We need to expand the available accommodation we offer the cats that come into our care.
We are receiving an increasing number of requests for help.
The cats that we are asked to help or identify as needing our help come from many different situations and have widely varying needs. We need to have flexible cat accommodation that can safely and kindly adapt to these varied needs.
The garden rooms we are planning would provide this flexibility and allow increased numbers.
We act as rescue co-ordinators and provide ongoing care for the strays, ferals and abandoned cats of Gloucestershire until a suitable forever home is found.
This could be a planned rescue or an emergency response by our volunteers.
All the cats we rescue and take in are vulnerable with many different needs. This can vary from a stray mother with kittens to a farm with a breeding feral colony or an unneutered injured and sick tom cat.
The need for our intervention is growing and we have outgrown the accommodation we have on offer.
This accommodation needs to be fit for purpose and aligned with the varying needs of our cats. We work closely with our affiliated vets to ensure we meet these needs safely and appropriately.
We established a garden room at our HQ last year which has proved very successful. It has been used as an isolation area for a family that came in carrying infection, for cats that need lengthy recovery or rehabilitation, as a place for pregnant cats to give birth and wean their litters and as temporary accommodation when an emergency rescue happens. It can be subdivided to provide 2 units of smaller accommodation. It’s also set up as a domestic type area with cat toys and sleeping areas as well as house type furniture. This helps to assess the cats and prepare them for adoption.
Every garden room would have a certified power supply allowing for heating and would be weatherproof for year round use.
We have identified 3 volunteers who are in a position to have garden rooms erected on their land. The rooms would remain in the ownership of CATS Rescue and would be moved to alternative premises in the event of the volunteer resigning or moving house.
These extra garden rooms would allow us simply to offer more help in a way that is safe, tested and flexible.
I have attached our Business Plan which gives details.
We expect to see one garden room completed and in use in one volunteer’s garden. We will fund raise through our social media pages and our open days to support this.
Other garden rooms will then be provided as the charity’s finances allow.
