May Update

We've had a very busy month here at the centre now that kitten season has arrived!  We have had such a huge season that our maternity corridor  is now full and we have had to convert one of our other corridors to an extra maternity wing.

Our sponsor Queen Ursie and her 4 kittens are doing really well, here they are now at 6 weeks old playing in their outside area:

For more information on how to become a cat sponsor please click here.

There has been a huge demand for kittens, and they are getting adopted very quickly. If you are looking to adopt a kitten, best time to check kitten availability is on Wednesday mornings, you can do this by contacting us on 01656 724396 or emailing bridgend@cats.org.uk
(Please note kittens are only available for viewing from 8 weeks of age, after being vet checked and having their first vaccination.  You and family members living with you must view the kitten in person before reserving.  Kittens are reserved on a first come, first served basis to suitable homes, so we advise potential adopters to arrive ASAP when kittens are available to avoid disappointment).

You may remember Friday our pregnant female who was found tied up in a black bin-bag on the hottest day of the year. Well she gave birth to a little boy who we called Saturday (after all he was born on a Saturday!) and both mum and kitten are doing amazingly. Friday will eventually have to have an operation to her eyelid to stop her lashes rubbing against her eye, so we will keep you updated on how that goes.

We've had some great updates on cats who have been homed by us recently. Here is our one-eyed wonder Willow who was with us for a long time due to flu symptoms and having surgery to remove her eye, her new owners say she is settling in incredibly well, loves the garden and loves to play.

One of our other favourite updates was from our golden oldie Tinker who was left outside the centre in a box. Tinker too had to have his eye removed and made a great recovery. Here he is enjoying his new life with the Davies family:

This week we've had the handsome Cruz bought into our centre, Cruz was a stray who was getting into all sorts of fights with local cats and ended up with a nasty head wound. Cruz's fighting with other cats is mostly down to him not being neutered. Lucky for Cruz we were able to take him in and give him treatment, all our unneutered cats are blood tested for FIV and FeLV as they are in the highest category risk and again lucky ol' Cruz tested negative for both!

We are currently part of a huge neutering campaign across the Wales, we are helping people neuter and chip their cats for only £5 - to see if you are eligible then please click here.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more updates soon :)

Kitten Season is Here!

Spring is here, this heralds the start of kitten season, and a very busy few months for our team at the centre. Kitten season normally starts with a trickle of pregnant cats and mum's with new born kittens but this year it has rolled in like a storm!   In one week alone we had 45 kittens born on site!

With the influx of kittens, the number of cats in our care has doubled to 158, sadly a fair number of the pregnant cats and queens with new born kittens were strays living outside. Others are young females such as Zoe who came into our care because she was heavily pregnant, she is only a kitten herself at 8 months of age. 

This is one of the reasons we are so passionate about neutering, not only does it reduce the number of unwanted kittens, it also helps to stop cats from wandering away from home and reduces the risk of them contracting infectious diseases such as FIV and Feline Infectious Leukaemia.   Cats Protection in partnership with the RSPCA are offering neutering and chipping for £5.00, click here to find out if you are eligible to apply for a voucher.

Zoe - 8 month old heavily pregnant cat in our care.

We have some good news on our current sponsor cat the lovely Rain and her adorable kittens, they have all left us to go to their forever homes, a big thank you to all our cat sponsors, you have made a real difference to them and many other cats in our care.  With Rain having left us this morning, it’s time to choose our new sponsor cat, with National Tabby Day coming up on the 30^th April, we decided Ursie is the purrfect choice!  She is a 4 year old female who was admitted into our care because her owner couldn't cope, she has 4 beautiful 2 week old kittens. Please click here to find out more about becoming a cat sponsor.

Ursie is our new sponsor cat.

Do you remember Tinker and Alley, the 14 year old cats abandoned outside the centre? They were both microchipped, unfortunately we were unable to find their owner so we had to keep them for one month to give their owner the opportunity to come forward, unfortunately this didn't happen.  Alley was made available after the month period and was adopted very quickly; we were delighted for her especially as golden oldies are more difficult to home. 

14 year old Alley has left us to her forever home.

Tinker needed an operation to remove his permanently damaged eye, this couldn’t happen until the one month waiting period had passed.  We were all worried when Tinker went in for his operation due to his age but he proved to be a real trooper and rallied through the operation really well making a remarkable recovery.  Looking at him today it’s hard to believe he is the same frightened cat left on our door step over 6 weeks ago, lots of TLC from our cat carers has seen him transform into a real love bug!  He is now available for adoption, we are keeping our, fingers, toes and whiskers crossed it won’t be too long before he finds his forever home.

                                                                                              Tinker has become a little love bug!

                                                        

Some news on our lovely cat Mushka who was admitted with burns from hiding under cars, she is doing amazingly well with the sores on her back and shoulder almost healed.  Unfortunately, her ear didn't heal despite our vet’s best efforts so she underwent surgery to have it removed. She has recovered really well from the operation; we are hoping it won’t be much longer before she is available for adoption. 

Mushka had an operation to remove her burnt ear.

We have homed 401 cats and kittens since the beginning of the year, although this is less than the same period last year, we have homed more elderly and FIV +ve cats which is great news as these cats tend to take a long time to home.

Two kittens who have left us to their forever home and are settling in well are Daff and Dill, the two kittens sold on line for £360, they were advertised as 8 weeks of age but were in fact only 5 weeks old and very poorly.  We sent a press release out about them and their story was picked up and publicised by several news and radio stations including BBC News, BBC Radio, and Heart radio, they also made the front page of the Glamorgan Gazette. We are delighted about this, hopefully their story will encourage people to adopt not shop, our advocacy team is also using their story to urge the government to consider regulating cat breeding, and the sale of kittens through third parties and online.

Daff and Dill settled in their forever home.

Finally, an appeal for our longest staying cat Willow, she is a beautiful 6-year-old neutered female, she was admitted into our care because her owner moved and couldn’t take her with them.  She was very poorly with flu and had an old injury to her eye so needed an operation to remove it.  Willow is a little sweetie, she has been with us for almost 3 months now and is getting a bit fed up being penned up.  She has lived with other cats but will need slow and careful introduction to new cats, she is more suited to a home with no/older children. If you are interested in adopting her, please call us on 01656 724396 or email us at bridgend@cats.org.uk

That’s all for now, hope you have enjoyed this update and please look out for the next one.

Bye for now!

Mid-March Update: Spring is here!

We've had a great few weeks  over 70 cats homed so far this month!

Spring has started to show it's face and we've had an influx of calls about stray cats - especially pregnant cats! As it is mating season a lot of unneutered (but owned) cats will wander off in search of a mate so we are inundated with calls about cats going missing and new cats turning up.

With all stray cats we have a policy to make sure they are not owned, this includes us sending out a stray cat pack which has paper collars and posters inside so the cat can be advertised for 2 weeks, taken to a vet to be scanned for a microchip and hopefully reunited with owners.  We have some useful tips available on our website HERE.  We are also recruiting lost and found volunteers, to find out what this role, please watch the video below,  you can find about our volunteering opportunities here.

If an owner isn't found,  the lost/stray cat will be brought into our care when we have a pen available.They will be advertised on our Lost and Found Facebook page and kept with us for 2 weeks before re-homing. However, If the cat is chipped we have to keep it for 1 month in order to track their owner. This includes physically going out to the address on the microchip, sending 2 recorded letters and contacting any emails addresses and telephone numbers attached to the chip.

Sadly for Alun below - his microchip details were out of date and we have been totally unsuccessful in finding his legal owners and he is now available for adoption after a month long stay with us!

Alun

A little update on Rain kittens. They are now being split from mum during feeding times and eating their own food. They are greedy little kittens and absolutely love eating kitten felix all mashed up and soaked kitten biscuits.

Hungry Kittens.

 2 weeks ago we had 2 kittens come into us who were bought through an online advertising website. The person who bought them didn't realise that the kittens were severely malnourished and actually only 6 weeks old. Both kittens were rushed to the vets and eventually to us, they had severe worm burden, diarrhoea and came down with flu symptoms.

We named the kittens Daff and Dill, they are both totally deaf but have come on leaps and bounds since their admittance:

Dill looking after his little sister.

Daff in the bath.

Daff after a couples weeks of treatment and tlc.

(Please note the kittens are not available for adoption yet).

Stay tuned to keep up to date with how Daff and Dill get along.

Bye for now :)

Spring is on the Horizon!

We have some lovely spring weather during the month of February, the daffodils, and daisies have flowered; the bees are awake from their winter hibernation and we have basked in the sunshine of one of the warmest February on records!  For us this means the start of another busy kitten season and our receptionist receiving calls asking for help with pregnant cats and lactating queens. 

Our receptionists have a very busy job; they deal with over 70 enquiries a day via phone and email inputting data into our systems and passing on messages to other team members.  As well as this, they welcome and help visitors to the centre, book in cats to be admitted, prepare adoption paperwork and complete adoptions with new owners. They also register microchips online, keep our centre shop well stocked and carry out general admin duties.  We brought them a new phone headset this month and they are delighted with this, it makes their phone work much easier!

Nikita, one of our receptionist is delighted with the new phone headset

February was a very busy month for us with 130 cats and kittens coming into our care and 119 adopted, including 10 of the very scared cats from the multi cat household we told you about in our last Journal blog.  We had our 1-year anniversary party for the opening of our Cardiff Homing and Information Centre to which we invited people who adopted cats from the centre to celebrate with us. The centre found forever homes for 147 cats in its first year, which is a great achievement as the centre only has three pens.

Cardiff Homing and Information Centre Anniversary party

In our last journal blog, we let you know that our sponsor cat Charlie had found his forever home!  We are delighted to have this lovely update from his new family about him: “Just wanted to let you know that Charlie has settled in really well!  I took him to the vets and had his nails clipped which has helped him so much, he did sulk for the rest of that day but he soon bounced back 😊  He sleeps all day on my daughters bed and gets plenty of exercise late afternoon/evening. We couldn't be without him ❤️”

Sponsor cat Charlie settled in his new home

And this brings unto our new sponsor cat Rain!  She is proving to be an amazing mum and both her and all four kittens are thriving, they have all had a vet check today and been given a clean bill of health, and Rain has had her first vaccination.

Rain has been given a clean bill of health 

We asked for weather related name suggestions on our FB page and our followers came up with a huge selection of names to choose from, after much deliberation we decided to call the kittens Boots, Wellington, Mackintosh and Beanie!  We have had  a lot of enquiries from members of the public asking to view/reserve these kittens but as with all kittens this can only be done once they have been weaned, vet checked and vaccinated at the age of 8 weeks, that will be in around 6 weeks’ time.  Click here to find out more about becoming a cat sponsor to help needy cats like Rain.

Wellington, Mackintosh, Beanie and Boots

You may have read on our FB page about the two 14 year old cats abandoned outside our adoption centre, we have named them Tinkerbelle and Alley.  We have managed to trace their owner, he was going through some difficult times, and had tried to get help from another rescue before leaving the cats here.  They are both settling in well, they have had vet checks today; Tinker the male needs a dental and an operation to remove his damaged eye, whilst Alley needs a dental.  Before we can go ahead with their operations, we need to run some tests to  make sure that they are well enough to have a general anaesthetic, this is due to happen in the next few days, we will keep you updated on how they get on.

Alley and Tinker are waiting for vet tests 

On a final note, we have been homing extremely well with most available cats being reserved within a week!  Sometimes this means we don’t have such a large selection of cats to choose from, however this does change on a daily basis with best selection of cats being available for viewing on Wednesdays after our vet run.  Some cats are overlooked because of their age and one such cat is Roger, he is a stunning 9-year-old neutered male with striking blue eyes, he is super friendly and chatty but does need to be the only as he was admitted into our care for not getting on with the other pets in the household.  Click here to find out more about Roger and other cats in our care looking to find their forever homes.

Roger is waiting to find his forever home

Phew, a lot has happened in the last two weeks, please look out for our next Journal blog.

Bye for now!

February Update

We've had a busy couple of weeks here at CP Bridgend with lots of cats coming in - and as many going home! It's been great news for our cats as most of them haven't actually had a long stay here with some cats coming into us on the Monday, being made available on the Wednesday and leaving us on the Friday!

It's worked out quite well as we are currently having a little wear and tear work done on our pens to spruce them up a little bit so we've unusually had whole corridors empty of cats which has been a strange sight for us but our waiting list is still open and ready for more to be admitted into our care.

We are STILL waiting for Rain to pop! She's due to have her kittens any day now and we are still open to name suggestions on our Facebook page . Rain is now be our sponsor cat (find out more about being a pen sponsor please visit this link). **EDIT** As of 18/2/19 Rain has gone into labour! **

This means our previous sponsor cat Charlie has found and left for his forever home! This is great news for Charlie, you may remember Charlie had a road traffic accident and had to have an operation on his hip. After several weeks having exercise to help build up his muscle he was finally up for adoption. A really lovely family have taken him on and here he is in his new forever home:

On Valentines Day we put out an appeal for our 15 year old FIV+ bachelor George. Apart from having a dental recently George is in great health and looking for his true love to spend his twilight days with. George will need to be the only cat in the household (unless there are other FIV positive cats in the home) and also kept as an indoor only cat. Being indoor only suits George just right as since he's been here all he's loved to do is be pampered by his cat carers and laze about on his big, comfy bed!



We recently had 12 cats in from a multi-cat household where there were 30 cats living. The cats came from our Coventry branch and are all incredibly shy and scared. We have homed 4 of the cats and we are working with the remaining 8 and seeing daily progress in their confidence. We are looking for patient and understanding owners who have a quiet home with no young children.  If you think you have the right environment and can offer these beautiful cats a chance of a loving new home then please contact us on 01656 724396.

We are only half way through February and we have already homed over 50 cats and kittens in those two weeks to see which cats and kittens are up for adoption please visit our website https://bridgend.cats.org.uk/adopt-a-cat

An ever turning cycle!

We often hear the phrase, “a New Year new beginning”, and whilst we haven’t had a new beginning as the cat welfare feel rolls on regardless, we have had a first in 20 years with all available cats in centre being reserved!  This included 8-year-old baby who was diagnosed with kidney disease and our lovely 17-year-old cat sponsor cat Lily who was adopted by Jeff and Linda who emailed us this lovely update:

“She went to the loo in the carrier in the car on the way home, just as we pulled out of your drive way and that meant windows open…  Made us laugh; we know that bit works OK too well! She spent yesterday under the bed but coming out for food warily. Some fusses but we are letting her get used to the room on her own. This morning she came out from under the bed ears forward and tail up when we brought food, and has used the litter tray OK. Much fussing was requested from her and she stayed out from under the bed. She is now curled up in her basket you kindly let us have and she will glance up when I check in, then put her head back down to snooze”.

Lilly settled in her new home

With Lily leaving us to her forever home, we now have a new sponsor cat called Charlie.  Charlie was admitted to us with a fractured hip, he has had surgery to repair this and is currently undergoing a physio programme to encourage him to use and strengthen his leg.  Charlie is a real sweetie, and a big favourite with everyone here!   You can find out more about our cat sponsorship scheme at here 

Charlie, our new sponsor cat

 

Daisy and her kittens have also left us to their forever home, many people were following their story in our blog and queued early in the morning on the day they became available with the hope of adopting one of them.  We were not surprised that all were reserved very soon after we opened, they are adorable and Daisy did an amazing job of raising them.

Daisy's kittens - 8 weeks old

For every cat we home, there are more out there which need our help so we continue to admit more and more cat!  January has seen 77 cats come through our door with a further 25 arriving in the next few days.  Cats come in for all reasons with the main ones cited are owner unable to cope, stray, unwanted litter, change in family circumstance and landlord issues. One of the new arrivals is Stiggy who we believe was abandoned outside the centre, he was found by one of our cat carers trying to get in through a window, he obviously knew we were the right place to get help J . We decided to keep Stiggy for 14 days as we do with all strays and to advertise him locally in case he was lost but as no owner has come forward, he has now been reserved and will be leaving us to his forever home very soon.  Some cats can become frustrated being penned up so we enrich their environment as much as we can, and Stiggy being a quick learner soon got the hang of using his puzzle feeder.



Cat Carer Ceri teaching Stiggy how to use his puzzle feeder

Just as one kitten season ends another one starts and this week we took in our first pregnant cat of the year, we have called her Rain, she has been vet checked and is fit and healthy.  We are expecting her to give birth in the next couple of weeks.



Heavily pregnant Rain having her vet check

Another new arrival is Toffee; she was admitted to us from a multi cat household of 16 cats. She is a real sweet heart but is a bit shy and is really benefitting from her hide, which gives her some privacy reducing her stress levels whilst giving her the confidence to start coming out knowing that she has somewhere to retreat to.  Toffee is in desperate need of some dental work, which will be carried out before she is available for adoption.
 

Phew!  Writing the blog makes us realise how busy we have been already this year.  It time for us to go back to caring for our cats, hope you have enjoyed the journal and please look out for the next one.

Bye for now!

A Purrfect Year - 2018 Round-up.

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.

Sponsor cat, 17 year old Lilly is looking to find her forever home

That is all for now, please follow our blog in 2019 to find out more stories and news from our centre.

Bye for now!