By Ruth aka Kattaddorra
Cat Rescue Shelters are struggling more than ever for money right now, but so are many people too.
If, like us, you are on a tight budget and find it hard to donate much in money, there are still ways to help the needy cats in your local shelter.
Apart from buying a few extra tins of cat food for them every time you shop for your own cats needs, you could save your old bedding, such as sheets, blankets, duvets, etc and towels too as these make cosy beds for cats in care.
They don’t mind if they are quite worn, so don’t throw them out when you buy new, wash and fold them and they will be much appreciated at the Shelter.
We share out anything and everything we don’t want or need to our local Cats Protection and Kays Hill cattery, what they can’t use for the cats they can sell to raise funds.
So, bric a brac, toiletries, books, CDs, toys, crockery, you name it, the fund raisers will be able to sell it and every bit of cash will add up to buy food, pay vets bills etc.
Maybe there isn’t a Rescue Shelter near you? Is there a Charity shop (UK) Thrift shop (USA) you could give unwanted goods to? Our Cats Protection have quite a few charity shops around, unfortunately none are near to us, which is a pity as some good stuff can be bought in them Giving goods to those shops or spending money in them helps needy cats too.
Do you work somewhere where you could be a collection point for cat food and bedding? My sister Barbara works in funeralcare and her bosses are very happy for her to have a poster in her window asking for donations of food and bedding to be left there for our local Rescue Shelters. People here are very generous and all that is given is much appreciated by CP and Kays Hill.
What makes this acceptable to people who don’t particularly care about cats is that she collects for needy people too, so no one can complain we only care about animals.
Over the last few years 4,000 pairs of peoples donated old spectacles have winged their way to the Third World. We toddle off to Specsavers with 100 at a time and they send them off to give better sight to people who couldn’t afford to buy any.
Her ‘Knickers for Africa’ collection was so successful that underwear was piled high and a real headache to get so much sent off. This was for women and girls there too poor to afford any underwear and who were being raped because they had none.
It’s all about helping those who need it and most definitely cats need help right now from people who care about them, so it’s good there are more ways than giving money to do this.
Just can’t resist posting the ‘Knickers for Africa’ pic. Sorting them out gave Babz nightmares for weeks after as some people gave used ones lol and we only have to mention it to Jenette, her area manager, to make her beg us not to remind her about the horror of getting them delivered to the UK collecting point lol
Oh what memories and too true what a nightmare! Right in the middle between Martyn and Tommy we can just see the late Barbara McCusker, a great animal lover and supporter of Kays Hill, she even requested that there be a collection for KH at her funeral.
Barbara McCusker was a good woman then. The funeral collection idea tells me she was my type of woman.
Barbara was a lovely lady, she had a monthly direct debit donation to Kays Hill even though she lived alone and wasn’t well off, she also came to all our Coffee Mornings and ‘mucked in’ and helped if we got very busy. We miss her a lot as she became a good friend.
Quite a few people here ask for money donations in lieu of flowers to go to our animal charities, I only want one wreath, cat shaped of course and donations to go to cats although I don’t intend to fall off my twig for many years yet lol there will always be unwanted cats needing food and care.
I think it’s sad flowers die within days, where as donations given instead can help needy cats.
Hey …..that might make another article…..
“Knickers to Africa” is brilliant. It is a little bit sexy as well. Sort of erotic charity 😉
Seriously, it is a fantastic, intelligent and very practical idea and this picture is great. It is shocking that underwear is a luxury in parts of Africa. It makes me sigh with sadness. I moan about this and that but I have no right to. We are the lucky ones.
Babz comes up with these ideas, I live in fear of what she will think up next lol
But it’s all good for charities and for her firm too and it takes the dread out of funeralcare when people have got to know her and been in for a coffee and see it’s not all sombre and scary.
I think she’s planning a Coffee Morning for September for our local cat shelters, it’s amazing how people are usually so generous at them. We haven’t had one for a while, been collecting stuff for raffle prizes etc ….
Hard work but great fun! It’s a pity all PoCers are so far away, she makes THE BEST chocolate cake lol
Yes, wouldn’t it be great if we could meet up at a cat charity gathering.
At one for Kays Hill a friend brought his girlfriend who came from Texas! She couldn’t get over the atmosphere and friendliness, she thoroughly enjoyed her morning and English tea and cakes and the raffle and pick a prize, she had been to nothing like it in the USA she said. Our small town must have looked like Toytown to her lol
That’s a good point Ruth makes about the old ladies knitting squares and small blankets. Sometimes when they get older people don’t feel up to keeping cats or dogs any longer but still care about them and want to help in some way, sitting on an evening knitting is a good way for them to not only fill time and keep their hands busy and supple but also to feel that they are doing something constructive to help animals. A family brought a huge amount of bedding into me at work one day last week, there were about 9 black sacks of duvets, sheets, blankets, pillow cases, towels, tea towels and the lady said her mother was going into an old folks home and they were breaking up her home of many years and because she loves animals she had said that she felt better knowing that her unwanted stuff would help animals in shelters awaiting homes of their own. It helped cats at Kays Hill and Cats Protection and I also have a big bag ready for Stray Aid at Coxhoe, which rehomes dogs, to collect.
Barbara I so admire all you do for charities and yes sometimes old people feel quite useless so having a purpose in life like knitting blanket squares to help animals is a very good thing.
Thank you Rose, I think we all just do what we can, I’m lucky that my manager at work is all for helping animal charities and lets me do the collections.
Thanks everyone.
Some people don’t realise that their old stuff and unwanted gifts could help charities, we often have people bring us stuff to our house as well as Babz office.
Some lonely elderly ladies here knit small squares with odd wool and Babz painstakingly sews them together to make small cosy blankets (I’m a terrible sewer lol my excuse and I’m sticking to it) the rescue cats love them. It makes those ladies feel good too as they are kept busy knowing they are helping cats.
Great poster Ruth and some good ideas and if everyone supported their own local cat charities this way it would be very helpful to them.
Ours takes anything at all,nothing ever gets thrown away.
wow. Never knew this, until this posting and article (again, excellent!). We have many, many thrift stores her in Lincoln, Nebraska–actually all over the state– but I have never seen one devoted to pets. Even at the local shelters. Great idea! I hope to respond to our newspaper by Friday. Thanks!
We also have a solid community of ‘retired’ folks always looking for any way to assist those in need. You are so inspiring!
If you could outline it for me, it would be a great help to me, before I write a comment to the editor. All of you who comment on this page 🙂 That is so beautiful, what you and Babz and others here do!
This is a great poster and idea for an article – well done Ruth! I always donate my old stuff but not to cat shelters because here they don’t seem to need anything. I donate to the local council run second hand shop – the money made from everything they sell goes to charity to help poor people I think but I’m not certain – but everytime I bring them a bag of stuff and buy another bag of stuff they always tell me its going to a good cause. The ladies who aork there are all volunteers. I’d love it to go to cats though 🙂 – there are plenty of support systems in place for people and children so it’s not my first choice.
Donations of usable goods as well as money…volunteering to help at the shelter/rescue/adoption events…fostering…so many ways to help animals in need.
Being low-income with OCD (Obsessive Cat Disorder), I foster for the local cat rescue. I currently have 2 litters (8 kittens total) that are beginning their journey through the vet clinic prior to adoption. I live in a very small trailer, so I don’t usually have more than 1 litter at a time. I had a nursing momcat and another rescue had orphans in need, I couldn’t say no.
Also about a year ago, I decided it was time to go through my tiny home and dispose of anything I hadn’t used in months. I donated the reusable goods to the local shelter from which most of my foster kittens come from. Several times per year (when the donations outgrow the storage barn), a volunteer will host a “yard sale” to benefit the shelter.
Some great ideas. I particularly like going through what we have but don’t use and reusing it for a good purpose or selling it if it has a monetary value. There is a lot of stuff in bedrooms across the country that is never used and it is worth billions I guess.
Excellent picture too. Thanks for the ideas Karen. You’re clearly a true ailurophile.
I LOVE the poster!
Our shelter in Greenville can even take used towels if the strings are cut so the cats don’t become entangled. There’s also an Amazon Wish List as well as a donation link on their webpage.
I’m still very involved with the shelter where I did rescue. I write a lot for them. I’ve probably done 10 articles in the last 2 months about the puppy mill seizures and adoption events they hold. Writing for Examiner gives me a way to get these events and shelter needs out there to the public.
When we were there over the weekend, I left business cards they can hand out to people who come in looking for pets. I can write lost articles and get the word and pictures out there that a persons pet is lost. Some people check the shelter cages every day for a lost pet.
There are lots of ways to help even if you can’t adopt. We still feel useful 🙂
It is a really good poster. I like the way you do articles for your shelter. It is using skills to good effect. As for unused stuff. What a good way to reuse it. We all have unused stuff.