We had sincerely hoped that by this point in the year that we would have seen the worst of our kitten influx and that our team would in turn be able to be starting to concentrate on some of the adult cats on our waiting list. Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth. The kittens just keep coming and we receive calls and emails every day from people who have kittens they can no longer keep, or are finding that have been born outside. There has never been a year like it – neutering seems to have reduced, most likely in part due to rising costs for the procedure in combination with no procedures being undertaking during the covid pandemic, and of course un-neutered cats continue to breed!
The last few months have been some of our toughest, with multiple emergency cases coming into the centre. We have had so may malnourished and anaemic kittens that have needed out of hours care,
intensive care, fluids and much more. There has also been two road traffic accident boys who needed complicated and expensive specialist surgery.
Fundraising for the cats remains tricky as the cost of living crisis continues to impact people’s giving ability and the rising cost of holding events means very little funding can be generated from them. We are looking at initiatives to increase our income, reduce our outgoings and in turn we are confident that we can manage this and continue to strengthen our charity. We are planning on running open days, raffles and of course appeals to help increase our income – the more we raise, the more cats we can help. We also now have a new online gift shop that stocks everything from all things cat all the way through to unicorn cards!
We have solid milk chocolate gifts for the people with a sweet tooth and just about everything else you can think of. We are hoping that over time the online gift shop will help YCR to become sustainable as all profits go straight back into the Charity for the cats. You can find our shop online through our website (https://yorkshirecatrescue.org/). When you are looking for your birthday gifts or even just a pick me up for a friend, we guarantee there will be something for everyone.
Don’t forget you can also follow our Mascot ‘Spud’ on his daily adventures with his partner in crime ‘Dennis The Menace’. These boys can bring some sunshine to the dullest of days! If you would like to follow the boys adventures you can find them on Facebook under “The New Adventures Of Spud”. We also have a Spud Club you can join to support YCR. This is available on our website.
