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I went from professional skater to cat rescuer

Drew HyndmanBBC Radio Berkshire
News imageBBC Frankie, a white woman with dark brown hair tied up in a bun smiles at the camera. She has well done make up with neatly stenciled eyebrows, glamorous. In her hands she holds a small grey kitten that is licking the tip of her thumb.BBC
Frankie swapped mittens for kittens after skating for over a decade.

What could a professional ice skater, a former England football goalkeeper and a litter of kittens possibly have in common? They're all sharing a beautiful home nestled in the heart of rural Berkshire.

Frankie Seaman, 53, wife of former England goalkeeper David Seaman, spent ten years as a professional on the TV Series Dancing on Ice, but her love of cats predates even that.

"I've been fostering cats for way longer than I've been ice skating." she says.

As she talks, a small cat bed in the corner is squeaking with the sounds of her latest arrivals - a litter of three week old kittens.

The kittens originally came to Frankie inside their mother, Luna, who watches dutifully as Frankie lifts her babies out of their bed and onto a blanket.

Luna is one of 14,000 cats fostered through Cats Protection in the UK every year and pregnant cats like her, known as queens, are Frankie's speciality.

The arrangement is temporary, Frankie provides a safe sterile environment for the kittens to be born, and then the real hard work begins.

"With kittens, it's really important that we start socialising them... from about two weeks old." she says, "because they've been brought up in a home situation, they're not going to be scared of hairdryers or hoovers or TVs or radios."

"They get all those lovely sights and sounds and they will be ready to move on to their new families soon."

News imageA small tabby kitten with large dark eyes looks curiously over the top of another grey kitten. The tabby has a sad looking face like kittens often do. They are on a cream blanket.
The kittens live with Frankie until they are nine weeks old and ready to be rehomed.

And soon means just nine weeks from birth, at which point the kittens have been socialised, vaccinated, and neutered, and they are then returned to the shelter for adoption.

That's the plan most of the time, but it doesn't always work out, two cats did end up staying with Frankie in what they call a "foster fail".

"I was ready to adopt two new kittens so that was a good time and that's probably my proudest achievement, that I haven't kept 150,000 kittens."

Those two kittens, now much older cats, could be spotted prowling the garden outside as she talks.

News imageAP Frankie and her husband David smiling on the red carpet at the Pride of Britain awards. Frankie is in a red dress over one shoulder with sequins coming down the shoulder in irregular sizes and patterns. David is in a black tuxedo with a black tie.AP
Frankie met her husband, former England goalkeeper David Seaman, whilst on Dancing on Ice.

Socialising newborn kittens seems a far cry from her previous career as an ice skater, but Frankie says the skills are "very transferable".

"Ice skating is physical communication. We do not speak and cats and kittens are also physical communicators, they don't speak to you!"

And her days can be intense, even compared to the 16 hour days she faced on Dancing on Ice, especially when the kittens are first born.

"I have to feed them and toilet them every hour on the hour, 24-7. There's no resting, there's no napping, there's no time to wind down or warm up."

Even so, she thinks the two past times make for a good combination.

"I would recommend any ice skaters go in to kitten fostering!"

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