Cats
Mary Wood, Coordinator of the Cheltenham Branch, gives us an insight into the day off of a typical Cats Protection volunteer...
8am – Cats Protection van is dropped off at my house by our volunteer driver John as he is going on holiday.
8.30am – Cleaned out the pen where I have four nine-week-old kittens. It's like painting the Forth Bridge! By the time I have finished, they have upset their biscuits, paddled in the water and all used the clean litter tray!
10am – Make some phone calls to potential homes passed on from our Kitten Officer. One couple are very keen and come over straight away to view the kittens.
12.30pm – Call into our branch shop to catch up with Margaret the manager and her team, have a cuppa and buy a lovely new handbag. Margaret is a very good saleswoman as I didn’t even need a new handbag!
2pm – Feed the kittens in the pen and retrieve a selection of toys from a now-empty water bowl. Meet with one of our vets to discuss holding our first Homing Day.
3.30pm – Take the aforementioned kittens to my local vets for their first vaccinations. Have to book a double appointment to make time for all the paperwork and for the vets to have a cuddle with the kittens.
4.15pm – Back home again. Follow up some leads from another branch regarding a good source of new goods to sell at our events – in addition to those from CP – and ask for some samples and price list to be sent. Start to make a list of volunteer roles that we need to fill and adapt job descriptions ready for recruitment drive.
5.30pm – Take a call from my friend Jenny who is also Homing and Welfare Officer. She informs me she has had a call from someone who has found five kittens in a shed with no sign of mum, so I take the van with a trap and basket, pick up Jenny and go round to investigate. Leave a trap in the shed to try to catch the mother cat.
6.30pm – Back to the vets again! The kittens are basically healthy but covered in fleas and ticks so, after a health check and lots of parasite treatment, back they come with me to a kitten cage in my dining room whilst we find a more permanent space for them – although two have stayed to join my clan.
7pm – Clean out the kittens in the pen again. More paddling and throwing of food...
7.30pm – Time for a nice glass of wine with dinner and sort out my clothes for work tomorrow after my relaxing day off...
- Diary Of A Teenage Fosterer #3
This post has been written by Tristan Goodway-Sims who is undertaking a volunteer placement for a Duke of Edinburgh award My last blog post ended with the perils of kitten worming when they were three weeks old. As the weeks have gone on, the kittens...
- A Day In The Life Of A Cats Protection Fosterer
A post from Cats Protection volunteer guest blogger and fosterer, Joan Boulton I joined Cats Protection in February 2013 to help out at table top sales and with neutering calls, but upon listening to other fosterers from the Preston Branch talking of...
- Branch Tends Plant Pot Kittens
A Cats Protection branch has homed four kittens found nestled in a plant pot. Our Stoke & Newcastle Branch was called out to a rented house in early September – the tenants had been feeding a stray cat then discovered her litter in their yard. ...
- New Homes For Hotel Kittens
Cats Protection has found new homes for some unwanted hotel guests – a mother cat and her eight kittens. The charity’s Fareham & Waterlooville Districts Branch in Hampshire, England, was called out to a hotel in July to catch the stray cat and...
- Posh Pad For Fortunate Ferals
Four feral kittens found a stylish new home, thanks to a Cats Protection branch in the south-east of England. “It all started with a phone call asking if we would be able to acquire two outdoor cats or kittens for a house with a two-acre garden...
Cats
My day off work
Mary Wood, Coordinator of the Cheltenham Branch, gives us an insight into the day off of a typical Cats Protection volunteer...
8.30am – Cleaned out the pen where I have four nine-week-old kittens. It's like painting the Forth Bridge! By the time I have finished, they have upset their biscuits, paddled in the water and all used the clean litter tray!
10am – Make some phone calls to potential homes passed on from our Kitten Officer. One couple are very keen and come over straight away to view the kittens.
12.30pm – Call into our branch shop to catch up with Margaret the manager and her team, have a cuppa and buy a lovely new handbag. Margaret is a very good saleswoman as I didn’t even need a new handbag!
2pm – Feed the kittens in the pen and retrieve a selection of toys from a now-empty water bowl. Meet with one of our vets to discuss holding our first Homing Day.
3.30pm – Take the aforementioned kittens to my local vets for their first vaccinations. Have to book a double appointment to make time for all the paperwork and for the vets to have a cuddle with the kittens.
4.15pm – Back home again. Follow up some leads from another branch regarding a good source of new goods to sell at our events – in addition to those from CP – and ask for some samples and price list to be sent. Start to make a list of volunteer roles that we need to fill and adapt job descriptions ready for recruitment drive.
5.30pm – Take a call from my friend Jenny who is also Homing and Welfare Officer. She informs me she has had a call from someone who has found five kittens in a shed with no sign of mum, so I take the van with a trap and basket, pick up Jenny and go round to investigate. Leave a trap in the shed to try to catch the mother cat.
6.30pm – Back to the vets again! The kittens are basically healthy but covered in fleas and ticks so, after a health check and lots of parasite treatment, back they come with me to a kitten cage in my dining room whilst we find a more permanent space for them – although two have stayed to join my clan.
7pm – Clean out the kittens in the pen again. More paddling and throwing of food...
7.30pm – Time for a nice glass of wine with dinner and sort out my clothes for work tomorrow after my relaxing day off...
- Diary Of A Teenage Fosterer #3
This post has been written by Tristan Goodway-Sims who is undertaking a volunteer placement for a Duke of Edinburgh award My last blog post ended with the perils of kitten worming when they were three weeks old. As the weeks have gone on, the kittens...
- A Day In The Life Of A Cats Protection Fosterer
A post from Cats Protection volunteer guest blogger and fosterer, Joan Boulton I joined Cats Protection in February 2013 to help out at table top sales and with neutering calls, but upon listening to other fosterers from the Preston Branch talking of...
- Branch Tends Plant Pot Kittens
A Cats Protection branch has homed four kittens found nestled in a plant pot. Our Stoke & Newcastle Branch was called out to a rented house in early September – the tenants had been feeding a stray cat then discovered her litter in their yard. ...
- New Homes For Hotel Kittens
Cats Protection has found new homes for some unwanted hotel guests – a mother cat and her eight kittens. The charity’s Fareham & Waterlooville Districts Branch in Hampshire, England, was called out to a hotel in July to catch the stray cat and...
- Posh Pad For Fortunate Ferals
Four feral kittens found a stylish new home, thanks to a Cats Protection branch in the south-east of England. “It all started with a phone call asking if we would be able to acquire two outdoor cats or kittens for a house with a two-acre garden...