THIS MONTH'S NEWS

January News

January has been a great month for The Cats Shelter as a New Year begins we have already re-homed 34 cats and kittens. The best adoption for this month has got to be finding Hubble a new home. Hubble had been at the Cats Shelter since July 2009, so all the staff are delighted she has finally found her perfect home. She certainly looked very content and happy sat dribbling on her new owner’s lap.

This month has also brought some good news for Sweep who has been on foster since 2009. Sweep was found a foster home because he was suffering from gingivostomatitis, which is a severe and painful inflammation of the gums, he later developed diabetes. After months of working to stablise his diabetes and finding the correct dose of insulin for him, he is now showing good signs of recovery. There are positive signs that his dependence on insulin has subsided and he may no longer need treatment in the future - fantastic. His gums have also shown signs of improvement, they are no longer sore or inflamed. We are closely monitoring Sweep over the next few months but are hopeful that he will no longer need treatment for either of his conditions. His fosterer David says Sweep acts like a little kitten as he runs around the house playing and appears to have no problems at all - wonderful!!

Christmas raffle

The following tickets were drawn in the Christmas raffle: First prize of a Christmas Hamper - 3479, Second prize of £50 John Lewis Vouchers - 2370, Third prize of a dinner for two at the Holiday Inn, Victoria Hotel - 3735.  Runners up prizes were drawn as follows: 3362, 4725, 1999, 1658, 2307, 1459, 5568, 2443, 3828, 1278, 3394, 1563, 4709, 3014, 1268, 1453, 3541, 0108, 1546, 3933, 0632, 0442, 0257, 3609, 5678, 3547 and 3245 

DECEMBER NEWS

During December the Sheffield Cat Shelter closed for a short time over the Christmas period to discourage people buying cats and kittens just for Christmas. We closed on the 18 December and re-opened on the 1 January, but we re-homed 26 cats and kittens in December, which is brilliant over just 18 days.  During December four of our SOS cats found loving new homes including Copper and Smudge who have been SOS cats since November, and Casper and Rosie who were our December SOS cats.  Lets hope January sees our beautiful Hubble rehomed, she has been an SOS cats since July 2009.

December has also brought to the shelter 21 new cats including two very ill kittens called Minto and Humbug. When they were brought to the shelter they were suffering from cat flu, after living outside in a greenhouse. When they first arrived at the shelter, they both had sore eyes and where very quiet and scared. This is Minto looking particularly sorry for herself:

Once they started treatment they soon improved in condition. They are now a lot happier and settled and the improvement in their health is easily noticed.  You'll see at the bottom of this news how much improved they are.  They will be available for adoption as a pair very shortly, so do please ring the warden for an update if you are interested in adopting them.  Humbug is much more timid than Minto, so a quieter home where they can learn to play happily would be best for them.

December is also a time to reflect and look back on the year's achievements. The Sheffield Cats Shelter re-homed 300 cats and kittens in 2009 giving many cats the second chance they deserved. The shelter also found long term foster homes for 7 cats all with on going medical conditions. One of these cats is called Frances who was found as a stray, blind and in very bad condition. She is 15 years old and also suffers from high blood pressure; it is amazing that she survived so long as a stray. The shelter has worked hard to improve Frances condition and quality of life and she is now very happily living in a foster home with two other cats - please see our fostering page for a look at Frances.

October News

October has been another great month for adoption, with 33 cats and kittens finding loving new homes, including our 7 dwarfs who were kittens admitted to us back in August. The best news of all this month is that Tinker and Ginger have finally found a new home after being at the shelter for a whole year. They have found a home together with two very devoted owners and everyone at the shelter looks forward to finding out how they get on. Another four of our SOS cats have also been re-homed this month including Alexis, Fred, Mark and Stuart, you can read how they are settling into their new homes on our adopted letters page, although their names have changed a bit now.  This month we also managed to reunite a cat with his owner after being missing for over 6 months, here’s Tweedle's story. A concerned member of the public who believed him to be a stray brought Tweedle to the door one morning. After scanning Tweedle for a microchip we discovered he was not a stray at all but had been unlucky and got lost from his home. The staff at the shelter were straight on the phone tracking down Tweedle's owner and informing them of the brilliant news that their cat had been found. Tweedle had been missing for so long his owner had begun to lose hope of finding him again. He had managed to get across a very busy dual carriageway, and there he had remained as a stray for over 6 months. With the use of microchipping Tweedle was finally reunited with his owner, which shows the big benefits of getting your pets microchipped. If Tweedle had not been microchipped he may never have found his owner The shelter also had a visit from a much-loved foster cat this month called Max who was fostered in April this year. His fosterer had to go away for a few days so Max came to stay at the shelter and all the staff and volunteers enjoyed seeing him again. Max was fostered because he is unfortunate enough to have tumours in his ears, removing them would involve a very serious operation which could make Max deaf. So instead of putting max through that he now has a loving foster home with on going care and treatment to keep his ears clean and healthy. He has been fostered for 7 months now and has never looked better.

September 2009

The Sheffield Cats Shelter has really seen an increase in adoptions in September with a total of 29 cats and kittens finding loving new homes.  Also during September 7 of our SOS cats have been adopted, some of which had been at the shelter for quiet a while, including Sooty who had been at the shelter since March 2009.  We are all delighted that they have all finally found suitable loving homes and look forward to reading about their adventures in their new homes. Unfortunately Tinker and Ginger are still at the shelter and will soon be celebrating being with us for 1 whole year. They are still in desperate need of a quite home with an experienced patient owner.

Alongside the adoptions the shelter has also had a staggering 45 cats admitted to the shelter this month, a lot of these were abandoned by their owners for unknown reasons. We have also seen an increase of young kittens admitted to the shelter at an age when they should still be with their mother. Kittens should remain with their mother until they are 8-12 weeks old. Taking kittens from their mother before 8 weeks of age can course health and emotional problems for the kittens as they develop. Their mother’s milk also contains vital nutrients and continues to provide immunity to many diseases that a kitten's immature immune system cannot fight on its own.

During this month a little cat called T.C (pictured below) was brought to the shelter who had to have the tips of her ears removed due to severe sunburn. Cats with white ear tips and noses are very susceptible to skin cancer in these areas. Cats have less fur on their ear tips and nose and white cats have little or no pigment in their skin to protect them from sun damage. T.C like many other cats had white ear tips that require some source of protection from the sun to prevent skin cancer. The solution is to use pet sun-cream on your cat's nose, and the inside and outside of their ear tips. Apply it twice a day if your cat is a real sunbather, or try to keep your cat indoors around midday, and times of strong sunlight, to keep your cat healthy. T.C has now been adopted and is very happy and settled in her new home where she will receive skin protection in the future.