Here at the Sanctuary we are forever inundated with unwanted, abandoned and stray cats in need of shelter and security until they find suitable homes.  

Kitten season especially presents an overwhelming amount of female cats who are found with litters of kittens and pregnant mums who sadly have nowhere safe to give birth and nurse their kittens.  This is where foster carers like Doreen step in, and are invaluable to us when our cattery is full to capacity.  

Doreen, in particular has shown the utmost and relentless commitment to us since 1991 when she started volunteering and then in 1996 opened up her home and took on the role of fostering cats and kittens and looking after our cats all year round, not just in kitten season.  Doreen offers a stress free environment for the cats and  privacy for the pregnant cats to give birth and allows for that important time for mum and kittens to bond – amazingly, she also normally manages to have more than one pregnant cat at any one time!

The cats stay with Doreen until the kittens are born and then for a further 8 weeks afterwards so all in all it’s normally a caring role for several months.  Also kittens that have no mother but are too young to be homed are cared for by Doreen.

During their stay at her home, she continually updates us on their progress and sends videos, photos etc and takes on the role of vets visits if sickness occurs and when the kittens are well and weaned, she will take the mother to be spayed and vaccinated. The kittens will be next to go to the vet for their blood tests, health checks and vaccinations before they come back to us all ready for re-homing.

Doreen enjoys what she does and finds all the hard work rewarding. We cannot thank her enough for her 30 years of dedicated service – we’d be lost without her and our cats have the best possible start to life.

Could you take on the role of a foster carer?  We are always on the lookout for individuals who would be happy to foster puppies and kittens in the short term until they are ready for re-homing or end of life fostering for our older residents.  If interested, please give us a call to discuss further.