A family of feral cats who were trapped in the basement of intu Watford for days, were rescued.

Dawn Lewis, from the Kitty Kat Rescue & Rehoming centre in South Oxhey, teamed up with the RSPCA after reports of a family of cats stuck inside the basement of intu.

CCTV cameras captured a mother cat and her four kittens living in the underground service depot at intu on Thursday (May 21).

Ms Lewis was then contacted by the shopping centre to help rescue the cats.

Teaming up with Tracy Dreamer from the RSPCA Middlesex, north west and south Hertfordshire branch, the heroes carried out a rescue operation lasting a series of days.

Watford Observer:

It was difficult to find the cats, as they were hidden in the underground service depot (Photo: RSPCA)

Ms Dreamer said: "Dawn from Kitty Kat Rescue contacted me and asked for some help trapping the mum and her four kittens who had been spotted on CCTV living in the service depot.

“This is where the lorries take deliveries and was, pre-lockdown, a busy, noisy place.

"It's a huge area, like a maze. But thanks to Val, who works in intu's security team, we were able to find and trap mum and three of the kittens on Friday night (22 May) but the fourth was nowhere to be seen.

“Thankfully, on Sunday, he was spotted, caught and reunited with his family. They're all now in our care and are doing well.

"The service depot felt a lot like the ship in the Alien movies so I decided to name them after the characters. Mum, who is around one, is Ripley and the kittens, who we believe to be around three-months-old, are now called Bishop, Hicks, Newt and Morse."

Watford Observer:

The cats were placed in traps so they could be rescued (Photo: RSPCA)

Ms Lewis said that the family of black cats definitely had personality, as she described them as “feisty”.

After the rescue, she said she was in tears when reuniting the family on the Sunday.

Watford Observer:

She added that since the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a national issue of people abandoning their pets in misconceived fears they carry Covid-19.

However current research shows there is little risk that household pets could spread Covid-19 to humans.