To breathe a sigh of wary relief can often be the difference between the end and the passion to continue. Kitty Shelter has breathed this sigh of relief, and our passion to continue serving the animals of this world thrives thick through our veins once again.

Faced at the beginning of the year with the prospect of closing down (due to financial struggles), I decided to approach the public for help. I must admit, I did this with great scepticism under the impression that people would never reach out to animals, with so many other desperate causes all in need- from natural disasters to food drought. I found myself asking “who would bare sympathy and compassion to a such a small organization, despite having as good intentions as any other larger cause?”  Well, all I can say is thank you.  Thank you for proving me and my doubt mislead. We here at the shelter were astounded at the overwhelming response.  I can honestly say this served as a true catalyst in restoring my faith in humanity. After being so disillusioned when we see how some people choose to treat animals, it has been a real eye opener to see that there are people out there that balance these evils with true generosity of, more than money, spirit. Thank you; we have had a wonderful group of people that have volunteered their time to get the shelter back on track (see our homepage for thank-you’s). We also had a very positive response from the newspaper articles which ran earlier this year Caxton and Citizen, with the public making donations of food, blankets and funds. These donations have proved invaluable in our getting back on track. And although this hasn’t completely gotten us ‘out of the woods’, it has definitely shown me that in order to run the shelter- help is needed.

We have started a Virtual Adoption initiative which has helped enormously, with people adopting animals financially and thus directly helping the animal they choose.  This helps us give the resident cats the care they need, as well as helping with our enormous food bill. Also, thanks to Landie, our wonderful manageress, who has managed to get us exposure at various Cat Shows.

As a result of the positive input, we have taken in quite a few cats and kittens again. We currently have about 40 kittens, and around 70 adult cats. We do still home adults- but obviously at a much slower rate than the kittens. Our biggest problem with re-homing kittens are the feral babies, who people bring in when they are older than 6 weeks and are hence are unable to be tamed. This results in an ever growing problem of having too many resident cats, with not enough funding or space to look after all of them. Ideally, feral kittens should be sterilized and put back in their original environment if they are not brought in at about 5 weeks. We desperately need fosterers who would be willing to take these kittens home and do one on one work with them. Please let us know if you can help, a thick skin and a good sense of tenacity are a must!

I am once again appealing to the public to help, every little bit goes further than one may think!

Please come and see the work we do and the wonderful people and animal friendly environment we have created. Our hours of business are on the site.

OUR WISH LIST

• KITTEN TINS

• KITTEN KIBBLES

• ADULT FOOD

• DEWORMER ; MILBEMAX, DRONTAL, QUANTEL,

• DEFLEA; FRONTLINE REVOLUTION

• KITTY BLANKETS

• ANIMAL BEDS

• KITTY AND PUPPY TOYS

• HEATERS FOR WINTER

• PHOTOCOPIER

• SCRATCH POSTS

• PLANTS FOR OUR GARDEN

• NEEDLES AND SYRINGES (ASK FOR CORRECT SIZE)

• ANTIBIOTICS; SYNULOX, BAYTRIL, VIABRAVET,DOXYSYRUP

• CAT VACCINES

• FELV/FIV SNAP TESTS

• FIP SNAP TESTS

• AND LASTLY FUNDING

• A BAKKIE/ PANEL VAN/CAR (HEY, WHO SAYS WE CAN’’T DREAM)!

 

Quote of the month:- “There are few things in life more heart-warming than to be welcomed by a cat.- Tay Hohoff ”.

Purrs and Warm Snuggles

The Kitty Shelter Team

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