Cats Protection - Bridgend Adoption Centre Blog : A Purrfect Year

2018 seems to have passed in a flash of an eye but looking back, it has been a very busy and successful year at the centre due to the hard work and commitment of the team at the centre and great support we receive from members of the public.

983 adult cats and 557 kittens (1540 in total) were admitted into our care for a wide variety of reasons, the most common reasons seemed to be that the owner was not coping, landlord issues and unwanted litters. Fortunately, we have many people coming through our doors looking for cats and kittens to adopt and we are delighted to say that 1472 cats and kittens found their forever homes though our Bridgend Adoption Centre and Cardiff Homing and Information Centre (which opened in February 2018), including our lovely long stay cat Flower.

Flower long stay cat left us to her forever home

Flower was in our care for 3 months before finding her forever home; she had been homed earlier in the year but returned for not settling in her previous home. She is a real sweetie and we are delighted to see her start the New Year in her forever home.

Our trap, neuter and return volunteers have made another huge difference during the year to the welfare of feral cats, with 225 being neutered, returned to site or relocated to farms and smallholdings looking for outdoor cats as mousers. One such cat to benefit is this lovely ginger semi feral tom cat.

Semi Feral tom cat before neutering

As you can see in the above photo, he was looking pretty rough and sorry for himself before our TNR volunteer Rachel became involved, she trapped him and took him to be neutered, checked over by the vet and ensured that he had a regular food supply and shelter. This meant that he was no longer fighting other un-neutered tom cats in the area and he is no longer roaming and seeking out un-neutered females for mating. As a result of this, he has gained weight, his fighting injuries have healed and he is almost un-recognisable as the same pitiful cat he was before.

Semi Feral tom cat after neutering

Helping to neuter and return feral cats is a very rewarding job, if you would like become a volunteer helping feral cats, please visit http://bit.ly/2VECTNt

We held our first Pen-y-Fan sponsored walk in September, with over 20 walkers taking part. Despite this small number, an amazing £3000 was raised for the kitty, our Pawsome afternoon tea open day and just giving appeals have collectively raised over £3500.

Pen-y-Fan sponsored walk

Our fundraising volunteers have also had a busy year attending over 15 events in the community, raising awareness of the work we do, and boosting the kitty by another £2400. We would like to give a special mention to our fundraising volunteer Linda Powell, who successfully completed the Cardiff half marathon contributing £913 of the total. If you would like to become involved as a fundraising volunteer, please visit http://bit.ly/2Az01UI

Linda Powell successfully finished the Cardiff Half Marathon

All this is just the tip of the ice burg of the great work carried out by staff and volunteers at the centre, who work tirelessly to make a real difference to cat’s lives. Our supporter’s generosity also helps us to finance the work we do, so a BIG THANK YOU all round to all involved.

As we go into 2019 we would like to share some good news about our lovely sponsor cat, 17-year-old Lilly, if you have been following the blog, you will know that she was diagnosed as hyperthyroid and was in need of dental work. Finally, after weeks of treatment and waiting, we are happy to say that she has been given the all clear by our vet and is now available for adoption. We are hoping it will not take too long for her to find here purrfect human/s.