FINDING ‘THE FOREVER HOME’

The Cat and Rabbit Rescue Centre, Sidlesham, UK

by Emma Nicoll

Emma joined The Cat and Rabbit Rescue Centre as a volunteer in 1996. Nine years later she became the Fundraising Officer helping to increase fund raising activities and to co-ordinate volunteer help. Emma has always loved animals and would like to find good homes for the many cats, rabbits and guinea pigs who find themselves homeless.

The Cat and Rabbit Rescue Centre was established in 1986 in Sidlesham, West Sussex and is a registered charity. Set in 4½ acres of beautiful countryside this is an idyllic place for both long and short term residents. We offer our services to a vast area covering 600 square miles, of which the population is 560,000. Since starting the rescue 24 years ago, we have supported over 18,000 cats, rabbits and guinea pigs.

Our mission is to take in unwanted, abandoned and stray animals, giving them treatment and support to find that ‘forever’ home. We achieve this through a range of provisions such as homing units, indoor and outdoor pens and runs, intensive care unit, veterinary facilities and recovery room. We also run a scheme to help people who cannot afford the full cost of neutering their cat or rabbit, issuing approximately 300 vouchers every year.

We are also heavily involved with feral colonies of cats which live in built-up areas, and on farms. Recently we trapped and neutered a feral colony of 33 cats which had been left to breed with each other and consequently were in a very poor condition. Once they had recovered from their operations, and nursed back to health, they were ready to be released back on their home territory where an established feeder was in place.

Drastic action was needed to build new accommodation

Every year we are asked to take in approximately 1,500 unwanted animals, but we were unable to do so due to lack of space. As these figures increase by 10% each year, drastic action was needed. With our services already stretched we were forced to increase our rescue and re-homing facilities by 84% in a bid to try and tackle this serious problem. Financial backing from the Co-op in Wittering, who run a community support programme, supporters, legacies, events and a local school, all helped us raise an impressive sun of £255,000 and with this money a new 6,000 square foot cat building was formed. However, to fulfil the whole project and equip the internal rooms, we need to raise a total sum of £350,000.

Taking two years of planning and building we are nearing completion of our greatest achievement, our dreams are now a reality for the unwanted animals. The new building consists of 51 easy to clean, durable pens (each housing 2-4 cats), which will be more hygienic, damp and cat proof. In addition the building will provide a new vet room, recovery room, an intensive care unit, disabled toilet facility, two large pens for the golden oldies, reception, feed and sluice room. By using six months of our reserve money we have managed to complete the funding for the cat pens which were completed at the end of May 2010, but more money is still needed to complete the other internal rooms. You can view the whole project in its stages on-line here..

250 mouths to feed with only a six month reserve

We are now only running on six months reserves, which is a financial worry when there are over 250 mouths to feed! Ideally charities’ reserves should be twelve months to cover running costs, which in our case is over £140,000.

If you would like to help

We would very much appreciate your help.

You can do this in a number of ways:

Donate on-line at www.crrc.co.uk and click on ‘donate now’ or post a cheque to ‘CRRC’, Holborow Lodge, Chalder Lane, Sidlesham, West Sussex PO20 7RJ. Or contact us by telephone on +44 (0) 1243 641409.

Telephone us one evening if you think you may be able to provide a good home for one our beautiful residents.

For as little as £2 per month, adopt one of our animals. Email admin@crrc.co.uk for further details or telephone us.

One of our sponsor cats – Mica.

‘Mica is a black and white female cat with lots of love to give. Her tail had to be amputated due to a nerve problem. She sneaks into the jumble sorting room when you are working in there and awaits a cuddle or two!’