Good News - welcome to our new website, we hope you will find it is much easier to access the information you need and we will try and ensure that it contains lots of information and advice. And we all love the little black cartoon cat with his ball!
More good news - we can confirm that we have homed nearly 100 cats since January, some of whom found loving homes through our Direct Homing Scheme. We have helped neuter around 550 males and females, both feral and domestic and we have organised veterinary treatments for dozens of other cats and kittens in our care.
And even more good news - we also have several new and very motivated volunteers which means we can better function in areas where we previously struggled. Volunteers such as our very practical man who helps with heavy work at fund-raising functions and fixes up our cat pens and sheds; a volunteer driver who supports our fosterers with food deliveries and vet appointments, and new volunteers who specialise in nurturing newborn abandoned kittens. But we still need more help. The very nature of voluntary work means our people work as and when they are able and, obviously, sometimes leave for new jobs or because of family commitments - and that means we always need new people to join the team.
Sad News - We have a major problem with ferals in our region, and whilst we have a small but very efficient Volunteer TNR Team (Trapping, Neutering and Returning) who work long hours and are well equipped, we cannot hope to do more than scratch the surface of the problem. At the moment we have colonies of ferals which it may take many months to reach. Our Yellow Neutering Scheme, which ran for two months during the summer, seemingly only reached those cat owners who were willing to take responsibility for neutering their cats. Unfortunately there seem to be many more who do not. The feral side of the work we do is the hardest, saddest and most frustrating.
Now the Cuddly News - We always celebrate the rehoming of all cats, but when those who have had very sad histories find love and comfort, we particularly rejoice. Kappa and Smurfitt were two 4 week old ginger lads who were dumped in a paper re-cycling bin on an industrial estate and were destined for the re-cycling plant. They were rescued by a lovely lady who worked locally and who, through our Direct Homing Scheme, re-homed them with an elderly couple who had just lost their elderly ginger cat. A happy ending for everyone..
Then there is Wicksey, found hiding in the engine of a van parked on a Wickes DIY car park, now living in style with a family who have apparently given him his own sofa. (see picture). From van to sofa only took a few weeks - little charmer!
Over three weekends in late summer, a small team of SBCP volunteers took over 30 kittens from the loft space of a single address in Edgbaston. Nineteen of the kittens have already been adopted and we have eleven still to home. All these kittens were born to feral mothers, but because we managed to collect them when they were very young, and because many of them were bottle fed and weaned by our fosterers, these little cats, apparently born to become unwanted strays, will all have permanent homes and families to love and care for them.
ENDS