Cat-loving Cassie comes out from behind the CP database ...
09 September 2015
If you thought ‘Cats Protection volunteers’ were all, shall we say, ladies of a certain age – then think again!
Cassie di Mascio, who shares managing our homing database with Lisa Montanaro, is just 23 and started helping the branch in 2010 when she was barely 18.
When she went off to university in Aberystwyth to study Animal Behaviour we thought we’d never see her again – but surprise surprise - when she completed her degree in 2014 (achieving a 2:2) she got back in touch with ‘Can I carry on helping you?’ And of course, we said yes !
Young volunteer, caring Cassie di Mascio, with four of her five cats – Parsley, Banana, Figaro and Marmite. Pebbles was more interested in hiding under the bed than being snapped!
And why does she do it? Now she has a job with Pets-at-Home too? “Because, she says, “both 'jobs' – my day job and volunteering every night to keep the branch homing database updated - involve making sure animals go to good homes and get the best chance they have at life - which is something I find really rewarding.”
Cassie still lives at home with Mum Lyn in Sutton Coldfield and over the years they’ve had a great many 'pets-at-home' to love. Just now, Cassie confirms this includes five cats, 2 rabbits and a tortoise.
“There were 6 cats in all before Archie died, leaving us with 5 now - which is still an awful lot of cats! Four of our cats have been CP cats but we also ended up with two kittens that were being given away free from a home that was desperate to be rid of them, so we took them as we were worried that they'd get dumped somewhere otherwise.
“As well as the cats, we have 2 rabbits and a tortoise. The rabbits were both adopted from Pets at Home where I started work last December. One had a parasite in his brain which has given him a head tilt and cost him an eye but he's an absolute sweetheart. The other was abandoned by her owner. Both had had the snip so I brought her home and they are very happy together in their hutch!”
** Branch thanks and cat-purrs to Cassie and Lisa for volunteering to share the role of ‘database updaters’ – and to all our volunteers – the young and the more mature. Without them where would little cats be?