December | 2017 | 8 Lives: Sheffield 8 Cat Rescue

Have you ever wondered what its like in cat rescue on Christmas Eve? Every family is different I guess .. but we thought we’d share a few photos and stories of the preparations around here.

It’s the first Xmas ever for Felix&Fritz, Merlot and Karis. They’ve been plotting Santa’s journey on the lap top, watching out the window and getting very excited.

Although the F twins are excited about Santa, they had their really special visitors last night. Two lovely people who are calm and patient and loving and who’s family they they will be joining in the New Year. We’re delighted for them. Karis was adopted in the summer but has come back to rescue while mummy is busy (I’ll not go into details save to say that its a completely valid reason and was thought about at the time of adoption). Karis was never intended to be an only child .. so if Merlot manages to get on well with her he’ll be going home with her in the New Year.

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Meanwhile the residents have largely been grumbling about all the cleaning and tidying. My suggestion that the bed should be changed was met by a group lie-in. I went to deliver last minute Xmas cards while they dispersed. On the whole they appear to be pleased to have me home for a few days but rather aggrieved that their rigorous nap schedule has been disrupted.

We’ve tried to keep Flipper out the way .. its her 6th Xmas here … we don’t want her to spoil the Santa magic for the little ones … though she’s clearly had a word with Rufus (2nd Xmas here) about Santa and what he does to naughty kittens. Here he is hiding in a litter sack

I do get where Flipper is coming from, Ru can be a little horror, especially to Henderson (lots of Xmas experience .. hate to think what .. but first one here) …. but not sure its right to respond to bullying with bullying. Meanwhile Henderson announced that he’s always enjoyed the odd mince pie at Xmas … and we reluctantly and probably ill advisedly agreed to him having a very small piece. Watch that litter tray 😦

Then there are the rescue cats who are in separate accommodation. They’ve had cuddles and chicken treats. Lilly enjoyed and felt confident that someone would be along to adopt her in the New Year .. after all she’s very pretty, very loving … what more could you want.

Then we went to the lads. They loved the chicken. We had a serious talk about photos and adoption adverts. Mr Tiggs had a go … but he’s struggling to keep himself from running lovingly at anyone who is interested in him, or simply cringing in the limelight. He did his best

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His pal Figgs went to some lengths to show how it should be done .. he may have missed a vocation as a pole dancer.

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We’re hoping for the best for these guys to get a new home after Xmas. They’re all adorable … despite how they come across on camera.

Oh my goodness … is it really almost Christmas? It’s been a strange year here. Quite quiet on the rescue front for the first 6 months or so due to building work, and then ridiculously busy after that. So much so that we didn’t even notice until a couple of weeks ago that we completely forgot the Autumn Newsletter!

Summer turning into Autumn was chaotic. The kits we wrote about in the the Summer Newsletter brought in a tummy bug that affected the whole house. I’ll spare you the details other than to say that much washing was done, disinfectant was used in abundance, vet bills soared and tensions ran high. Thankfully those kits are happily settled in lovely new homes now … all but one. We gave little Sparkle as much love and care as we possibly could but in the end it wasn’t enough and her casket sits in the hearth with our other lost babies.

Sparkle xxx

Fundraising

With illness comes vet bills, and our chief fundraiser Jenny has been working amazingly hard this year. Jenny has written the following section for us describing some of the amazing work she’s been doing:

It’s been a very busy few months for the fundraising team at 8 Lives .. lots of money raised thanks to our brilliant supporters .
Huge thanks to Victoria Butterell , her “Chat Noir “ and the more recent “Chat Orange “ cards continue to be very popular. Several local shops sell them and also “The Walkley Press” on South Rd .

The 8 Lives Bags and pens are also selling well and have been posted to various parts of the country and Florida !! Yes we’ve gone transatlantic

As for our fundraising events .. the highlight of October was our fantastic fundraising evening at Rileys & co , featuring vintage singer Hattie Bee . Quite simply , she was brilliant !! What a lovely evening we all had As ever the food , cooked by Mr and Mrs Riley was delicious , we had a fun quiz , stand up-sit down bingo ( an 8 Lives favourite ) bottle tombola .. Thank you Julia and Tesco’s for the generous donations ,and a good old fashioned singalong with Hattie rounded of the successful evening. Thank you to everyone who came and also for the lovely feedback.. we really appreciate it .

Another big thank you goes to Sure Technologies Ltd who very kindly paid for us to have a stall at Norton Church Autumn Market. We had a great afternoon and made a fair few pounds for the furries ..We also met a wonderful lady -Zhany Hughes who I am delighted to say is now helping with fundraising .. watch this space for an exciting event in the new year .. hosted by Zhany !

As Christmas approaches we’ve had 4 Saturdays , doing what we do best … selling cards , reindeer poop , reindeer noses , lucky lollipop etc etc and having lots of fun and meeting people . It’s been well worth it and it means that the cats can be given the very best care before they go to their fur ever homes .

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Next year brings more fundraising events .. A new one for us is a “ non valentines “ Italian taster meal at Rileys on February 10th .. tickets for the 5 course meal cost £25 .. but wait for it … we’ve actually sold out before it was even advertised , so apologies to people who missed out on this but as I said earlier … Zhany has big plans for a Bulgarian Meal .. details will be published in the new year .. we’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile …. for those last minute presents: Bags (£4) / pens (£2) can be bought from Pet Company Cards (£2) from .. Rileys , Rounds News, Pet Company , Walkley Press. Or you can contact us directly on our facebook fundraising page

This just leaves me to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a peaceful 2018.

Jenny xx

And back to the cats

We’ve taken in a fair few since the summer, mostly stray / abandoned cats – all of them adorable to the extent you wonder how on earth anyone could leave them. People who follow us on our facebook page (non facebook people …. I think you can still follow the link to see them ) will have seen our Catdvent calendar. Each day during December we’ve featured a different cat (or cat family) that we’ve rescued this year. Most are already in their furever homes and we’ve had some lovely comments and updates from adoptive families in response to the posts. Hearing from furever families and seeing photos of our cats enjoying their new lives is what helps us keep going. People often imagine that cat rescue is all about cuddling sweet kittens … some of it is … about 2% of it maybe. Mostly its about scooping shit out of litter trays, cleaning up vomit, fitting vet appointments around the day job, worrying about funds, dealing with difficult people (NOT adopters!) and their ever shifting plans, stressing about sad and anxious cats and trying to make a difficult confusing time as good as it can be for them. Weeks and months of stress over a cat dissolve when an adopter messages to say that Fluffy (or whoever) is settling well in their new home, and generally running rings around them to get exactly what he or she wants. Often the photo they attach says it all! Here’s some of them:

summer & silas

karis

jasper

tomte

dot

bessie

basil

jojo

albie

caramel

charlie & clarre

saffia

soozi & sooki

samson & cherrie

jenson

raffles & relish

bugis

We’ve listed them more or less in order of arrival so the ones featured in the last days before Xmas are still looking for their happy ever after tails. Lilly’s family moved abroad and left her in the garden, cold and alone and wondering what on earth she’d done wrong. Mr Tiggs & Figgs had tough starts in life some years ago but found themselves a nice home. Then circumstances changed, their family had to move and the new landlord wouldn’t accept pets. The F twins had either been bred for profit or picked up off the street and sold at a ridiculous price to a lady with special needs. Either way, they’d not been handled and the poor woman couldn’t manage two terrified kittens. Weeks/months of hard work later, they’re affectionate happy young cats.