Croydon Animal Samaritans Kitty Rescue Appeal

Croydon Animal Samaritans (CAS) has been helping and rescuing animals for nearly 50 years. This charity relies totally on donations and fundraising to support the work they do. As well as their cat rescue centre, CAS has a network of foster homes across South London and Surrey to cater for the many cats, and occasional dogs, they rescue. Some of you will know that CAS relies on income from their charity shop to help cover their rescue bills. With covid, income generated from the shop has been drastically reduced over the past 18 months. Animals have still needed to be rescued and cared for though.

Recently a rescue effort has been taking place for a colony of strays cats in Dulwich, which was brought to CAS' attention when they received a call to help a stray kitten. When the kitten, Solo, was rescued, it was discovered that he was part of a colony of cats who are likely to have initially been dumped by an unscrupulous person in the area. All the colony cats appear to be young, around 6 months to 1 year, apart from an older tom who was rescued with them. It is likely he was attracted to the young females in the colony. Volunteers have managed to rescue most of the colony, who are now safe in the rescue centre. So far, Solo is in foster, 7 cats are in the chalets plus Mum cat, Dorothy, is in the house being closely monitored with her 2 babies. Dorothy gave birth to 4 babies shortly after being rescued. Unfortunately 2 of her babies didn't make it, but the surviving kittens are doing well and are a couple of weeks old now. One of the chalet cats, Desiree, is being kept separate from the others for now as she recovers from a serious operation she needed for a womb infection.

There are still some cats in the colony who have eluded rescue so far. Volunteers have been back several times and will continue to return until all cats have been rescued. CAS believes in leaving no cat behind when they do a rescue like this. Food has been supplied to some local people who will continue to feed the remaining cats until they can be rescued.

Nelson Vets have been incredibly supportive and try to keep costs as low as possible for CAS but with neuturing, vaccinations, microchipping, flea and worm treatment, vet costs are still around £100 for each cat. Desiree has already had the extra surgery for her womb infection and, of course, there is food and litter to be provided for them all. That's 11 cats and kittens already rescued from the colony, with more still to come.

I have set the fundraiser at £1800 to cover the estimated vet costs and care (food/litter) for the whole colony until they are ready to find their forever homes. Some of them are very friendly and will be ready for adoption quite quickly, while others will take a bit more time. I will keep you updated with regular updates and photos of the cats' progress.

Please donate and share to support the rescue of this stray cat colony by this hard working local charity.