Cats and Allotment - tips and tricks.

Our wonderful receptionist and resident green thumb Donna has written this blog full of tips and tricks for allotment owners and keen gardeners on how to deal with cat visitors:

Spring is in the air, allotment holders are weeding, digging and preparing seed beds – it takes a long time!

Digging over area in winter, adding manure, forking over in spring then rake, rake and rake again.  You may have prepared the perfect conditions for growing – for a cat you have actually created the best litter tray a cat could ask for! A nice clear safe area (so potential predators can be spotted), light substrate easy to cover and far away from a potential water or food source.

I love cats – I work for Cats Protection as a receptionist, one of the great joys of my job is seeing a cat leave for their forever home. I greet every neighbourhood cat with a cheery ‘good morning’ as it strolls through my little patch (I know they deter pesky rats, mice, rabbits, birds and voles from eating my newly emerged veg).

Creating gigantic litter trays not a joy! So I got my thinking cap on and over the last few years have managed to deter cats off my seed beds, without causing cats stress.
Cats prefer a nice large area – I put little stakes in across the seed bed and wind a temporary criss-cross pattern over the bed.

 

On small areas I place shallow dishes of water. When shoots emerge there may still be room for a cat to do what cats do, so I place rubber snakes on edges of beds- snakes represent a possible predator and so cats will avoid if possible.

 

 

I also place a metal cat on no go areas, it looks real enough at a quick glance to deter cats (cats are very territorial will avoid other cats if possible).



I am also lucky that there is an area on my allotment that won’t grow a thing so it’s been raked and cleared and I just get the rubber gloves on and clean up!

So basically thinking like a cat can actually help deter them from areas that are no-go. It does take a little extra work and planning to keep your allotment from becoming the best cat rest room in the locality. The methods I use can also be easily adapted to use in gardens, however green fingers crossed - soon there will be no room for a cat to cause any bother!

I try and be a mindful gardener when it comes to all wildlife, and cats, how far you take it is a personal preference. In particular, rat poison and slug pellets can be a potential hazard to all domestic animals and wildlife so I don’t use them.

I will finish by saying please at the end of your gardening day, before you shut the door for the night check your cosy shed with its hiding places and high shelves, at this time of year it might provide a safe haven for pregnant queens about to give birth, or curious young cats out on their first adventure.

Happy gardening folks!

Fearful Cats: How to Minimise Stress.

For many cats that come into Cats Protection’s care it can be quite an unnerving experience. The majority of cats relinquished come from previous homes, for a wide variety of reasons, but we also take in stray cats, cats that have had minimum human interactions, pregnant cats and new mothers and their kittens. All of which find being in a centre environment stressful in different ways.

Cats are inherently solitary animals (unlike other domesticated pets). Being in an unfamiliar setting; with the scent, sound and sight of other cats and contact with unfamiliar faces can be highly stressful and frightening to some. Add to this that they cannot roam freely outside and ‘escape’ from their surroundings. Unlike humans, cats live in the moment and have no concept of the future. Whereas we know it will only be a matter of time before they leave us to go to their forever homes, for them being in a pen environment is indefinite. 

It is important to take into consideration that some cats will likely feel scared and unsettled in a new home once adopted, for the first few weeks. It is important for us to understand the common signs a cat will exhibit that is experiencing fear and anxiety.

·         Hissing/ Growling

·         Excessive grooming

·         Dilated pupils

·         Staring fixed gaze, reduced blinking, avoidance of eye contact all together

·         Ears turned out to the side, or ears flat

·         Hiding

·         Tail flicking

·         Tense body with an arched back. Fur raised.

·         Walking with a hunched posture, tail and head down

Before

 

It is very important that when a cat is exhibiting any of these behaviours, not to ‘flood’ the cat. Flooding means to expose an animal to a fear eliciting stimuli without the opportunity to escape. Cats like humans can have a flight, fight and freeze reaction when scared.

Ways we can make a fearful cat feel more relaxed and secure:-

1.      All cats need a hiding place. In CP we use a feline fort. At home this could be a box, or an igloo bed.

2.      Cats need the opportunity to get off the ground and get up high. In CP we use a feline fort. You could try cat trees or shelving for your cat.

3.      It is important a cat builds up its own scent, so using two blankets so one can be washed when needed.  A pheromone spray called Feliway. (You can purchase this from CP centres, or online).

4.      Most importantly only approach a fearful cat when necessary to begin with. Think less is more, and aim to limit noise as much as possible. Cats often slow blink as a sign of being relaxed, so you can try to mimic this behaviour.

One of our cat carers recently engaged in what we refer to as ‘Desensitisation’ with two fearful cats at the centre; Teddy and Mickey. Both cats came from separate homes, but lived similar lives prior to arriving. Both cats had been kept indoors and were only pets. Initially, both cats would hide and give warnings upon entering the pen such as growling and hissing. It is important to first let them see you and smell you without you attempting to touch them.

During

 

She did this numerous times, and often placed new toys and food in to associate my presence with a positive experience. Slowly, they both gained confidence and came out to greet her and let her stroke them. They both made huge improvements and now enjoy interaction with us.

 

After

2019 - A Year of Purrfect Sucess

When talking about success in the adoption centre we normally talk about homing figures and 2019 has been an outstanding year for the centres with 1508 homed from Bridgend and 139 from the HiC, making a total of 1647 cats and kittens homed, our highest figures to date and across the Chartiy.

 

The average stay (including mums and kittens who have to spend a lot longer here) is 29 days with cats leaving the centre within 11 days from fit to home. This figure is especially remarkable as we have faced a continued cat supply issue through 2019 but cats transferred in from local branches particularly Swansea and Gwent have buoyed figures.  1751 cats and kittens were admitted into care during 2019

Homing isn’t the only work that we do, so I would like to mention some of the other successful highlights from 2019:

·         We celebrated our 25^th Anniversary of being open to the public helping over 31000 cats to date.

·         We received 217 enquiries from our local branches for help with rehoming cats resulting in 299 cats and kittens being admitted into our care from these enquiries.

·         Our TNR volunteers have neutered and returned 101 cats and 44 feral kittens have been admitted into our care to be socialised and rehomed.

·         Our fundraising volunteers have attended 9 events in the community, raising £1500 for the kitty and raising awareness of the centre and the work we do.

·         We held our second Pen y Fan sponsored walk raising around £1800.

·         Our Pawsome Open Day and 25the anniversary event  were extremely successful raising over £5100

·         We had a phenomenal £6000 + worth of food donated in our food bins in the local supermarket, much of this has been shared between local branches.

 

 

 

·         Over £1100 worth of cat goodie was purchased by supporters from our Amazon wish list

·         We held six just giving appeals, which have collectively raised over £1800. To date we have had 27 Just giving appeals which have raised over £17622!

·         We have increased our social media presence with over 4100 new likes, and followers on Bridgend, Cardiff FB, twitter and Instagram pages.  Notably Bridgend Centre FB now has over 20000 likes and Instagram over 1400.

·         Our blogs have been read by over 2000 people taking total since page start to over 51000 views

·         Artful Arlo adopted from the centre has become an Instagram celebrity with over 11,000 followers

 

 

·         We received over £29,480 in Pet plan commission in 2019 with 18.3% of adopters taking out full cover post adoption during the year.

I think you will agree with us that our achievements in 2019 have been exceptional and this is all down to all our staff and volunteers hard work, dedication, great teamwork and everyone going the extra mile.

Well done all and a BIG THANK YOU to all our supporters for your continued support  - here's to 2020!

 

 





Kitten Socialisation and Grooming Tips

One of our wonderful kitten fosterers, Eliza, has written our latest blog for us with some useful socialisation and grooming tips for a Queen and her growing litter of kittens:

I started volunteering with Bridgend Cat Protection 2 years ago and having gained experienced from the role of Cat Carer to which I became a kitten fosterer. With each litter, I have gained more and more experience.

Whilst each litter and mum are different, they all need the basic wellbeing needs such as grooming and human contact.

When mum and kittens first come into foster care mum is always quite nervous to leave her kittens, but she slowly gains confidence and is happy for me to interact with her and her kittens. It is important for kittens to be socialised at a young age to ensure that they have a positive experience with human contact. The first step is to slowly get them comfortable with being handled as I try to encourage the kittens to enjoy the grooming experience. One tip I have is to use a soft toothbrush, which encourages self-grooming and relaxation.

 

 

As the weeks pass by the kittens will tend to become more independent and will slowly know how to groom themselves. Mum cat will become less attached to the kittens and their needs.

Once the kittens reach the age of 5-7 weeks, I introduce a soft slicker brush which I find great for short and long fur. This is the type of brush that should be used for adult cats which is why it should be used at a young age so it will make the experience more rewarding when they are older.

 

 

Whilst it is important for the kittens to be groomed and kept healthy it is also important for mum cat to get lots of attention, grooming and human contact. She needs to know that she is just as special.

 

Being a volunteer and fosterer is such a rewarding experience knowing that I have done my best to care for both mum and kittens and prepare them for their forever homes."

 

If you would like more information about becoming a kitten fosterer then please email the centre on bridgend@cats.org.uk or call us on 01656724396.

 

Celebrating 25 years of cat work!

Our adoption centre has helped over 33,000 cats since we opened our doors to the public 25 years ago!  It's an astounding figure and one which we are very proud of.  We have also helped thousands more cats through their neutering and education work.

Donatella gave birth to 13 kittens in our care!

“It’s amazing to think we’ve helped that many cats over the years – you just get on with the job each day, doing the best you can for the cats in your care,” said deputy manager Molly Hughes. “Before you know it, it’s a quarter of a century later and you realise you’ve helped more than 30,000 cats move to great new forever homes!”  Molly has worked at the centre ever since it opened, starting out as a cat carer and now working as deputy manager.

She said: “The way we work has changed a lot since 1994 – when we first opened there were no computers, no reception, just a phone and a notebook!  “We now have 24 members of staff and more than 70 volunteers helping us care for the cats, raise money, run reception and maintain the building.”

Sue Dobbs, Molly Hughes with CP staff and volunteers.

Everyone at the centre agrees that the best thing about their work is making a difference for cats and changing their lives for the better. These include seven kittens found dumped in a zipped-up handbag and left for dead outside the adoption centre in 2011. When the abandoned animals were spotted by a passer-by, they were only semi-conscious, suffering from a lack of oxygen and heat exhaustion. Luckily the kittens recovered from their ordeal and were soon found loving new homes.

The hand bag kittens were found semi-conscious in a zipped bag dumped outside the centre.

In 2013 six tiny kittens were found inside Parc Prison, Bridgend. Named Jessica, Sherlock, Christie, Marple, Kojak and Morse, the kittens – and their mum Agatha - got an early release when Cats Protection found them great new owners.  

The prison kittens had be bottle fed until their mum was captured and reunited with them.

The following year, stray cat Donatella won hearts and gave staff and volunteers a Christmas surprise when she gave birth to a huge litter of 11 kittens.

Sue Dobbs, centre manager, has been at the centre for 21 years and says it’s like being part of a big family.

Donatella' 11 kittens

She said: “It’s extremely varied and no two days are the same - it’s definitely never boring!

“We’re lucky to have a lot of support from the public. Lots of us have family and friends who say that – wherever they go in the world - they always meet someone who knows someone else who has adopted a cat from us. Unbelievable!”

Staff and volunteers often find themselves trying to help people as well as cats. “It can be frustrating if you’re trying to help someone but they don’t necessarily want to be helped,” said Sue.  “For example, some time ago we took in some cats from a lady in Cardiff because she had too many and it was all too much for her. But unbeknown to us, she’d hidden a cat upstairs in the house and the situation soon escalated again.  ” Despite incidents like these, most of the time the work is extremely rewarding and support for the centre is constantly growing – in recent years, this is largely thanks to the rise of digital media.

More than 19,000 people follow Cats Protection’s Bridgend Adoption Centre on Facebook, giving the team the chance to educate people across the UK - and around the world - about its work and messages about good cat welfare.  Sue said: “We have followers from more than 50 countries and people from outside the UK regularly donate to our fundraising appeals.

“Social media allows us to tell the story of what we do and helps a lot with fundraising. It’s our window to the world and a huge audience we didn’t have before. “It’s helping us to help even more cats – so here’s to the next 25 years!”

Cats Protection’s Bridgend Adoption Centre - which opened its doors in 1994 - is holding a special event to celebrate its 25th birthday on Saturday 7 September 2019.  Volunteers and staff will be getting into the party mood by dressing up in 90s fashion and are inviting visitors to do the same!

You’ll be able to view the cats looking for their forever homes and entertainer Loopy Lews will be performing magic shows and balloon modelling between 11am and 2.30pm.  There will also be stalls, a barbecue, refreshments, fresh cakes, bric-a-brac stalls, a bouncy castle, party games and face painting for visitors to enjoy.

Entry to the event will cost £1 for adults and 50p for children.

Hope you can join us on our special day!
Bye for now!

Summer Time!

We are finally having some lovely sunny weather and hopefully it’s here to stay for a while.    The centre continues to be extremely busy with kitten season in full swing, last month 181 cats and kittens left our care, a record breaking June for us.  We also held a successful Pawsome afternoon tea and BBQ event which raised over £750 for the kitty.

Our fund raising volunteers made some yummy cakes for our Pawsome event.

 With kitten season comes the sad problem of unwanted pregnant cats and kittens being born outside.  This year is no exception, during the last few weeks we have had an influx of kittens born outside being admitted into our care.  Sadly they are normally in poor condition and have very little socialisation so need a bit of extra TLC before they can be available for adoption.  One such kitten is the totally adorable Dave, he was very fearful of people when he was first admitted into our care, preferring to hiss and spit rather than have cuddles and fusses.  Fortunately, one of our fosterers, Stevi took Dave home to live with her to socialise him, and soon turned him into a cuddle loving kitten who enjoys having his head tickled. 

Dave was born outside but now loves cuddles thanks to our volunteer fosterer.

Another two kittens born outside are Tom and Tweety, they are five weeks old, sadly not all the litter survived.  They are both very poorly with cat flu and are currently in our isolation unit whilst receiving vet treatment.  They are the sweetest little kittens, and are currently enjoying the comfort of their under floor heated pen. They are just starting to respond to their medication, but it will be a few more weeks before they are fully recovered.  These kittens are the lucky ones as they have made their way into our care, sadly this isn’t always the case which is why neutering is so important.  For help with neutering costs (subject to eligibility), please click here.

Tom and Tweety are lucky to be alive after being born outside.

With so many cats being admitted into our care, we have to be extremely careful with disease control to ensure that we don’t have any outbreaks/spread of disease in the centre.  Any cats / kittens which exhibits symptoms of an infectious disease is housed in our isolation unit.  This is a self-contained unit with its own facilities and equipment.  Our cat carers wear full protective clothing whilst working in this unit changing between pens as needed, working in this area is very demanding as it houses our most sickest cats but it is so rewarding to see them getting better day by day and eventually be well enough to find their forever homes.

Laura, one of our CCA working in Isolation unit.

With so many kittens around, adult cats are getting over looked by potential adopters so we currently have several long stay cats with us.  We have been promoting them on FB and Twitter to encourage people to consider adopting them.  They are a lot less work than kittens, you can see what you are getting as kittens have a lot of growing up to do and their temperament may change as they mature.  Adult cats can live into their 20’s and have a lot of love to give too.  One such overlooked cat is the lovely Xena, she was admitted with seven kittens, they have all been homed but she is still waiting to find her forever home.  You can find out more about her and the other cats looking to find their forever homes here.

Adult cats like Xena are being overlooked in favour of kittens.

We don’t often have pedigree cats admitted into our care so having a Maine Coon cat made a few of us turn our heads.  Matilda is simply stunning and had a sweet personality too!  Fortunately we have found the purrfect home for her and she left our care today to her forever home.

Matilda, a stunning Maine Coon made a few heads turn.

We are busy getting ready for our 25^th anniversary event which is taking place on the 7^th September, it promises to be good day, please make a note of the date in your diary, we would love for you to join our celebration event!  

 

We hope you enjoyed reading our blog, please look out for the next one.

Bye for now!

Busy times!

There is still no sign of summer here, and with the ever-persistent rain, it is not surprising our cats don’t want to do anything more than to curl up and sleep! 

Scruff- sleeping through the rain!

Despite of or maybe because of the weather we have been extremely busy with 131 cats and kittens leaving us in May and 90 being adopted already in June!  The average length of stay from admission to rehoming is currently only 15 days, a figure that we are very proud of as the less time cats spend in a rescue centre; the better it is for their wellbeing.

These four cuties were reserved as soon as they were available.

We are glad to have been able to help Cats Protection Gwent, Swansea and Carmarthen branches by admitting some of the cats and kittens from their fosterers and their waiting lists.  The branch volunteers have also been a big help transporting the cats and kittens to our care.  We would like to say thank you to them all and we are glad to say that all cats and kittens from branch transfers have found their forever homes, including Kiwi and Kahlua, the fish net kittens whose story made the news after Gwent branch volunteer rescued them from a small gap in the wall using a fishing net.

Kiwi and Kahlua - transferred to our care from Gwent Branch.

We are continuing our work to re-unite lost and stray cats with their owners and have successfully reunited several cats this year.  We are looking for more volunteers to help with this aspect of our work, you can find out what is involved by watching the video below.  If you would like to out more, please email Bridgend.Volunteering@cats.org.uk

                                                                                                    Re-uniting lost cats with their owners.

One such stray who we believe maybe owned is the lovely Sandor; he is a 1-year-old un-neutered male who is lovely and friendly.  He may have wandered off in search of un-neutered females, sadly this is something we see too often, and is one of the reasons we strongly recommend neutering of all cats.  You can find out more about the Wales £5.00 neuter and chip scheme here

Sandor - a 1 year old stray friendly cat.

You may have read about our lovely cat Friday whose sad story touched a chord with many people.  Sadly her kitten had to be put to sleep as he had a chest deformity and a displaced heart. She is recovering well from her operation, and is much happier out in Ellen’s Lodge; she is due to be vet checked on Tuesday, we are hopeful she will be available for adoption after this.

                                                                                                                 Friday is happier in Ellen's Lodge

                                                                          

Finally, we would like to say thank you to all our volunteers and supports who helped out, baked, donated to and attended our Pawsome afternoon tea event, it was huge success with over £750 being raised to help cats in our care.

Freshly baked cakes were a big hit at our Pawsome afternoon tea event.

That’s all for now, please look out for our next blog :)

Bye for now!