Sutton schoolgirl and cat-lover Katherine steals the show ....
03 November 2015
North Birmingham Cats Protection held its annual open meeting on Halloween Saturday, but rather than spooky it was all sweetness and light when 12-year old Katherine McKenna spoke about her three ‘garden cats’ – and how much CP volunteers had helped the whole family in relocating them from Handsworth to Sutton.
In front of an audience of around thirty, Katherine and her Mum Katrina explained how Welfare Officer Shaki had given them much-needed support in caring for the cats – despite the family’s allergies – and then stepped in again to guide the girls in doing their own ‘trapping’ and successfully ‘Pickfording’ the puss-cats to Sutton.
Said Katherine: “We’ve just moved from Handsworth, where there are lots of stray cats. Even our ‘own’ three were community cats who, because of our allergies, we looked after in our garden. Shaki trapped them and got them neutered for us. So when we packed up our boxes to move, we wanted to bring our garden cats Fluffy, Greg and Bobbie with us. And this time we managed to trap them ourselves, and they’ve settled well into their new garden-home in Sutton.
“Now the cats are having the time of their lives. Fluffy totters around sniffing flowers, Bobbie chases butterflies and Greggy watches the planes go by.”
As Mum Katrina added: “All feral or community cats need is water, simple dry cat food and shelter from the wind and rain. People welcome birds, hedgehogs and other wildlife into their gardens, so why not invite a beautiful cat in too – she surely also needs a place to stay.”
Well, there was hardly a dry eye in the place – with everyone being cat-lovers anyway!
Until the chair covered all the slightly less emotive stuff ...finance, fundraising, homing, education, neutering, when and if the Branch will be able to open a shop, and so on. That brought everyone back down to earth.
There are some changes of officers and roles – the main one being Jane Holt handing over the reins of coordinator to Denise Atkins. Denise was previously publicity officer and will surely set the social media side of CP a-sizzling day and night.
Jane H would like to take this opportunity to thank ‘everyone who came along on the day, listened, contributed, volunteered, donated cash, bought Christmas cards, made tea, took photographs, tidied up – and all else that went into making the AGM a good, information-sharing event.'
** And thanks from everyone to Jane and the committee for the achievements and progress made over the last 12 months. Hundreds of needy cats and kittens have landed on their feet - beit on a farm, stables, safe in the community or in their forever family home - and long may all our efforts continue.