A KITTEN was close to death when she was found abandoned in a box in hot weather. Eight-week-old Jasmine was found hot and starving, dumped near a drain near Appleton Primary School in west Hull.
Luckily, she was discovered and taken to the RSPCA in Clough Road.
Sarah Johnson, the charity's animal care assistant, said: "It was an incredibly hot day on Thursday, when she was found.
"She is only about eight weeks old and was very hot and flustered when she came in.
"We didn't know how long she'd been in the box, but she would have died of heat exhaustion or starved if she hadn't been found."
Staff at the animal charity named the kitten after the princess in Disney classic Aladdin.
On Friday, she was showing signs of becoming healthier and will soon be ready for adoption.
Ms Johnson said: "When we got her we put her straight into a cattery cage and she was very nervous and scared.
"She ate her food straight away and drank lots of water.
"She is doing a lot better than when she first came in and is coming out of her shell now."
The RSPCA deals with dozens of abandoned cats every month and says its catteries are at maximum occupancy.
It has 29 cages in total, with one cage providing room for either a single adult cat, or five kittens.
Staff say the problem of abandoned cats and kittens would be solved if more owners had their pets neutered.
Ms Johnson said: "If people just got their pets neutered, we wouldn't have this problem.
"We get a lot of abandoned cats in and people think we can just rehome them, but we haven't got the room. I sometimes wonder if people think we can magically make extra space appear. We're at full capacity all the time.
"People think their options are dumping the kittens or dropping them in the drain, when really they should have neutered their cat."
Many vets provide neutering for reduced rates or even for free.
Ms Johnson said: "All the cats we have here are spayed and neutered, so anyone who adopts them doesn't need to do it.
"We need to find homes for the cats we have at the moment, and for Jasmine, too.
"Jasmine would suit any home and it wouldn't matter if there were children or other pets in the house – we think she'd get on well with them."
• To find out more about adopting an animal, call the RSPCA's Hull base on 01482 341331.
