KAYS HILL CATTERY ROOF APPEAL part 2

yesterday the northern echo (a north of england newspaper) were out to take photos and do a story on the cattery roof going on, they’ve been pretty good putting stories in as often as possible and tomorrow our local paper, the teesdale mercury, are coming out for photos and put the story in their paper, they too have been very supportive through all our trials and tribulations (BELIEVE ME THERE HAVE BEEN 100’S)so hopefully it will keep us in peoples minds and the support will continue. kevin has been bricklaying today, he’s never done it before but has made a good job of it, so the cattery is coming on. the only down side is that i have another dodgy photo for people to laugh at, i do look like a bit of a nutter. never mind, its all for the greater good!!

just had a batch of blocks, sand & cement delivered, so we can get some more bits inside the cattery done. as there is only me and kevin to do it and at the moment he’s at the doctors and i’ve put my back out catching ferrets, this may take some time!! freezing cold at the moment too, all the outside taps have frozen, have stopped for a cuppa to thaw out.

the roofers are just finishing fixing the apex, almost finished and that will be the roof on!!!! we now need to get the guttering, facia boards etc. bought and put on. i’m sitting in the office just staring at, what essentially is a plain old boring roof, but i can’t really put into words how i feel about it. it’s just wonderful, we’ll get some photos on here asap to let you all share the joy of our roof. i’m such a saddo!

not worried sylvia, it’ll arrive when it arrives. high winds last night have caused some, reasonably minor, problems. at one gable end, the wind was so strong it has pulled the steels out of the brick work and loosened a couple of bricks. it can be sorted but proves how strong the entire thing needs to be to withstand the weather up here. the sheets themselves stayed put so they are obviously secured pretty well, just a bit worried about that gable now until it is properley secured. why do things never run smoothly for us? ah well, never mind the roofers are cracking on at a good pace, although it is still breezy and we have had some nasty sleety type showers. i think i’d better offer coffee. the sky has suddenly become very blue, although its still quite cold, weather has faired up a bit. i was worried earlier they would down tools and go home. i’ll put the kettle on quick!!

Well, Leanne — Am doing Fred Astaire’s Upside Down Dance Routine on the Ceiling! These fabulous donors restore your faith in humanity!

Am sure you wonder by now, but phoned post office yesterday, and they said not to clench up, as stuff gets delayed in customs. Fat envelope with snapshots of veggies, mug shots for Ruthie & ‘person Barbara,’ and check are on way. Hope we don’t fold with senile Blind Staggers before it arrives.

A toast of champagne to all the donors! Hugs from Sylvia

an hour or so ago one of our volunteers brought up a kitten of about 9-10 months. she’d been found as a stray, terrified, trying to hide herself away. she is not aggressive, just scared, obviously has belonged to someone at some point. she uses the litter tray well enough. i suppose this is the start of the after xmas ‘lets get rid of it’ maybe i should’nt be so harsh, she might actually be lost, we’ll see. she needs worming, no microchip, has fleas, could do with a decent feed, i’m sure she has a loving owner out there who maybe forgot that kittens need love and care and not to be turfed out into the cold. we’ve called her poppy.

ruth forwarded your email on to me sylvia, thank you so much, it did make me smile. kisses back to you from us.

So pleased the roof is going on right now !
It gives us new heart to raise more money to finish the cattery inside next.
Has Kays Hill luck changed at last ?
I hope so as you and Kevin and those cats so deserve it !

What a wonderful surprise today about the roof, I want to add my thanks to everyone who contributed and to Michael for allowing the appeal on PoC and to the unknown donor who provided the balance of the sum needed to put the roof on! I hope this is the start of a year of good fortune for Kays Hill. The fund raising goes on for fixtures and fittings but now we know that miracles DO happen it’ll give us all fresh heart to bring in the money.

we would like to tell everyone who has supported us on poc that today the cattery roof, which we have so desperately needed, has been started. at present, 5.15pm, we have three quarters of a side of cattery roof. they are coming back tomorrow to do more, and hopefully the next day will see it finished. all of you who have donated have our sincere gratitued and you will all be forever in our prayers for when good things are being handed out. the last of the money needed was so very kindly donated anonymously by someone who wanted to help needy cats. so many thanks to that person too, we’ll love you forever!! now that the cattery roof is going to be finished we have to start on the inside. we have some pens built but there is a lot more to do before we can finally sit back and see cats safely tucked up in their beds in a beautiful new cattery. so please don’t forget about us and even if you can only send good thoughts,please do, we love to hear from all you super, kind people out there. tonight i went down the track to close the gates for the night, and as i walked back up, it was dark but the stable lights were on behind the cattery and through the clear panels in the roof it looked like the cattery was all lit up and in use, just for a moment i gave into the daydream and pretended that it was in use and that inside there were cats, once abandoned and unloved, now safe and secure in their temperary home. the thought almost made me cry, yes i’m a real softy, but its what we’ve fought and worked for
for so long, just getting this roof on makes it seem like in no time at all the cats will be in the new building and out of the old. thank you all again for helping us get this far, and can i say an extra special thank you to michael for letting us have this appeal on poc, we are so grateful michael for your kindness, you’re a good man.

Welcome to anyone who has followed the link from the ‘Mewsletter’ here.
You will find all you need to know about cats on PoC and some wonderful pictures of cats too and over 100 pages about the cruelty of declawing cats which we can use to help educate those who don’t yet know the truth.

What a lovely thing to do, when you think of the money wasted on cards and stamps to people we hardly know and to people who sent us one last year so we have to send one back, how much more sensible to do something like this kind lady did.

That was nice of her Leanne.
I often think all the money spent on cards and especially on the postage which is so expensive is wasted really.
You look at the card and feel it’s nice you were remembered but then it gets swallowed up amongst the others.
We have around 70 so far and that adds up to a good bit of money spent. But at least they will do some good after Christmas when they go for recycling.

this morning while going about the business of picking up poo and various other important jobs around site i noticed a car had pulled into the car park. the lady told me she had a food donation for us, and in the back of her car was quite a lot of 6 packs of cat food. great stuff!! she told me she’d paid for the food by not sending any of her friends a christmas card so saving the postage. she’d emailed her friends her best wishes and told them her plan, i can only assume they were ok with it, i don’t suppose they had much choice. anyway every can of cat food represented a friend who had’nt got a christmas card from her this year. she said she would rather put the money to good use and help feed needy cats. i thought this was a really nice thing to do on her part and i hope her friends did’nt mind too much.

Wouldn’t it be good to have a page with all Leanne’s true stories on.
I don’t think many people realise the extent of what effort and expense goes into animal rescue!

thank you rose. i’m glad you liked reading about him, i hope everyone else enjoyed hearing about the little fella too.

thank you rose. i thought people would like to hear about him. i hope everyone enjoyed his story.

Leanne I love your true stories!
I hope you write some more for POC.
I think you could write a best seller book of animal stories and the people you come across,I really do.
I’m so glad that kitten got a good home.

a sad story with a happier ending.
over the last weekend i have been fundraising at chesters grove garden centre at chester le street. directly behind the garden centre is a very busy railway line. on saturday it was bitterly cold but very busy with families buying their christmas trees, wreaths, etc. early afternoon i heard someone saying ‘excuse me’ a few times as if trying to catch someones attention, being nosey i turned around to see a man with a small ginger and white kitten. he told me he’d found the kitten hiding in the childrens play area. i took the frightened mite from him and went inside to ask if anyone knew where he could have come from. he was about 6 weeks old, very dirty, wormy, with fleas and ear mites. as we were talking another man came along to see what all the fuss was, when he saw the kitten he told us he’d just seen a cat killed by a train behind the garden centre, we can only assume she was his mam. i could’nt just put him back and hope he’d be ok so i decided he’d have to come back to the sanctuary with me that night. a lot of people were making a fuss of him but he was so scared and crying all the time, it was heartbreaking. a very kind lady came over and offered to take him home with her until i could collect him that night (it was now only lunchtime). it seemed a good idea, the lady was a friend of the garden centre owners and had always had cats, so at least he’d be warm and could have something to eat and most of all he’d be safe. we arranged to pick him up that night. talking to another lady she said that there are a lot of cats on the other side of the tracks, a lot of them were killed by trains, and she was trying to catch and neuter as many as possible so she was pleased that at least one had been taken. when i phoned christine that night, as arranged, she was a bit quiet at first and i soon realised what was going on, that kitten had already found his forever home! he has since been to the vet and been treated for worms, fleas and earmites. he is eating well and settling in to his new family. he has yet to meet the other 3 cats in the family, that will come in time, until then he is safe and warm. he may have been from the wrong side of the tracks to start with but he’s come good in the end.

hi we have just received an early Christmas present for all the cats in our care from Babz and Ruth, Babz had won a competition on here and chose her prize in cat food which she has so kindly donated to Kays hill and the wear valley cat protection , we are so grateful for all the help this pair has given us over the years , if there were more folk like you two the world would be a better place, for all creatures that get lost along the way but especially the cats in this world . thank you

hi sylvia, many thanks for your lovely reply. ruth said you live out in the ‘wilds of wanny’, she said i had to tell you she’d said that, and she told us about all the work you do with needy animals, thank god you’re there to do these things. if you could send the donation in a cheque that will be fine, apparently it is’nt too much to have it changed over, could you make the cheque payable to kays hill animal sanctuary please, and send it to the sanctuary address, thank you again so much.
i agree with you that if everyone could give just £1.00/$1.00 would’nt it make charities easier to run, whatever a persons charity is we all have that one big thing in common, we all need funds to keep going. i bet everyone is sick to death of listening to me bang on about money and i’m really sorry thats all i seem to go on about, i get sick of listening to myself sometimes, but believe me its virtually all i seem to think about these days. however, things have to start getting better at some point don’t they, the sun is shining today and i’m feeling a bit happier, yesterday was a miserable day with storms and gale force winds, we all spent the day soaked and cold, nobody feels very cheery in those circumstances do they. thank you again so much for your kind donation sylvia, it makes a big difference to know that people want to help us build something that we know will make such a big difference to unwanted and abandoned animals. thanks to everyone who is trying to help us we know we’ll get there one day.

Hi Leanne —

The ‘Anon’ was a ploy to slip under Ruth’s radar!

Your e-mail was so charming and gracious,you could raise contributions for cetacean wetsuits.

One of the figures in yesterday’s e-mail to you didn’t make a particle of sense: nowhere near ’90 percent’ of the population in the U.S. is employed. But give or take, some 150 million folks appear to have jobs – and how nice it would be if each of them could spare a dollar for deserving charities.

Anyhow, here’s the problem – and it’s a humdinger!

A Maltese bank accepts American currency,IF it is cash. Will your local bank do likewise? Preferably, would it accept a check or money order? If so, could you ask them how much they’ll charge you to convert from dollars into British pounds (sterling)?

Charge cards and Pay-Pal aren’t an option from this end. Hacker-identity-theft-prevention for this computer is a joke: it needs to be taken in to a tech-lab and have a new firewall, etc. installed.

Until it is, the best that can be done is to send you a personal check, a money order or cash.

If your bank will accept only cash, can it be mailed to your Kay’s Hill address, to Ruth, or to the President of your local bank? If the latter, perhaps you could provide the name and address of the bank. If only cash will pass muster, do you or Ruth have a P.O.B., or a mailbox near your residence?

Sorry for this convoluted nightmare!

Your letter was so friendly and touching,$50.00 will be mailed to your shelter, if there’s a way to do this.

Many thanks to you and your wonderful staff and volunteers for all your kindness to animals.

Ruth the effort you and Babz and the UK troops have put into helping educate for around 3 years now about the cruelty of declawing USA cats is so appreciated you can’t wonder they want to help UK cats in return if they are able.

I’ve had a nice message on facebook from a USA anti declaw friend who says she has donated so I’m thinking I will put the link on some more groups on there to hopefully spread the cause a bit more.
It’s wonderful that people from another country care enough to help !

sorry i’ve only just realised that the donate button is also on this page, could’nt see it for looking at it!!!

hi, thanks for your offer of $30.00 donation, it is very generous and kind of you. if you go to the top of this page where it says ‘my previous article’ and click on there it will take you to the beginning of ruths article, then if you scroll down a little way you will find the donate button that michael has very kindly set up for us on here (THANK YOU SO MUCH YET AGAIN MICHAEL) and you should then be able to donate. were we are is a very small place, a hamlet, with very few people close by. we have no communities like the amish, as far as i know, any where in england. i may be wrong and will be corrected no doubt if i am. we have had a long running battle with the council just to get planning permission in the first place, it took us nearly 3 yrs to get the permissions we needed as the council said we were not needed, our response was that if that was the case why did we have so many animals being brought to us? of course it didnt help that one particular councillor had a big problem with us and seemed to make it his mission in life to stop us any way he could. by the time we finally got the planning permissions we needed the country was in the middle of a recession, donations dried up, the price of everything went sky high and all this made our building work almost impossible to continue with, we did bits and pieces as and when we could and were determined it would be finished by the winter, where we are is quite high up and we often get the worst of the weather, unfortunately here we are in gale force winds, snow, rain and bitterly cold and our lovely new cattery is still unfinished. we did have someone come around the other day to have a look to let us know if they could do it and how much it would cost, we wait. we are so desperate to get all our new buildings up and running for housing of other animals too. 2 days ago, while we were elswhere on site (we have 15 acres) someone came in and tied a very large, rottweiler type dog to the fence outside the reception cabin. when we came around and saw him, he freaked, and started trying to attack everyone, he really hated men. eventually i managed to calm him and feed him some treats, he finally let me get close enough to touch him gently, although he wasnt happy about it. after quite some time i untied him from the fence, and walked him around the car park. unfortunately, because our kennel block is’nt built we had nowhere to keep him, not even a stable as horses, ponies, donkeys, etc are in them. we had to let some one else take him, i felt so guilty putting him into the back of their van, as if i was abandoning him too. they are going to assess him. why do people think it is ok to abandon an animal so cruelly? yes i know worse things are done to animals by humans, but that dos’nt make this any less cruel. he was terrified and reacted aggressivly because of this, he had no idea what was happening to him and we had no way of reassuring him. it makes me so angry.

In the abgsence of Pay-Pal, there must be a way to send $30.00 to Kay’s Hill without $13.00 or more being whacked off from both ends by the banks. This sum won’t go far in British poundssterling?),but might buy a few nails.

All we hear about in the news is the 9 percent unemployment rate. Whatever it is in the UK, over hee it means that 90 percent of the population still has a job. Probably less, as many people have given up looking.

Nevertheless, most folks have an income.

What is more charming & picturesque than a Dickensian Christmas with sleigh-bells, caroling, mugs of cider and a crackling fire? But there’s more to the Yuletide than all these pretties – an episiotomy – for instance – of the coin purse, which won’t kill the donor.

Judging from Ruth’s photograph,that building is light-years beyond any shelter we have out here, in the northwest. It could be a skating rink!

In 2003, with 20-year shingles, a 2,300 sq. ft. house in Seattle cost $4,800 to roof. Which means that the roof for Kay’s new shelter would cost thousands of pounds at present day prices, if it were roofed by professionals.

Legions of men, and often women, can roof a building without being trained as professional roofers.If all Kay’s needed were roofing materials, the price of the job would be reduced to hundreds instead of thousands of pounds.

How large is your town? Is it only a village? Is there anywhere else you could post a request for donations? Do you have any churches? Anyone who could spare a few dollars, anyone who could volunteer to roof this building? Have you a community of Amish or Mennonites? They’d roof your building in half a day! Have you a City Council? Any large group of volunteers? And yes – the Devil is in the Details.If anyone fell, Kay’s would be paying their medical bills for the remainder.

But there’s got to be a way to do this. Have you explored every possible avenue? There’s money out there – the uestion is where to focus your needs, and reach people’s hearts.

hi ruth, yes its freezing just now. kevin’s been out all afternoon trying to find a log burner for the present cattery. all the cats have warm snuggly beds but you can’t ignore the fact that its pretty cold right now and some extra warmth in there would be appreciated, by feline, human and the odd duck or chicken that happens to wander in. hopefully it won’t be long before we get one. everyone is in the same boat at the moment as far as money is concerned its hard enough for people to see to their own bills, etc., without even thinking about the likes of us, which we totally understand. even without money worries the winter is a hard time, summer seems so far away dos’nt it? but its nice at the end of the day to see them all in their stables, pens and shelters, warm and with full tummy’s and quite settled it makes the long day seem worthwhile. i’ve just checked around – i think its about 8 o’clock – to be greeted by either silence because they’re asleep or just soft noises saying goodnight. kevin will check around later again about 10 o’clock to make sure everyone is safe for the night, and then we get to do it all again tomorrow, are we mad? i like to think so.

Good news about Karrot.
So many people care about your plight but ordinary kind cat loving people who would love to help if they could are all struggling.
We are trying to think of any celebrity types we can send this appeal to as it must be perishing up there in this snow and you must be so worried about the cattery.
Will bring you some more food up asap.

we’ve had some good news over the weekend about one of our ‘ferals’, about 12 days ago we could see that some serious damage had been done to her tail over night, it was pretty bad. we could see that she had broken her tail in half, the bone was sticking through the end, it could’nt have been done long because it looked ‘fresh’. obviously we had to get her to the vet asap. easier said than done. eventually, with a struggle, we got her to our vet, by that time the end had actually come off!! YUK. she had to have another portion of her tail amputated and be kept inside for 10 days. her last check up was saturday and the vet said she can now be released again. i tried today and she did’nt want to go! i think the snow put her off. try again tomorrow.

certainly is, maybe in my retirement? until then i could put the odd story on here when i get chance if you like.

I wouldn’t like to see Kevin’s sad face and drooping shoulders if you said you were going away for a month! He might just be able to spare you if you took 9 ponies, 7 donkeys, 9 goats, 3 alpaca, 11 sheep, 2 horses, 1 rhea, 36 geese, 28 ducks, 8 chickens and 6 turkeys along with you. In a way I was joking about the book, but it’s another possibility in the long run isn’t it? Worth thinking about anyway.

thank you but as you said i’m not sure when i could find the time to write a book, i only came in this afternoon to have a coffee and a warm before feeding 9 ponies, 7 donkeys, 9 goats, 3 alpaca, 11 sheep, 2 horses, 1 rhea, 36 geese, 28 ducks, 8 chickens and 6 turkeys (who we’re keeping a very close eye on at the moment, although Edwin, the old turkey would probably be a bit tough) plus then locking everyone up for the night. afterwards the cats all needed seeing to (fresh water, litters picking out, etc.)and i’ve only just realised i had’nt locked the geese away for the night, just as well mr. fox had’nt found them before i did! but if i can find time i’ll see what i can do, i’ll have to get my thinking cap on. between us all maybe we can remember some good cat tales, it would’nt be a bad idea, do you think i could ask kevin for a months holiday to do this, somewhere warm would help me concentrate more i’m sure.

Leanne you might have been joking but a book is a really good idea, there’d be a wealth of stories about individuals and it might top up the roof fund, go to it girl!! Get scribing surely we can think of a way to print it and sell it! (I don’t know when you’d find the time like haha)

It didn’t matter about thinking Ruth wrote Etty’s tale, I just wanted to try and help and was thinking about Et in the night so planned her tale in the wee small hours.

Pammy you are a beauty, as kind as kind can be, thank you from me on behalf of all the cats you are helping, same goes to Dorothy for her generosity and to Tracey for her two donations and to Michael for setting up the donate button.

Thanks Rose, I know money is tight with a family of humans and felines so don’t worry.

What a team!

Michael I think you have just got yourself a new writer for PoC, Leanne tells such a good story !
Leanne you have hidden talents under that overall and wellies !!

sorry about that barbara i just assumed it was ruth, but it was a lovely, sad and truthful telling of just one cats life – up to now!
i’m pleased you enjoyed hearing about theo tobias (or sonic as he was with us). dont get me started telling cat tales, i could be here for evermore. we have had so many cats all with their own story to tell, from the 19 cats that one woman had living in a small garden shed, all being fed from one bowl so of course some were very fat and some were emaciated, all were getting on in years, she’d ‘rescued’ them from various things and now finally she realised she had too many to cope with. we went to take a couple and ended up taking them all. they were all rehomed apart from one ancient old man who was so matted and so starved, he was a very shy cat and had’nt pushed forward to eat so was slowly starving to death. we did all we could for him but the vet said with his advanced age there wasn’nt much hope. we hand fed him with bits of chicken (not easy for a veggie!) and tried to untangle his coat, he did pick up but about three weeks after he came to us we found him dead, he’d died in his sleep with a full tummy and laying comfortable in his own, clean bed. so i know this was sad but we felt we had at least made his last days comfortable. the vet thought he was at least 20yrs old. then there was Reggie, the biggest ginger tom we had ever seen, he looked like such a bruiser who would tackle anybody or anything, until he opened his mouth that is! you have never heard such a feeble meow, it was like a mouse’s squeak, i’m not sure he appreciated our laughter every time he did it. he did find a lovely home with a family that did’nt need a butch meowing cat. there are so many more cat tales we could probably write a book!!

Just had a £10 cash donation from Pam, a friend down South who already gives to Kays Hill by D/D but this is extra and for the roof fund.
As she is a pensioner this is very generous.

Thank you Pammy dear.

Barbara you are amazing to tell Etty’s story from her view of it,it really touched my heart and if I had any money to spare I’d give it to Kays Hill.
Leanne it’s so nice to hear about the kitten who got a home,I hope you will come back with more cat tales from Kays Hill.
Ruth I love your poster and your plea for donations,how I wish…….
And last but not least I must say what a kind gentleman Micheal must be to run this site and to want to help all cats.

Hi Leanne, I can’t take credit for Etty’s story, it was my very literary talented sister Barbara who wrote it.
She cried as she wrote it and I cried when I read it.
All those cats have their own sad stories.
We miss how it used to be with all those beautiful cats next door and are still heartbroken that we didn’t know some were suffering enough to be taken away by the RSPCA.
I keep on saying it I know but I really don’t know what we’d have done that night if you hadn’t taken the other 10 before the locks were changed.
Good news about Tobias anyway and Zac got her home too eventually.
I wish all homeless cats worldwide had forever homes but I hope meanwhile they are all as loved and cared for as you love and care for the cats at Kays Hill.
xx

forgot to say in my last post that the little tabby kitten that we rehomed is now called theo tobias – a grand name indeed!

ruth you’ve made me cry telling etty’s story, its sad that she has been let down so many times in her life. we want to do all we can for her but we can never give her what a forever home would give her, so we live in hope that a patient person will come along and be willing to see what etty really is – a pretty cat in need of a loving home.
on a happier note we got a lovely message from new ‘mam’ to one of our kittens last night. do you remember the day you and barbara came up because you thought the lady was taking zac, but she took a lovely tabby kitten instead. he has settled in great and the email told us all about his fun and games and how he has taken to checking on the lady’s 85yr old mother and curling up to have a nap with her. he is one of our many happy endings. it’s these that keep us going and although we’re always sad to see yet another animal being given up on, leaving him frightened and confused, it’s so good to see them happy and confident in their new home with their new family. it’s all any of us can wish for, for them. thank you to everyone who has already rehomed a previously unwanted animal or are thinking about it, there are so many animals out there so desperate for help but so many people willing to turn a blind eye to their suffering.

Inside the house there were a lot more cats, some were friendly towards me, but I shouted “Eff-off, eff-off, don’t come near or I’ll lash out at you” some were already scared of me which suited me fine. The lady put me in the bathroom with food and water, a bed, a scratching post and a litter tray and closed the door. It took me a long time to realise that I was safe; I still warned the lady and her cats off, I daren’t trust her.

As time went by I stopped telling her to keep away and allowed her to stroke me, though I still hated the other cats. I started to love and trust the woman who had become my mother.

Then one day she got dressed up and left the house and never came back, she left us all, she left the ones who had been with her from being babies, she left the ones who were old and she left the ones who were poorly. And she left me, who had started to trust her and to think that maybe this time I was safe from further fear.

Soon after she left us Kevin and Leanne came to rescue us, very late one dark and cold night, of course we didn’t want to go, we didn’t want to leave the safe familiarity of our home, I didn’t want to leave my bathroom, but we had to and we were taken away for our own safety, and we lost our home – forever.

Now I feel I have to keep saying “Eff-off, eff-off, don’t touch me, don’t come near, don’t hurt me” but while I’m saying it I find myself standing up at the bars of my cage because the people at Kays Hill are so loving and kind, I think that they would never harm me, but I am so used to saying this, it’s my mantra to keep myself from harm.

Most of the other cats who came to Kays Hill with me that night have gone to new forever homes, I keep hoping for a miracle for myself, maybe there is a special person who will take me and ignore my swearing and love me enough to make me trust them, but if I end up staying at Kays Hill forever I know I will be loved. Though if I am staying here forever I would really like to put my name down for one of the little rooms in the new cattery where I would be warm, have space to move around freely and a shelf to jump up to, and even my own outdoor run, I think I could be happy with that.

So I’m appealing for help from all the people in the world who love cats and who can understand how I feel, without Kays Hill I don’t know where I would be now, I don’t know what would have happened to my cat family that night, so I want to help to raise enough money for the cattery, for cats like me, who are no-one’s first choice, so that we have a safe and comfortable place to live and sleep and dream of our forever homes

Thank you
Etty the Cat
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Hello my name is Etty and I have lived at Kays Hill animal sanctuary since early this year. My life has been confusing, I remember being very unhappy in my first home and wandering the streets a lot. Because people haven’t always been kind to me I started grumbling and growling as a defence, in my own language I was saying “Eff-off, keep away, eff-off ,eff-off, don’t touch” because I just didn’t want to be hurt anymore. I started calling at 2 houses, one had two ladies in and 2 cats and they used to feed me, and so did the lady in the other house, who was to become my mother. It happened like this, one day I came to the houses but I couldn’t walk properly, someone where I used to live had put a dog collar round my neck, it had studs in and it was so big that in trying to get it off I had put my front paw through, then my whole arm right up to my elbow and got it stuck, I was walking on three legs with my head down and my front arm stuck beside my head. I thought I was going to die so I went to the two houses for help. The three women cut off the collar (it took 2 to hold me) and then the lady said “Right, that’s it, she is coming to live with me from today” she scooped me up under her arm, ignoring my grumbling and took me into her house. And she told me my name was Etty.

That day should have been the beginning of my happy ever after.

I just want to thank Michael from the bottom of my heart for all his help and kindness in allowing and setting up this appeal.
Also the lovely people who have shown an interest in Kays Hill via PoC and who I know will donate if they are able to.
Lastly thanks again to Kevin and Leanne and all at Kays Hill who work so hard 365 days a year caring for all the animals dumped on them by people who don’t think like we do, that pets are our family, for life.

hi thanks ruth for putting this page together its realy good you can see the progress in steps from digging foundations , to walls going up, its been a long slow job but we will never give in and by chipping away at it as we get money in i truly beleive we will get our new special cattery to bring us upto date with animal welfare laws and council regulations, i pray each night before i go to sleep that tomorrow may bring us that little bit closer ,
a lot of people who are not from the north east of england may not fully understand the ergency of our appeal but kays hill have hundreds of cats through our doors each year, which our volunteers strive relentlessly to rehome to forever homes, but these hard times for everyone have ment we are constantly at breaking point and other north east rescues are now full including cat protection , so we need more places for the homeless to go for warmth,food and tlc so please support us in any way you can thank you