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Full terms

These terms and conditions prevail in the event of any conflict or inconsistency with any other communications, including advertising or promotional materials. The entry instructions are deemed to form part of the terms and conditions and all participants agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. Please retain a copy for your information.

Promoter: Cats Protection, National Cat Centre, Chelwood Gate, Haywards Heath RH17 7TT

Section 1: Eligibility

  • The competition is only open to residents of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland only). It is not open to Channel Islands, Isle of Man or Republic of Ireland residents. 
  • Entrants must be aged 18 or over.
  • The competition excludes employees, volunteers and their immediate families of the Promoter, its agents or anyone else professionally connected to the competition.

Section 2: Entry requirements

  • To enter the competition, participants must visit cats.org.uk/shortstory and pay a £10 entry fee. No refund of entry fees.
  • Once the entry fee is paid, participants will receive an email with a link to the entry form. They must provide their full name, age, email address, telephone number and their short story. It is the responsibility of the entrant to provide correct, up-to-date details when entering the promotion. The Promoter cannot be held responsible for entrants failing to supply accurate information which affects their entry. 
  • The competition is open to entries between Tuesday 20 January and Tuesday 31 March 2026. All entries received outside the entry period will not be accepted but may be charged
  • Online entry only, internet access required.
  • There are two entry categories, one for children’s literature and one for adults’ literature, that will be judged separately. Entrants should submit their entry into one of the categories and submissions should be a minimum of 250 and no more than 1,000 words.
  • Only one entry (in either category) is allowed per person. Entrants can submit one story per category, and a separate entry fee must be paid per category. Any extra entries within the same category will not be accepted.
  • Stories must;
    • include a cat
    • be written in English
    • be between 250 and 1,000 words
    • use Arial, 12pt and be double-spaced
    • be sumbmitted by a word document or PDF using the entry form with the short story title as the file name
  • Stories cannot:
    • be violent, negative or/and discriminative of any ethnic, racial, gender, sexuality, religious, professional or age group, or be profane or obscene 
    • promote or be about the use of illegal drugs, tobacco, any activities that may appear unsafe or dangerous, or any particular political agenda or message be offensive or be about hate 
    • defame, misrepresent or contain negative remarks about the Promoter or its products, other people, products or companies 
    • contain mention of trademarks or copyrighted material owned by others or advertise or promote any brand or product of any kind, without permission, or contain any personal identification, such as licence plate numbers, personal names, email addresses or street addresses 
    • contain copyrighted materials owned by others without permission 
    • contain materials embodying the names, likenesses, photographs, or other indicia identifying any person, living or dead, other than the participant, without permission 
    • communicate messages or images inconsistent with the positive images and/or goodwill to which the Promoter wishes to associate or contains any images of children 
    • depict, and cannot itself be in, violation of any law 
    • be about any cat (fictional or non-fictional) in a harmful situation whether demonstrating signs of anger, hostility or discomfort, or be about a cat living in unsuitable conditions that are therefore not in line with our welfare guidelines 
    • Any inappropriate or offensive material may be reported to the appropriate authorities.
  • Use of generative AI tools: the story must be the writer’s sole creation and original work. The writer may not use AI (other than word check/spelling) to write any part of the story to enter this competition. Any story which has been written, in part or in whole, by ChatGPT or similar programmes will be excluded from the judging process and ineligible.
  • Entrants retain full copyright of their story, but by entering the competition all participants consent to their story appearing in The Cat magazine, the Charity website and/or social media platforms and other third party media (for example, but not limited to, newspapers, radio, social media) and will be asked to confirm this in writing. Entrants give the Charity a non-exclusive right to publish, reproduce, and distribute their story, in print or digitally, provided that credit is given to the Entrant in all cases.
  • Entries (bulk or otherwise) made from trade, consumer groups or third parties will not be accepted. No entries from agents, third parties, organised groups, syndicates or applications automatically generated by computer will be accepted.
  • No incomplete, illegible, defaced, invalid or corrupted entries, or entries from multiple accounts, will be included in the judging. Proof of sending will not be accepted as proof of delivery. The Promoter takes no responsibility for entries delayed, incomplete or lost due to technical reasons or otherwise. In the event of this clause being breached, the entrant will be disqualified and any prize awarded will be disqualification at the sole discretion of the Promoter. If there is any reason to believe that there has been a breach of these terms and conditions or incorrect, illegible, fraudulent or other invalid or improper information has been provided, the Promoter may, at its sole discretion, refuse to fulfil the prize. 
  • By participating in the promotion, the entrants license grants the promoter a royalty free, worldwide, irrevocable and sub-licensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish and display the submitted content for the purpose of Cats Protection communications, in any media, without compensation, restriction on use, attribution or liability. Entrants agree not to assert any moral rights in relation to such use where the moral rights in respect of the content are theirs to assert.

Section 3: Shortlisting and judging

  • All entries will first be verified for eligibility and any ineligible entries will be discarded. The shortlisting panel comprising Cats Protection employees will review eligible entries based on their creativity and originality.
  • The shortlisted entries will be reviewed by a panel of external judges to determine the overall winners in each category. Cats Protection reserve the right to change the judge without notice. The judges’ decision is final and no individual correspondence can be entered into. This is included. Judges are unable to comment on individual entries. Judging is fair and unbiased. 
  • The shortlisting and judging process will take place between Wednesday 1 April and Friday 8 May 2026.
  • Judging criteria:
    • Cats are central to the plot
    • Story highlights the connection between cats and people
    • Be imaginative and creative
    • Positive and accurate representation of cats

Entries to the competition must meet the entry requirements listed in section 2 and will be judged based on quality and originality.

  • If there is a tie-breaker situation where two entrants have the same score and judges cannot decide on one winner, then an independent judge (or a panel including one independent member) will be appointed. Their name will be available on request.
  • Winners will be contacted by the email address and/or phone number they have provided on their original entry by Friday 15 May 2026. Entrants are encouraged to monitor their communications during this time.
  • Winning stories will be published on the Cats Protection website in conjunction with the publication dates of The Cat magazine..

Section 4: Prize

  • The winning stories will feature in The Cat magazine, online and other media or promotions for Cats Protection (for example, but not limited to, newspapers, radio, social media).
  • Two winners (one per category) will receive a copy of The Cat magazine with their featured story once published, offered a visit to a cat centre of their choice and a prize package worth a retail value of up to £350. Travel, accommodation and any other expenses incurred related to the cat centre visit will be the responsibility of the winner.
  • Prizes will be sent to the winners once they are announced and by 30 June 2026. Winning stories will be published in The Cat magazine in the autumn 2026 edition.
  • No cash or other alternative prize will be provided in whole or in part, except that in the event of circumstances outside of its control the Promoter reserves the right to substitute a similar prize, or part of the prize, of equal or greater value.

Section 5: General

  • The Promoter and its associated agencies and companies will not be liable for any loss (including, without limitation, indirect, special or consequential loss or loss of profits), expense or damage which is suffered or sustained (whether or not arising from any person’s negligence) in connection with this promotion or accepting or using the prize, except for any liability which cannot be excluded by law (including personal injury, death and fraud) in which case that liability is limited to the minimum allowable by law.
  • Limitations of liability: 
    The Promoter, its agents or anyone professionally connected to the promotion, cannot assume any responsibility or liability for: 
    - any incorrect or inaccurate personal data entry, or for any faulty or failed electronic data transmissions 
    - communications line failure, regardless of cause, with regards to any equipment, systems, networks, lines, satellites, servers, computers or providers utilised in any aspect of this promotion 
    - inaccessibility or unavailability of the internet 
    Regretfully, the Promoter cannot be held liable for system failures with access to the promotional site. 
  • If any element of this promotion is delayed any affected entrants will be contacted by the Promoter and kept updated of any unavoidable changes to the competition or prize.

Section 6: Conduct of entry

  • The Promoter reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to disqualify and remove any entries that do not comply with these terms and conditions.
  • All entries must be the entrant’s own original work and must not infringe the copyright or other intellectual property rights of any third party. Any entry found to infringe the rights of any third party or found to be copied, or the work of someone else, will be disqualified.
  • Prize winners agree to execute any further such paperwork as may be necessary to give full effect to these terms and conditions. 
  • The Promoter reserves the right to verify all entries and the winners, including but not limited to asking for proof of address, and ID (passport, driving licence or equivalent) which they must provide within seven days. The Promoter can refuse to award a prize or withdraw prize entitlement and/or refuse further participation in the promotion and disqualify the participant where there are reasonable grounds to believe there has been a breach of these terms and conditions or any instructions forming part of this promotion’s entry requirements or otherwise where a participant has gained unfair advantage in participating in the promotion or won using fraudulent means. The Promoter will be the final arbiter in any decisions and these will be binding and no correspondence will be entered into. 
  • Any question concerning the legal interpretation of the rules will be based on English law and the Courts of England and Wales will have jurisdiction, unless you live in another part of the UK, in which case your local courts will have jurisdiction. 
  • If any of these clauses should be determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable then it shall be severed and deleted from these terms and conditions and the remaining clauses shall survive and remain in full force and effect. 
  • The Promoter’s decision is final and binding in all promotional matters and no correspondence will be entered into. 
  • If for any reason any aspect of this promotion is not capable of running as planned, including by reason of infection by computer virus, network failure, traffic congestion, bugs, tampering, unauthorised intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other cause beyond the control of the Promoter which corrupts or affects the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this promotion, the Promoter may in its sole discretion modify or suspend the promotion or invalidate any affected entries. If an act, omission, event or circumstance occurs which is beyond the reasonable control of the Promoter and which prevents the Promoter from complying with these terms and conditions, the Promoter will not be liable for any failure to perform or delay in performing its obligation but will always endeavour to minimise the effect to participants in order to avoid undue disappointment. 
  • The Promoter will only use the personal details supplied for the administration of the promotion and for no other purpose, unless we have your consent to hear from us. Your personal details will be kept in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable data protection legislation. You can request access to your personal data, or have any inaccuracies rectified, by sending an email dataprotection@cats.org.uk By participating in the promotion, you agree to the use of your personal data as described here. 
  • The contact details of entrants will be held and processed for up to six years after the financial year that the competition was held in. As there is an entry fee, we are required to retain entrant details for six years from the end of the financial year in which you entered, for HMRC purposes. Your personal details will be kept in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable data protection legislation. 
  • If you are an award-wrinning applicant, we also retain this information to support publications created under the charity’s control, including those on our website and social media, and in the event that you win any future competitions. After this period, your personal data will be securely destroyed; however, please note that some personal data may remain in the public domain as part of published materials.
  • Shortlisted entrants’ details will not be held beyond this period, used for any other purpose, or transferred to any third party without the consent of the entrant, for example unless we have your consent to hear from us.
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