Individuals who do outstanding work in the field of cat rescue in the UK should be better recognised. I think they should receive an award of some sort or at least be written about on the internet.
To me they are invisible. I know that Marion of Cats Protection is a wonderful fosterer of rescue cats. I know of one or two outstanding cat rescuers in the US and one or two more but that is more or less it.
I would like individuals who have worked tirelessly to help save the lives of cats and improve their welfare without any special reward, to be formally recognised.
These people don’t necessarily want to be put on a pedestal but I do feel that there should be more information on the internet about the almost anonymous individuals working in cat rescue.
Out there, there are some really fine people. They are “ordinary people” doing excellent work for cats. I really admire these invisible people. They are the best. I admire them far more than I admire the rich and famous and the celebrities.
I am focusing on cat rescue. I have found some awards for work with animals including rescue work but even those are not that high profile and the ones I discovered on the internet were in the US.
I don’t think you can simply search the internet for the names of the special individuals working in cat rescue. As I stated, they are almost invisible to internet surfers. Who are they?
They could be people who are in management at cat rescue centers and who inspire others to work better. Or it could be Mrs X in some small town somewhere who has saved the lives of countless cats over many years without a shred of recognition. That is the person I’d like to see held up as an example of how to do good in society. Do we know someone like that?
Many years ago I did the PoC Feral Cat Rescue Awards! This is different. I’d like to see some individuals singled out for praise. They deserve a pat on the back.
https://pictures-of-cats.org/FUND-RAISING-FOR-CATS-PROTECTION.html
Marc is a real Earth Angel, he also doubled the money we raised this day for Cats Protection.
I’ve never known such a generous Man!
I can not thank Marc enough for this amazing gesture its absolutely blown us away, his generosity is enabling us to help as many cats as we can. Thank You Marc you rock !!
just to let you know a journalist has seen our thank you to Marc and may be interested in writing an article I have directed her to this link for information.
🙂
Excellent. The more publicity Cats Protection gets the better. It all helps cats.
Marion you are welcome, very much so. 🙂
Marc, we all love you.
Marion sounds so in need. I am so touched by her feral caretaking, and I want the best food and shelter for them this winter. They are my heart.
Marc to the rescue! LOL!
If this is the case, and I know it’s early… but, I would want to see POC’s next donation go to Kays Hill again. I want them to get through the winter as painlessly as possible.
Dee we love you too x
Nice suggestion Dee 😉
Thanks.
I can barely remember the kind of cold that you must have there.
I was very young when I moved from Michigan to Florida (8 y/o I think).
But, I know it’s not good.
On rare occasions, it will dip into the 20’s at night here. I don’t sleep at all, checking and rechecking my shelters. For the most part, it stays between 30 and 40 here. I just finished preparing my deck shelters. They all are enclosed with openings and have insulation as well as heat pads.
I would worry to death if I were Marion or Leanne. I feel confident that they will use any resourse wisely and for the benefit of the cats.
I know it is all up to all POCers; but, I think it might be better to help a handful of those we know and trust SUBSTANTIALLY instead of spreading “token” gestures to others.
That doesn’t mean that I am not on the outlook for others.
I just want the best of the best at our fingertips to benefit.
I know the costs of taking care of multiple cats. It cam be overwhelming. It’s a struggle. Thank goodness I don’t eat meat, because that cost would put a real damper on my cats’ food.
Hey – so I’ve written to Marion on facebook just letting her know and an email to Michael to work out how to do this 🙂
I have just read this Marc. You’re such a very good person. A special person. It’s 5:44 pm here in London and I am about to eat my dinner. I’ll figure out a way of doing this. The important thing is getting it to Marion. We need to contact her and check things out first.
Please give me a bit of time.
No problem. Bon Apetit. We can sort it tomorrow/this week. Just incase I’ll set my paypal ball rolling.
Marc I think YOU deserve recognition for your outstanding generosity.
Going off now to have a bath, then our evening meal, we eat a bit later than in London 🙂
Chester says:
‘I am now in my forever home as it was decided i have had enough trauma and stress in my life already. my fosterer is adopting me as I really don’t like any other people and run hide from them’
He’s staying with Marion and Steve and here he is with his friend George in their forever home together now.
I’m so happy for him I’m in tears.
I’m so glad!
Everybody is a winner in that!
Marion can’t get on to PoC at present, something to do with a windows 8 download, but she so much appreciates Marc’s generosity coming at this desperate time.
Marc we all LOVE you VERY VERY much xx
Thank you – least I can do – and this news that Chester can stay home with George has really and truly made my day. One less little one to worry about. That couldn’t be better. No more scary big changes and new places and new caretakers. Yay 🙂
They look so happy together – I’m happy for George too- he’d be sad if he lost his little buddy now I bet. Just perfect. Chester is home at last 🙂
Yes two of Marion’s success stories, poor George was in a dreadful state when he was picked up on a roadside and it’s thanks to Marion that he and Chester both survived all their physical and mental trauma, it has made my day too Marc that they are both staying together forever with her.
It is a truly beautiful photograph because it means so much. The horrible abuse and now a little heaven for Chester and I bet George is happy too. Well done Marion.
Oh what a perfect idea! As I am more involved at present with the dog rescues,and fostering as well,I see a whole lot more recognition for the dog rescues then I do the cat rescues! They are there.But very little said about them or the wonderful folks who endlessly and lovingly care for all the homeless kitties!! I only see the shelter posts,and do share those.Once in a GREAT while does a actual CAT RESCUE hit my page! I would be very happy to help promote and share any cat rescues you can send to my page,as I am not familiar with Marion,but am sure she is another of God’s Angels!!! Any animal care taker to me is a Saint! Always endlessly and without thought for themselves they give and give!!!Without these loving folks a lot of the animals would never make it!!! What a WONDERFUL thing to do Marc!!! It’s loving folks like you who make the kitties purr!!! Ruth ,ya’ll feel free to send any and all rescues to my page on Facebook (Jan Plant). I will be honored to share and help ask for much needed donations!!!! Best of luck Marion.(Is there anyone by Marion who would donate maybe some bales of straw to help her kitties stay warm?? Or where she could purchase it if she had the funding?) Maybe start see if she can start and post “wish list ” to Amazon? (I know lots of dog rescues do that!) Again all the best Marion
Jan this is Marion if you would like to read about her, she is one of this world’s earth angels for cats:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/Questions-For-Marion-A-Cats-Protection-Branch-Co-ordinator.html
Jan, this is Chester the kitten who was almost drowned in oil by thugs and who Marion has nursed back to health, with George who came to her in a bad state too.
This is what Marion does, along with caring for an endless stream of unwanted cats, TNR and caring for ferals and the rest of the CP stuff she had to do. Her husband Steve is a wonderful support to her, mucking in any way he can and her volunteers too of course.
Ruth, could you get in touch with Marion about Marc’s gift? I think we need to ask her how we can we can arrange this donation so that it gets to her directly. I am happy to help.
Marion may have systems to follow being part of Cats Protection.
I’ll email her now Michael and ask her to contact you directly. I know she will appreciate Marc’s generosity very much!
Thanks Ruth.
I adore this picture it makes my heart sing. Saw it on facebook earlier. Little Chester is now so much bigger 🙂
Such a lovely picture isn’t it, looks like those boys have really bonded for life.
These two are best buddies. I love to see that as it makes life much better for both cats I think.
Thank you Jan – it’s very kind of you to say. Fosterers are so important – without you guys it would be near impossible to manage. Amazon wish lists are a nice idea and people can know what they are funding which is nice too.
Yes they deserve recognition even though that’s not why they do it, they do it because they love cats.
Marion is the first to come to my mind too of course as she has rescued cats for as long as we’ve known her and is still doing it now! Without her as the co-ordinator of our Cats Protection branch our area would be in a sorry state right now with more unwanted cats every day.
I think the worst thing for her right now is lack of funds, everyone is struggling financially here in the North and with Christmas coming up all the charities are desperate and many people giving to people rather than animals.
I know she’s worrying at present about food for all the feral cats CP take care of, it’s so very cold now and they need to be kept well fed to survive outdoors.
It’s just awful that those poor cats have no loving warm homes, that outdoors is their home.
Even on Christmas day Marion, or a volunteer, will be making sure those cats are fed.
Like you Michael, I admire her very much!
The idea of people in cat rescue deserving recognition can be extended to many other activities. There are a lot of good people toiling away for good causes and I want to make sure they get some recognition for it.
The money problems are going to be around for a long time, I feel. Raising the profile through better recognition of individuals like Marion would help with donations.
Michael I totally agree with this. I don’t even know what to add. It should be that way. Animal welfare is important. When mainstream society recognizes that it is maybe it will come true.
Good point, Marc – mainstream society does not really want to think too much about cat welfare or even animal welfare or climate change etc.. People are wrapped up in their own world and their priorities and the world has got a bit more difficult so cat welfare is not a priority but there are about 8m cats in the UK. I think the domestic cat and therefore rescue cats have some status.
But animals must be in the mix. I don’t see that happening.
I’ll write her a note on Facebook and let her know it’s coming one way or another.
Ruth – I haven’t gotten around to making an article in memory of a cat I met called Mitsi – she died. I will do that – and it was going to be a commentathon. Since I haven’t done it yet I’d like to offer Marion a donation just because you said she is really having trouble. I may have mentioned I have already been saving up for the article I was going to do so I’ll donate that money – I think about £400. How can I get the money to her? Maybe through Michael? I can’t stand to hear she is having difficulty buying food. I should have done this already.
Hi Marc, sorry I was a while replying, Babz is on holiday this week and we’ve been to see a friend.
How very kind you are! We intend to buy some cat food for CP when payday comes around and will be filling a box for CP (and Kays Hill cats too of course) for Christmas but it’s small fry in comparison to the money you want to donate.
I really don’t know what to say about your generosity, you have me in tears at your kindness!
Yes you must write your article about Mitsi, the one you wrote about Red was so touching! xx
Good for Babz – yes I just noticed on facebook she’s got a week off – guess I shouldn’t be browsing facebook at work 🙂
Maybe I can get the money to you in time for payday so you can get a bigger load – do you have a car with a big boot? 🙂
lol a load of cat food might finish our poor old car off but I’m sure he will gamely carry it for us if he can.
Marc I can’t believe what I just read, what a kind and loving gesture of yours to make such a wonderful donation to Marion/Cats Protection to help feed the ferals, it’s so cold out now and that food is a lifeline to them. Marion will be so shocked! I just saw on Facebook she seems to be having a trying day so this will be a lovely boost for her. Thank you so much x
For Marc, a very special, kind, generous, cat loving gentleman
Thank’s brilliant and eye-catching. Marc is a star. We very lucky to have in as part of the PoC community.
I agree, it’s not often someone living in a different country would be so kind as to donate such a large amount to help cats, Marc is a star of the highest order. There really aren’t the words to thank him for this kindness.
What a fabulous poster for a fabulous man and so well deserved too Marc.
Oh gosh thank you – you are so nice to make me a poster, wow, I can’t believe it 🙂 Aw, I love it, thank you Ruth and everybody but obviously we don’t have to make a fuss over me – it’s the least I can do sitting behind my computer far away.
What I will have to do one day is travel to England with the intention of coming and saying hello to all of you. Ages since I travelled with British Rail so it would be a real blast from the past. I could come up for the day and invite you for a brunch somewhere you suggest and we could have fried eggs and baked beans and talk about cats 🙂 – And Michael we could go see the cat cafe. I’m serious, I would totally do that 🙂
Oh but we like to make a fuss over you Marc because you are so special and you deserve recognition for your kindness and generosity.
I loved making you a poster.
We are a long way from London so I think you might be hungry for more than egg and beans lol
How about a Shepherds pie made with Quorn mince, topped with cheese of course, with onion gravy and oven chips or roast potatoes and lots of veg or salad? My speciality. Or Babz lasagne with all the trimmings. Or Quorn roast with all the roast trimmings, we’ll be having that for Christmas dinner.