight spot under the seat. It was dark under there. I found a torch and then saw a little grey fluffy ball. All spiked up and hissing at me with huge adorable green eyes. I think my heart melted. It was so dam cute.

I had to get it out of there. It was late and I had no other immediate options. I wrapped my hand up in my coat, hoping that would protect me and just went on in... and yes, the kitten bit the crap out of me through the fabric. But, I was extremely determined to get it, so, I didn’t let go. If I let go, it could escape to the wild again. I swore bloody murder as I ran into the house holding the biting animal out in front of me.

Once inside, the doors locked. I found a cardboard box and dropped the hissy little thing in. The side of the box had handhold openings which I could see into. I found some ham in the fridge and stuck it through the openings. It didn’t take long before the kitten grabbed it.

I started dropping ham in through the top, and she greedily took it. She kept smelling around for more. She was ravenous, I ran out of ham.

Kev got home from working late in a restaurant. He saw me on the ground with a box. “What’s that?” A worried expression on his face.
“ Feral kitten ” I said.
“ What are you going to do with that? ”
“ Tame it and give it to the SPCA! ” I said firmly.
Kev looked into the box, “Oh, It has the letter M on its forehead” An instant smile appeared on his face. Kittens have that effect on people.

From that time on we started calling the kitten M.

It didn’t take long before the kitten had completely heartwormed us, by the next day she was purring and snuggling with us on the couch, eating mince and playing chase with walnuts around the living room. We were completely smitten with the kitten. Our landlord had told us no pets when we first moved in and knowing we had native birds all around our place - we had never wanted a cat anyway.

Feral cats are a huge problem for native birds and little Penguins have no defense against a predator like a cat. Europeans brought cats to New Zealand back in the day.
But M had become a huge part of our life now, she was happy and purry and made us laugh and we couldn’t imagine life without her, the thought of bringing her to the SPCA made us miserable. Even though they would have found her a good home, we couldn’t bear the idea of M with another family.

So, we reached out to our landlord. And it turned out he was cool with it. Said we could keep the cat. Next problem... How do we keep a cat and protect native birds?

Google came back with a few Ideas.

This seemed interesting. It’s a very lightweight bib made of something similar to wetsuit material, it hangs off the cat’s collar. When the cat goes to pounce on a bird - it flaps in the way and the bird has a split-second chance to escape. 80% effective the ad said.
We ordered one online.
When It came to outside time M would have a new look! It didn’t take her long to get used to wearing a bib. Still a young cat she soon realised that was just part of her new life.
She could walk and run and climb trees, it didn’t seem to bother her. She could even catch rats and mice. Which, she would offer to us as a delightfully gruesome present on the doormat.

We always Kept M inside the house at night. That had never been a problem for us, we are couch potatoes and she always joined the action. But there were times over the years when we left the doors or windows open during the day and she slipped out of the house without us getting the bib on her. And three of those times she bought back a feathery present. Two blackbirds and a waxeye. It’s hard when your furry family member kills something you’re working your hardest to protect. Blackbirds are not native to New Zealand but it gave us a good insight into M and her hunting behaviour without a Bib on. We felt terrible about the wax eye.

M is 12 years old now, I’ve only ever seen the remains of 3 birds. She’s a real homebody people-orientated cat, always with us, inside and out. So, perhaps she is not an aggressive killer like some cats can be and we got lucky. But the Bib seems to be effective. At this very moment, she is almost lying on my keyboard while I write this, licking her paws in the sun, we are outside on the picnic table. She wears her bib and we have bird songs all around us.

M, invading my personal space like she always does. M waits by the door for her bib.

If you adore your cat but want to protect native birds, check out Catbibs for more information.