I'm Holly, and I run a small independent shelter in Nottingham called Holly's Merry Moggies . It's been going for three years and is one of the only shelters in the country to specialise in elderly and disabled cats that would often be put to sleep otherwise.

Today is the first time since I started the shelter that I've seriously considered closing its doors.

Times are, to be blunt, awful. Every shelter I know is really going through it at the moment -- a combination of unwanted pandemic pets, rising costs of living leading to more abandonments, and the usual load of stray, sick, neglected and unwanted kitties that is intense at the best of times.

Aside from the flood of extra requests for help we've been receiving, we've had a couple of unfortunate incidents that have left us with a massive hole in our budget and struggling to pay the vet bills.

To give you some examples of what we're dealing with this month alone:

We have a kitten that's been diagnosed with a liver shunt, meaning he needs a serious and specialised operation ASAP and potentially lifelong care. We have a very old former stray with a respiratory infection, which can be fatal at her age. We have an epileptic cat who desperately needs dental treatment but started fitting under sedation and thus has to be done all over again with different drugs. We have multiple kittens with a painful skin condition they picked up while struggling to survive on the streets without their mum.

And that's aside from all the regular stuff, which is expensive at the best of times -- especially given that we have some severely disabled and vulnerable elderly cats who live here for life because they can't be rehomed.

We're also waiting on some insurance claims that are taking vastly longer than usual, depleting our reserves and leaving us without any overflow. I've spent every last penny I can get my hands on. My last functioning credit card has £12 left on it, and don't even ask about my overdraft. It's so far in the red, it's turning purple!

I hate asking for help like this because I know everyone's stretched and we're extremely lucky to have kind people who support us on Patreon every month. I'm not asking for anyone to cover all the treatments above, just for enough to give us a buffer so that if another month like this one happens, we're not straight into panic territory.

Thank you for considering helping us. I hope we see better days for everyone soon.