Cat’s Island Animal Rescue UK – Feral cats

Cat’s Island Animal Rescue UK is an animal rescue based in the UK (London). It has been founded by Ewelina Sidor who has many years of experience in this industry. Although it is a non-registered charity, Ewelina together with other volunteers spends their free time to save animals since 2016. Their mission is to help as many pets as they can. You may be wondering how this is done, so below you will be able to find more information.

Rescues have a very difficult job to do before allocating the pet to their new home. The first stage is to identify the location of stray or feral cats about which sometimes Cat’s Island Animal Rescue UK is being notified by people leaving in or passing a particular area. Once the volunteers are aware of the location they have to catch the stray or feral cat from the streets.

As some of you may not know what is the difference between stray and feral cats, let me clarify this for you. Stray cats are socialised to people. However, feral cats are only socialised to their colony members and they do not have the same relationship with people comparing to stray cats. As feral cats are used to the wild state it can be very difficult to catch them.

Once the volunteers manage to catch the feral cat, the cat is provided with a foster home where they are waiting to receive medical treatment. However, sometimes there are no more foster homes available and as the Cat’s Island Animal Rescue cooperates with many non-kill rescues in the UK, the cats are being transported there. When a pet receives their medical treatment and has been checked whether the cat has HIV or not, the pet is being transported to the local farms which are suitable for feral cats. Some of the farms are specially marked only for cats with HIV (this way no other cat will be able to be infected).

What are the stages before allocating the feral cat to their new home?

• Catch the feral cat
• Allocate the cat in a foster home/local non-kill rescue
• Allow the cat to have all examinations done and receive all medical treatments which they may require
• Contact local farms to check which one is most suitable for the cat (this is also done in case the cat has HIV.) If the pet has HIV the volunteers want to make sure that the cat is not being allocated to the farm which only have healthy cats on their premises and that the infected one will not be able to escape from the farm.

The steps before allocating the feral cat to their new home may seem very simple. However, they are definitively not. This takes a lot of time, patience and dedication multiplied by 100 in order to do this. I personally admire all volunteers who devote their free time to help as many pets as possible. We all have to take into consideration that all volunteers have nothing in return for doing this. They have their own jobs which they have to attend to every day, houses and some have children which they need to take care of. A big thank you to all volunteers, not only the ones who are connected with Cat’s Island Animal Rescue UK but to all.

Saving lives of pets is a very broad topic and this is the reason why today we have focused more on feral cats and on how this particular rescue is helping them. I can guarantee that there will be more posts about this in the near future, so make sure you come back. If you would like to read one of my previous posts please click here and you will be redirected.