By Ruth aka Kattaddorra
Kays Hill cattery is coming along very nicely now with one side of the pens in the building completed and full of unwanted cats. You can see a list of some other posts about the cattery, including its construction, by clicking this link.
They had radiators installed for this winter by a kind volunteer and it’s snug and warm in every pen. Hopefully in the future there will be the same number of pens the other side and outdoor runs too, but as always money is too short to do all this at present.
Many more cats have been relinquished lately by people saying they can’t afford to keep them any longer, more have been dumped in boxes by the gates.
Yes things are bad in the North East of England but I think people give up their pets too easily. I expect those people still have their luxuries, such as TV and new clothes. They don’t consider the financial burden of food and vets bills they are putting on Kays Hill and other Rescue Centres too.
Gerty is the last one of a family of 15 abandoned cats still without a home, she has been at Kays Hill for 20 months now, hard to rehome because she was so traumatised at the abandonment by the person she loved and trusted and also because she is very shy. She had a chance last year of a home but became so panicky when her prospective adopters went to collect her, that she was ill and had to be taken to the vets, the people changed their minds, no second chances for her.
Leanne had the good idea of teaming Gerty up with Marcus, a more confident cat and the photo of them shows how well that worked out. She looks very well and very content.
This is what it says under their photo on the rehoming page:
‘Gerty and Marcus are to be homed together as Gerty gets very anxious without him. Marcus is a very friendly cat with gorgeous markings and who loves attention. Gerty is more likely to stay out of the way but in the right home with her best friend, Marcus may help her come out of her shell’
We hope someone will come along soon and fall in love with and adopt both those cats, because although they are well looked after and loved at Kays Hill, it’s every cat’s right to be in a loving home environment of their own.
The person who abandoned the cats has never enquired even once about them. Of the 4 cats the RSPCA took, 2 in a bad state were PTS, we don’t know the fate of the other 2.
Of the others, one was PTS last year, this was tragic as he had just gone, along with one of his brothers, to a wonderful home, when cancer in his jaw was diagnosed. His adopter was heartbroken.
Thankfully the others are all doing well in their new homes, a happy ending to their story, we just hope Gerty has a happy ending to her story one day soon too.
Oh Leanne you should write a book of your adventures at Kayshill,it would be a best seller lol
you are a natural.
700 cats, now thats some task!! we wish them well.
yes me and my new best friend THE CHAINSAW!! to keep the range going we need a constant supply of wood, which is ok as a friend works at the skips and gets as much ‘waste’ wood as we can use, however it dosnt all come in fire sized pieces and as i am useless with an ordinary saw a friend asked did i want to borrow her late hubby’s chainsaw. its great as i can have the wood cut in no time, but, everyone who knows me is now waiting for the news that i’m minus a foot/hand/leg/ear/thumb/whatever!! i havnt cut anything off yet, but dont rule it out completely, i can be quite accident prone at times. i think even if i lost an arm and half a leg kevin would still make me work, you get no sympathy at all up here unless you’re covered in fur!!
Phew Leanne it’s a long walk up that lane without a wheelbarrow, never mind with one! I admire how you buckle down to any task at all, large or small. Did I hear a little tale about you with a chain saw? Do take care, I don’t think Kevin could go on without you!
yes rose gerty used to be gimpy. just today alone we have taken the details of 7 cats that people are wanting rid of, for want of a better term. at the moment we cannot take in any more, we pass on numbers of other sanctuaries in the area but we know that they are already probably full themselves. this is how we all end up with so many on our waiting lists, but what else can we do? we get the same people phoning over and over and they get angry because we cant take in their unwanted pet, its all so sad because the only ones who suffer are the animals that have outlived their cuteness? usefulness? desirability? and we worry that these people wont be willing to hold on for a while. when we really just dont have room to put in another cat/rabbit/guinea pig, whatever what do we do?????
all you can do, to make sure you get the animal away from them, is to smile sweetly and let it go over your head, and realise that these people are not out of this world yet, what goes around, comes around. i hope that whatever cruelty or neglect these people have dished out to any creature is brought back to them ten fold. what we find with people is its not usually downright cruelty its ignorance, which in itself can be as bad, but sometmes these sort of people can barely see to themselves, never mind an animal. however, its the animals we have to see to and i just wish that people would start to stop and think before they go out and get whatever animal has taken their fancy this week. on boxing day we got a cat brought to us, with all the usual excuses of why he had to go. as the woman and boy where leaving he said ‘we can get a dog now’ i dont know how i kept my hands off the pair of them. you try to talk to people and explain the ups and downs of having animals but of course when there is a cute puppy to be had, they dont want to know so off they went, hopefully with my words ringing in their ears, but who knows.