Summer is always our busiest time for enquiries about stray cats living in gardens, behind shops and around housing estates – often injured, sick and thin. Getting them off the streets and neutered as soon as possible is imperative to prevent further litters of kittens being born as summer is peak kitten season. We also receive urgent enquiries about pregnant cats and nursing stray mother cats and their kittens living outdoors.

Some of our recent rescues have made a big dent in our funds and we are now appealing to our supporters to help us to build up a “stray cat fund” to continue taking in more cats from these desperate situations.

One of the cats we’ve recently taken in is Mitch, a middle-aged black and white boy, who had been living as a long-term stray around an estate, fed by residents. Mitch came to us with one of the worst abscesses we’d seen, on his cheek. He was battling a terrible infection, smelly, dirty and in desperate need of care. His wound required a debridement surgery to remove the damaged tissue to allow it to heal. Mitch is now in recovery after several weeks of daily wound-care by our volunteers. Mitch has also tested FIV positive – not surprising as FIV is most commonly spread between unneutered male cats who fight over territory. He has of course now been neutered and is waiting to find his loving forever home.

Last week we rescued a small family of two young female stray cats, Arielle & Bess and Bess’s two kittens from someone’s shed. Bess was scavenging for food, desperately trying to find the energy to feed her two kittens who were only around 3 weeks of age. Arielle is currently very scared but both cats have clearly once been someone’s pets and had been abandoned to fend for themselves.

Stray boy Blakey was the first of his small colony to join us in June; he’s also now been neutered and has turned out to be a relaxed, friendly cat. He’s still in our care waiting to find his forever home. Another stray boy, Gingernut, was trapped from the same area. We’ve now had him neutered. He’s currently cautious of humans and recovering from an infection, on antibiotics.

This is just a small snapshot of the rehoming enquiries we receive and the cats we help. Our waiting list grows on an almost daily basis, every enquiry as urgent, every cat as much in need of our help. Every stray cat and kitten we rescue requires vaccinations, microchipping, flea & worming treatments, and of course plenty of food and litter. Many also require additional treatments such as wound care or antibiotics, or calming supplements if they are very nervous.

Lack of funds, and lack of foster space are the biggest challenges we face as a small charity. If we reach our fundraising goal, we will have overcome one of these challenges for now and can take in stray and abandoned cats without fundraising for them individually first. Every pound really makes a huge difference and saves lives, we are extremely grateful to all our supporters who make it all possible.