Chef Pete McNabb was walking through the Cairngorms National Park with his friend Piotr and son Alistair when a flock of sheep blocked their path.
As they made their way through the crowded animals, the man suddenly noticed a small kitten being frightened and pushed into the snow.
He was so cold he couldn’t stand on his paws and Pete’s friend Piotr had to carry the abandoned kitten under his jacket for several hours.
He kept joking that the kitten scratched him very painfully, as if it were a real wild animal and not a common cat.
What a surprise my friend felt when the vet told them that they had actually found a wild animal, even a very rare one.
The kitten turned out to be a Scottish wildcat. According to experts, there are fewer than 300 of this subspecies left in the wild and it is on the verge of total extinction.
Friends were surprised by the discovery.
Piotr has already started looking for a new home for the kittens.
And if he couldn’t find it, he was ready to protect the animal himself. But now the situation had changed drastically.
It was impossible to return the rare cat to the wild, but to leave it at home would have been madness.
According to the veterinarian, he was very surprised to learn that Piotr was able to keep the animal under his jacket. After all, wild cats are very feisty and cannot be tamed.
Unfortunately, fate decided everything for them: the kittens already came up with a name: Huntley died a few days later due to frostbite.
Huntley’s story had a profound impact on his rescuers.
Upset by the death of their animal, Pete and Piotr wanted to help their friends in some way, so they started a charity fundraiser in support of a foundation to help feral cats.
Hundreds of people responded to their appeal and now the men have already managed to raise around £7,000.
Pete’s charity work also attracted the attention of the Royal Zoological Society, which is involved in the Scottish Forest Bobcat breeding program.
Their staff contacted the man, who said the kitten’s story had prompted them to step up the fundraising needed to develop the program.