CHARITY No 203644 (ENGLAND & WALES) SCO37711 (SCOTLAND) Bromley Cats Protection Spring Newsletter 2015 Visit our new website: www.cats.org.uk/bromley www.facebook.com/bromleycatsprotection https://twitter.com/bromleycats
Dates for your diary These are the current dates for our hall sales. Please come along to meet some of our volunteers, support our work and have a drink and some homemade cake. There is a variety of stalls including jewellery, cosmetics and gifts, good quality clothes and accessories, cat goods, bric-a-brac, two tombola s (including one for wine), a raffle and our very popular refreshments. Also see our website and subsequent Newsletters for new dates added, especially the summer outdoor events. Saturday 7th March 2015 Spring sale at St Francis Church Hall, Ravenswood Ave, West Wickham, BR4 0PW Helpers from 12 noon. Open to the public from 2pm. Saturday 25th April 2015 NEW VENUE Sale at Holy Trinity Church, Lennard Rd, Penge, SE20 7LX Helpers from 12 noon. Open to the public from 2pm. Note: This is a very nice venue we have used in the distant past with plenty of free parking. Very near Penge East railway station and numbers 75 and 194 bus stops. Saturday 6th June 2015 Summer sale at St Francis Church Hall, Ravenswood Ave, West Wickham, BR4 0PW Helpers from 12 noon. Open to public from 2pm. Saturday 12th September 2015 Sale at Azelia Hall, 258 Croydon Rd, Beckenham, BR3 4DA Helpers from 10am. Open to the public from 12 noon - 2pm. Saturday 3rd October 2015 Combined Animal Charities at St Francis Church Hall, Ravenswood Ave, West Wickham, BR4 0PW Helpers from 12 noon. Open to the public from 2pm. Saturday 7th November 2015 Christmas Bazaar at St Francis Church Hall, Ravenswood Ave, West Wickham, BR4 0PW Helpers from 12 noon. Open to the public from 2pm If you would like to contact us Write: Bromley Cats Protection, PO Box 1124, Bromley, BR1 9TU Website: Visit our website www.cats.org.uk/bromley and go to the Contact Us page where you can fill in a form and email it to us Phone: Our helpline number 020 8402 8860. You will hear several numbers to ring which are relevant to your query Lost & found: In the first instance please complete the form in the 'Lost and Found' section of our website. Hilary 020 8650 3909 or h.hamilton4@ntlworld.com Membership: Eve 020 8851 9374 or eve9nq@yahoo.co.uk Cat welfare: Laurence 020 8313 3687 Front cover: Welcome! Our volunteers who ran the stalls and refreshments at our first sale of the year at the Azelia Hall, Beckenham on Valentines Day. And they would love to see you at future sales.
Words from The Editor Welcome to our new look Newsletter and I do mean WELCOME! As you can see from all the smiling faces of our volunteers on the front page, we are all set for a new year of helping cats and kittens in the Bromley area. In January, our branch co-ordinator Barbara sent out a letter to members with the news that our welfare officer Sue had decided to retire from Cats Protection. Sue did so much for us and had been a lynchpin of our branch for many years. This news came on top of very sadly losing Mary Passande last November. We were left very depleted in terms of resources and experience and feared at one point for the future of the branch, especially in its current form. However, I now have some great news. A family who over the last seven years have been fostering cats for us have stepped forward to take over the Welfare role and also maintain our website and other social media platforms. You can read all about them further on. As well as all her other roles, Sue also produced our Newsletters. My name is Tracy, and I have taken over writing, producing and printing our new look Newsletter. I have never done anything like this before and it will be a work in progress, so please bear with me. Sue was also a fosterer for us and had many stories to tell. I have four rescue cats, but I don t foster so I will be drawing on the tales from our many volunteers, and in the future hopefully stories from our members. I am already thinking of ideas for the Summer Newsletter, and I would love to hear from anyone who has adopted one of our cats recently to let us know how they are settling in. Did you adopt one of our cats ages ago? Do send me a photo and a few lines letting me know what antics they get up to. If you have any funny photos of your rescue cat, please email them to me. I want to make this a bright and fun Newsletter to read and surely everyone loves to see a cat asleep on top of a fish tank or curled up in a flower pot. Ultimately, I would very much like to be able to see one of the cats who need rehoming in this newsletter have their story told by their new owner at some point in the near future. In each Newsletter I want to showcase some of our volunteers, the work they do for us and of course, the cats they have. I have started with Barbara who is our Branch Co-Ordinator, a fosterer, and a strong tea drinker. Read all about her 3 cats and current foster feline further on. You will see from the cover page we have a new website. It is being updated constantly and has all kinds of need to knows such as Lost & Found, our Events page, cats for adoption and loads of other useful information. You can also now follow us on Facebook or Twitter for the latest branch and cat-related news. Our membership secretary would like me to remind you that membership renewals are due in March so do please let us have your payment by 31 March 2015 at the latest. This will ensure that we can continue our important work. You will find the relevant form at the end of the Newsletter. Please indicate on the membership form if we can email a copy of future Newsletters rather than receiving it in the post. Every little helps! Finally, we would like to thank Sue for all the years she had dedicated to helping cats in our area and send our best wishes for all she does in the future. Also, our thoughts are with Mary s husband Martin, and to say how good it is to see him at our sales. Please send me any stories or comments to: BromleyCPL@outlook.com. Or you can write to me at Bromley Cats Protection, PO Box Number 1124, Bromley, BR1 9TU with your stories. Tracy
Meet our new Welfare team In 2005 our much loved cat died aged 19 years, and for many reasons we felt unable to commit to taking on another. In 2008, and still missing having a cat in the house, we spotted an advertisement for cat fostering. Helen from Bromley Cats Protection visited and explained what was involved, and we immediately signed up. A few days later we collected our first cat from the vets. We loved the whole experience of taking in a homeless cat and the sense of achievement that came from handing it over to a good new home and seven years later we are still happily fostering. When Sue recently decided to retire from the welfare role, and we heard that the branch might close, we took the decision as a family to apply for the job. I am very hard of hearing, so agreed to take on the emails and administration, my husband Laurence is taking on the calls, and our daughter Laura is dealing with the website and other social media. Our first job was setting up a new website for the branch, and the Committee agreed that the Cats Protection standard format would work best. This has had many advantages, including our benefiting from the Find a Cat function, which advertises widely across the internet and on TV, and also from an excellent Lost & Found search facility provided by Animal Search. The response has already been very good, with several new offers of homes for our cats. Our next task is to recruit more Fosterers, as sadly we do not have enough to deal with all the calls for help we receive, and we will especially need more Fosterers come kitten season, which is approaching fast. Despite our seven years of fostering, we are finding that there are many new things to learn, and the rest of the committee are helping to bring us up to speed on all the procedures and also sharing the wisdom of their past experience. Each new cat brings a new set of challenges but also brings much satisfaction, as helping them is ultimately why we volunteered. Janet After 25 years of volunteering with Bromley Cats Protection, Sue left some very large shoes to fill. Happily the family below have stepped forward and risen to the challenge. Below is their story.
Barbara s cats Barbara has been our Branch Co-Ordinator and a fosterer for many years now. She does a fantastic job organising all us ladies (and the odd gent) and is Head Office s first contact with our Branch. Here she tells us in her own words about her current cat clan. Pi so called because she has 3 and a bit legs. (The mathematical significance of this - Pi = 3.14156 recurring although this could send some of you to sleep!). She came into Cats Protection care back in 2008 when she was around 2 years old. Someone reported 2 abandoned cats at a house in Downham, the owner having moved away and left them. Unfortunately, the other cat was in a very bad way and had to be PTS. I initially fostered Pi but decided to keep her. She is a short-haired tabby with a very feisty temperament. Her disability doesn t stop her from standing up to anyone and she is impossible to catch if she decides she doesn t want to come in. She regularly catches wildlife from the woods behind my house and brings them home to visit. I don t know how many mice/shrews I am currently sharing my home with. Sweetpea came into our foster care in 2011. She had a deformed toe but this seems to have rectified itself. She is a little black and white girl always on the lookout for food and treats and scratches on the bedroom door if I am not awake early enough. She is probably about 6 years old now. I have decided to adopt her as she also has a great life here with all the woods to explore and I don t want to uproot her. My current foster cat is Daisy. When I took my previous cat Nana to be put to sleep last April, one of the vet nurses asked if I would consider taking on Daisy. She had been taken into our vets as a stray and was going to be put to sleep as she had advanced kidney disease. They told me that she probably only had a couple of weeks to live so she could eat whatever she liked, just to have a final couple of weeks of happiness. Ten months on, she is as fat as a barrel will not eat ordinary cat food and would live entirely on a diet of Dreamies if she could. The only other thing she will eat is dried chicken and duck, which comes in tiny little packets from Waitrose (made by Hi-Life) and costs an arm and a leg. I asked the vets to repeat the blood tests that she originally had as I don t believe there is anything wrong with her at all. The vet said that, from the results, she wouldn t have expected Daisy to have any interest in food at all and did indeed have advanced kidney disease. Try telling that to Daisy. By the way, she is black and white and about 6-7 years old. She hates the other cats with a passion and I have to keep her separated from them at all times. Hector came into CP care in the summer of 2011. He was about a year old then. I believe he was a stray and has the freedom of the woods, visits all the neighbours apparently - although he did frighten my neighbour Sarah when she was relaxing in the bath one day and opened her eyes to see him perched on the side of the bath She said she didn t know who was more surprised him or her and he ran off that will teach her to leave the window open. He is a gorgeous ginger and white boy with cattitude. He is the top cat in the area and regularly visits a house nearby to beat up their white cat The owner tells me her poor cat is a bit of a wuss!
Fosterers urgently needed Fosterers look after cats on a short-term basis, in their own home, until a permanent home can be found for them. Even if you only look after a cat once or twice a year when a fosterer is on holiday this would be very helpful. Fostering cats is very rewarding and the more people we can find to do it the more cats we can help - it's as simple as that. Food, litter and vets bills are all covered by the branch, and you will receive training in cat/kitten care. There is plenty of support and advice on hand and you can take a break at any time, so are not committed 365 days a year. Kitten fosterers need to be around much of the time to provide the care and stimulation that these little creatures need, but adult cat fosterers can combine working and fostering without problem. We take care to place cats appropriately and to make our fosterers lives as easy as possible by ensuring sure that everything runs smoothly. You could also be an stand in fosterer to cover short term emergencies. This would be an enormous help to a cat in desperate need. It could also mean covering when a full time fosterer is on holiday. This is not as big a commitment as a full time fosterer, but still very much needed. If you're interested we'd LOVE to hear from you on 020 8313 3687, alternatively complete the online enquiry form on our website: www.cats.org.uk/bromley and click on the Contact Us button. We'll give you as much information as we can to help you decide if it's for you, and there will be no pressure. You might want to meet one of our existing fosterers and chat through what s involved, and we can arrange that too. What are you waiting for?! Get fostering! You'll be glad you did. Can you give a cat a home? We always have a long list of cats seeking new homes. If you are thinking of getting a cat or kitten and feel that you can provide a secure, happy environment for a little feline who may have had an unsettled or traumatic past, please, please, please consider some of the cats on the next page. Take a look on our new website too: www.cats.org.uk/bromley and click on Adopt a Cat. As you can imagine, we have new cats coming in all the time, so if there is nothing suitable for your circumstances at the moment, please contact us anyway. We will only home cats to people living (or on the outskirts of) the Borough of Bromley. Our volunteers time is very precious so please do not contact us unless you are serious about adopting one of our cats. All homes are vetted.
We need a loving home Bubbles is very affectionate and would love to lie on your lap all day. He adores being stroked and having his tummy tickled. While he loves company, Bubbles is initially scared of strangers and is spooked easily, so would not be suitable for very young children. Bubbles gets on well with other cats Squeak is a sweet gentle young tabby. He is an affectionate lap cat who adores being stroked and having his tummy tickled. While he loves company, Squeak is initially scared of strangers and can be spooked very easily, so would not be suitable for young children. Could you be the owner to show him the love and patience to help build his confidence? Scooby is a young, playful tabby who is only two years old. He is a lap cat, and loves to have his tummy tickled. He is very friendly and affectionate, and although he is initially scared of strangers, once he gets to know you he is fine. Because he can get spooked easily, he is not suitable for very young children Hot news! As this Newsletter was going to press I have heard that Scooby has just found a new loving home Harry is a very affectionate, petite boy who is confident and playful. He is around 1yr old, but thinks he is still a young kitten. Harry has been a stray for a while and will need some help to understand how to behave in a home setting. Cena is a 9yr old Snowshoe cat who needs a home where the owner is home all day. She does not like being left alone as she craves company No photo at this time. Really, really, really special home needed Hazel is a sweet affectionate cat that loves human company, and purrs loudly when you are with her, as she is so pleased to have company. Could you give Hazel the companionship she craves? She would be suitable as an indoor only cat, but this is not essential. Hazel has stiff joints for which she receives periodic anti-inflammatory injections, other than this she is in good health. We hope that her stiffness will improve with rest and warmth. Due to her joint problem she would not be suitable for very young children If you are interested in any of these delightful cats please call Helen on 0208 658 6496
Meet Our Super Bakers We work really hard in the kitchen on sale days, but we have done many hours of weighing, mixing, rolling and baking before we arrive. None of us claim any expenses back for the money spent on ingredients, so every penny you spend goes directly to help the cats in need. And our prices are much cheaper than the high street coffee shops! All our homemade cakes and savouries are freshly made with love using only the finest quality ingredients. All eggs used are from free range hens, and sometimes even organic from the small flock Tracy keeps in her garden. Sandra is famous for her wicked coffee and walnut cake, rich chocolate cake and curried vegetable pasties. Suzan turns her hand to melt in the mouth cheese scones, ginger cake, bread pudding and quiches. We regularly have fresh cream scones and jam, pizza slices and rolls with various fillings. Jocelyn does the very important job of supplying table cloths and doing all the washing up at the sales and never complains. And Tracy serves up the drinks and keeps everyone else in order! Do come long and take a look around all the stalls at one of our sales. Have a cuppa and piece of cake or take a slice home to eat whilst watching your favourite TV programme. We supply takeaway containers and many of our regular customers bring along a Tupperware box and buy goodies to take home for friends and neighbours. Maybe they pretend they cooked the cakes themselves..! Here are some examples of the treats to tempt you at our recent sales. Back row left to right to front Sandra, Jocelyn, Suzan. Front is Tracy
Pumpkin Pie approving the final Newsletter draft
PLEASE HELP NEEDY CATS IN BROMLEY By making a donation or becoming a member of your local branch of Cats Protection We are the only Cats Protection branch in the immediate area and we need to raise in excess of 25,000 each year to carry out our vital work. We rely entirely on donations and our own fundraising efforts. Our objectives are:- To relieve the suffering of cats and kittens To encourage the public to take better care of their cats and kittens To rehome stray and unwanted cats and kittens To encourage and assist with the cost of neutering thus reducing the number of unwanted cats and kittens. I would like to renew my membership/ become a new member of the Bromley Branch of Cats Protection at a cost of 10.00 per annum. I would like to make a one off donation. Please tick below if we may claim Gift Aid*. If you are a UK taxpayer, you can increase the value of your gift to us by allowing us to reclaim the tax you have already paid at no extra cost to you. Yes, I want this donation and any donation made in the future to be Gift Aided until I notify you otherwise. Name Address.. Date.. Telephone I would like to receive my Newsletters by email at the email address below: email. Please make cheques payable to Bromley Cats Protection and send this form and the cheque to: The Membership Secretary Bromley Cats Protection 66 Jevington Way Lee London SE12 9NQ Website: www.cats.org.uk/bromley Helpline: 0208 402 8860 *to qualify for Gift Aid, what you pay in income tax and/or capital gains tax for each tax year must equal at least the amount of tax that all charities or Community Amateur Sports Clubs that you donate to will reclaim on your gifts for that tax year. Other taxes you pay such as VAT and Council Tax do not count. Please tick if you would like a receipt.
How can I help? Please tick the box for further details: Foster a cat or kittens All you need is a spare room and a big heart! Offer help with transport We sometimes need help with taking cats to the vets. Donate good quality goods We always need items to sell at our sales. Please indicate the type/quantity of goods being offered. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Make a gift in your will We can send you a booklet detailing how. Become a volunteer We have many different roles which can be tailored to suit your lifestyle.