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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.