Rescuing

Cats and kittens come in to us for many reasons. They are abandoned - owners move away and leave them, some are thrown out because they are pregnant, unwanted kittens dumped in dustbins, cardboard boxes, thrown out of cars. Sometimes the owner has died, relationship break ups, allergies, new baby or owners who get kittens then after a few short months get bored with them.

Care

All the cats and kittens are taken into foster homes. They are given a thorough examination by a vet and any illness, injury etc is treated immediately. They are given flea and worm treatment and vaccinated. The ones old enough are neutered. We also microchip them. They will then stay with us until an appropriate new home is found.

Some cats either due to age or temperament are not able to be homed so they stay with us. No animal is ever put to sleep except on a vet's recommendation.

Areas covered

Keighley - Bingley - Crossflatts - Saltaire - Shipley - Haworth - Oakworth - Skipton and surrounding areas

Wanted

Tombola prizes and jewellery. Do you have any unwanted Christmas or birthday presents that you would like to donate to be tombola prizes? Or are you still hanging onto that necklace you're never going to wear? If you would like to donate some items for tombola prizes or some unwanted jewellery for us to sell at our next fundraising event, please contact Chris on 01274 568380 or keighleycatcare2@btinternet.com

Who are we?

I'm Angela Gray and I am the Welfare Officer at KCC.

I have been involved with KCC since November 2010, my first love has always been dogs but working full time and living alone makes dog ownership difficult to say the least but leaving an empty house everyday to go to work got me thinking about giving a cat a home as they are far more independent than a dog. A friend then suggested fostering instead of adopting so I offered my services to KCC.

At first I said just one cat at a time and no kittens!! that didn't last long!! The most I have fostered at any one time is 24 although a lot of them were mums with small kittens, now I usually average between 5 and 12.

Over the time I have been fostering I have got more involved and now sport the title of Welfare officer which basically means fielding masses of phone calls from people wanting to rehome their cats or have a stray cat living in the garden etc etc and trying to decide which cats to take in when we do have space, unfortunately for every cat we find a home for there are at least another 10-15 waiting to take its place, its a never ending logistical nightmare.

Most of all its for the love of animals, there is so much cruelty and hardship out there for so many animals is nice to be able to do a little bit to help some of them, I know it barely scratches the surface but for those cats we do help it means such a lot and its brings me joy to see them flourish and blossom firstly with me and then with their new owners.

I'm Chris Rawnsley and i am the Treasurer at KCC

I am one of the founder members of Keighley Cat Care which was set up in 2003. As Treasurer I am responsible for all the financial aspects of the charity - involving day to day book keeping as well as annual returns to HMRC for Gift Aid claims and Report and Accounts to the Charities Commission. I also take care of all the record keeping for the cats from being received into care right through to being homed and logging their microchip details and sending out vaccination certificates once homed. My role also takes in most of the general admin i.e. answering emails, co-ordinating volunteers for fund raising events etc. My phone number is the main one available to the public so I get calls from people asking for advice, reporting lost cats and a variety of other queries.

I am also the Homing Officer and take calls from prospective new owners wanting to adopt our cats and kittens. These are vetted carefully to ensure the cats and kittens go to permanent safe and loving homes. Once I am satisfied this will be the case I then pass on the details of the relevant fosterer so they can go and visit.

I also foster cats and kittens. The numbers can vary but quite often these can be in double figures. This involves the general day to day care and also vet trips for vaccinations, neutering etc and looking after those who are ill. Also I help with manning our stalls for fund raisers - table top sales, shows and galas.

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