If anyone tells you the RSPCA "doesn't do rehoming"

From our rehoming co-ordinator:

My goodness it's going beserk.

Just to keep you in the loop we have as follows:

• Ginger tom taken to Vet 24 after RTA - they spoke to Claire and because of neurological problems he's going to clinic on Saturday.

• Black tom at Arbury Rd vets which has bad pelvic injury - also to clinic on Sat.

• Fluffy black female (Maria) about 6-8 months taken to Pet Drs Burwell. I collected and have her with me at moment booked to be spayed at Lidas next week and finders are keen to adopt pending home visit

• Ginger and white nervous tom taken to pet Drs Burwell with a wound which they've treated. They say he has to come out before bank holiday weekend as no cover so I'm going to try and bring him here tomorrow. But as I have un-spayed Maria too, I will have to try to keep them a distance apart so they don't drive each other mad especially as she appears to be calling. I have him booked in next week to also be neutered at Lidas and have his staples out of his wound at same time.

The 3 new cat fosterers are now full so I've got a bit of a problem that one of them goes away sometime soon and will need her mum cat and kittens to be looked after elsewhere. Didn't really want them to go into the cattery.

West Suffolk branch did have a cat space looming that we could use but it might now be taken. If not I had a very desperate member of public who is about to move and a friend who promised to take his cat has let him down at last minute. So I have put him in touch with them to avoid our numbers getting even more inflated.

If you would like to foster or adopt a cat, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

More kittens and two pet rats!

Thanks to our dedicated fosterers, we were able to help a caller whose new landlord wouldn't allow pets and another who had found a litter of kittens in her garage. 

The kittens should be ready to go to new homes in a couple of weeks as they were old enough to be running about. If you might be interested in adopting one or a pair, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk The mother cat is friendly, so once the kits are weaned, she will be spayed and up for adoption as well.

The increasing number of animals needing help makes it even more urgent that we raise more funds, so please keep on supporting our shops at 188 Mill Road and 61 Burleigh Street by shopping there and donating items for sale.

One step forward, two steps back

Maisie's been doing very well apart from her absolute refusal to eat anything except Feline AD (appetite diet) made up with hot water. She's been chipped and had her first vaccinations and someone is tentatively interested in adopting her.

The vets were pretty convinced the food behaviour is mostly psychological, but now she's definitely got a bunged up nose and doesn't fancy anything much. Took her down to them again this evening and she's back on antibiotics on the assumption that some of the damage to the bones around her nasal passages, done in the original traffic accident, has left them prone to infection. Her temperature is normal and she's bright and lively, so they think the infection is localised to her poor nose.

Resolutions

"Raise more funds," has to be our motto going into 2010. Without money we can't pay vets to treat animals, or kennels to board them so that they can be rehomed.

You can help us by:

• Buying items from our charity shops at 61 Burleigh St, Cambridge, 188 Mill Road, Cambridge and 156 High Street, Newmarket.
• Donating items to our shops (textiles and shoes can be sold for recycling even if they are worn out, but other items need to be in saleable condition).
• Volunteering in our shops.
  
• Volunteering to help with our yearly collection in RSPCA week at the end of April.
• Adopting animals from us so that they spend a shorter time in kennels, costing us boarding fees.
• Donating a percentage to us when you sell items on eBay.
• Buying second hand books online from our Abebooks store
  

Outdoor homes for shy cats

Mr Grumpy, one of the feral cats we treated, neutered and released.

We nearly always have a need for homes for cats who have never lived indoors and wouldn't easily adjust to a domestic environment. They need to go to a location where there is shelter (such as a garden shed, outhouse or barn) and someone who will put down food and check that they are OK.

If you might be able to offer a home to a timid cat, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Update from our homing co-ordinator

Our cat numbers in kennels are now up to 21 and I've got various desperate messages from people wanting us to take cats and everywhere else seems full so it's quite a problem.

Clare (Inspector) phoned me about a 18 month old pomeranian that she got signed over as owner wasn't coping. It sounds as though it's destructive but I dont know much else. It should be very rehomable being small and a "breed" unless it has bad behavioural issues.

I agreed to take a rabbit from a home in Newmarket, again owners seriously not coping.

I had a call from someone who had 2 cats from us some time ago. One has since died and she adopted another from a different rescue. She has had an awful time. Her husband's been ill a while with a brain tumour so can't work and is now in a care home. They had to sell up their home to pay debts and now have to leave their rented accomodation as the landlord's moving into it having lost his main residence. She and the two kids are having to go to a hostel temporarily, which won't allow cats. She really didn't want to give them up but cant afford to pay boarding costs for ages. Bearing in mind that if they were given up for rehoming we would be obliged to at least take Ronnie back and we would possibly be stuck with him ages (he was a long stayer before she adopted him) I have agreed to have them with a view to her having them back when she gets a permanent home. Could be quite some time though!

Its a shame really as I was intending to take on a couple of oldies from the kennels but this will bung me up again!

Excellent news about Katie

Katie is a youngish cat who we took in a few weeks ago and took up for investigation at the University Vet School because the vet we use at the kennels found a very large lump in her abdomen when checking her fitness to be spayed. The most common reason for this in a cat would be lymphoma, which is an invasive cancer with very bad prospects.

However, the Vet School did an exploratory operation on her tum on Monday and the "lump" seems to have been a very large internal abscess, which they've removed surgically. They're doing culture of the pus to check which antibiotics are best to use, but say provided the wound doesn't break down (some danger of this because it was actually attached to her gut wall) she's got a good chance of full recovery. They waited until today to phone me in case she went downhill after the op.