Helping homeless cats

SUNDAY, FUNDAY

At about 7.30 a.m. every Sunday I can be found unlocking the door to the cattery at Clacton Animal Aid. This is not the most obvious thing to be doing early on a Sunday I must admit but I have been doing it for nearly four years now and I love it. I am just one of a large band of volunteers who run the cattery at the sanctuary. Clacton Animal Aid rescues and re-homes cats and dogs, the kennels being run by another equally dedicated group of people.

Although the jobs are routine each week is different as the cats and their needs change from one week to another. First job of the day is to say a quick hello to all the cats just to make sure everyone seems healthy and well. Normally they are up and looking at you expectantly which means you need to get on as quickly as possible with job two, feeding!

From time to time some of the cats are on medication and if you are a cat owner you will know that this can be a tricky business! It is amazing how long some cats can hold a pill in their mouth before spitting it out. Also I don’t think the word “palatable” is in the feline vocabulary because they always seem to know when a supposedly palatable pill has been hidden in their breakfast. To be fair though some of them are little angels and swallow their tablets with minimal protest.

The biggest part of the morning is spent cleaning pens and changing litter trays etc and of course all the time you are doing this you have little helpers to play with. The kittens are the funniest ones as they more often than not take great delight in ransacking their pen within half an hour of it being tidied up!

The saying “Dogs have owners but cats have staff” never seems truer than when the cats that live in an outside area are being cleaned. Having had breakfast and whilst “the staff” are cleaning they can be found reclining in a patch of sun having a leisurely wash!

 

 

 

 

 

I think that they deserve every little luxury we can offer though whilst they wait hopefully for a new home. Homing is the other important part of the job of course because although we all enjoy caring for them the biggest thrill is to help the cats on their way to a better life.

To improve our re-homing success rate we have recently started a web page on a charity site called “catchat” and it has been working well with the number of successful homings on the increase. I take snaps of the cats and write them a little C.V. and then we all keep our fingers crossed!

If you are thinking of adopting a cat and would like to view our current list of hopefuls please go to www.catchat.org select Essex and then find Clacton Animal Aid.

Cats needing a place in the sanctuary cannot be admitted via the veterinary clinic.