Working hard behind the scenes at Catcuddles is a skilled and dedicated team of volunteers and veterinary staff. Here are just a few of our core team members.
Mr. Cuddles, charity mascot & CFO (Chief Feline Officer)
Mr. Cuddles was the first cat rescued by charity founder Evina and is the inspiration behind the charity’s logo and name. He came into Evina’s care after a bad accident as a kitten, and has walked with a funny gait ever since. He is friendly, brave and silly, and has a reputation among volunteers for being naughty, always stealing food and getting into things he shouldn’t. Despite his advancing age and managing a long term health condition (diabetes) it hasn’t stopped him from getting into mischief.
Evina, charity founder & Head of Welfare
In the summer of 2009, Evina made a lifelong dream a reality by launching Catcuddles, a sanctuary with the ethos of offering a home-to-home environment for cats in need of rescue, rehabiliation & rehoming. In 2012, Catcuddles achieved charity status & Evina has remained the driving force behind our constantly growing organisation ever since including the opening of our veterinary practices in North London (2020) and South London (2023). Evina is an experienced and intuitive cat behaviourist and a passionate advocate for responsible cat ownership, who does not mince words when she feels a cat is at risk.
Sarah Reilly RVN, Cert CFVHNut, ISFMCertFN, NCert Dent.
Sarah joined the team as Head Nurse in November 2022. She has a background in shelter medicine nursing and holds certificates in Dentistry, Nutrition and Feline Nursing.
Sarah has a special interest in feline neonate intensive care, having hand-reared and fostered hundreds of abandoned, rejected and critically ill kittens.
Sarah is a strong advocate for fear-free practice, dedicated to promoting a feline friendly attitude. She is committed to educating others on the improvement of welfare and fostering a better understanding of cats.
She has an array of rescue animals including 2 cats (Lily and Coco), a tortoise (Paddlefoot), a turtle (Myrtle-Rose) as well as goldfish and koi.
Kasia
Kasia is superhuman - she performs several volunteer roles at Catcuddles in addition to having a full-time job, yet never seems to run out of energy. Along with her partner Seth, Kasia fosters cats year-round, regularly house-sits at CCHQ, is a daily routine volunteer and also helps out with cat-sits all over London to raise vital funds for the charity. She is always the first to offer to cover when a daily routine volunteer is sick or unable to perform their duties.
Seth
Seth became a daily routine volunteer after adopting a senior cat called Misty from Catcuddles. That was nearly ten years ago and Seth has rarely missed a day of volunteering since. Seth also fosters cats for the charity with his partner Kasia, in addition to being the proud adoptive owner of three Catcuddles’ cats, Scruffy, Earl and Gutsy. He often helps with cat sitting and as one of our few male volunteers, is the first port of call when something heavy needs lifting!
Negar
Negar, or ‘Neg’ to her friends, was a member of the Catcuddles adoptions team before taking over the charity’s Instagram account. In her capable hands, the account grows in popularity daily, and has become an invaluable tool for attracting adoption interest in Catcuddles cats, and getting the word out about our work. Like all of our volunteers, Neg is also an all-round animal lover and an ardent proponent of the proper treatment of animals.
Peter
Peter is Gowri’s partner and plays a large role in caring for the couple’s (often several) foster cats, as well as their own adopted cats; Juno, Nila, Silver and Leela, all of whom were once at Catcuddles. He is often willing to transport cats at a moment’s notice, for example taking them back and forth between CCHQ and our Palmers Green Cat Clinic. He also helps with cat-sits and fundraising events and is generally on-hand to help out in any way possible.
Sofia
Sofia joined the volunteer team at Catcuddles in the summer of 2020, and quickly assumed two key roles as an adoptions team member and a daily routine volunteer. She has plenty of experience with caring for animals, having previously volunteered for four years at a dog and cat shelter in her native country of Portugal.
Rufina
Rufina is responsible for uploading adoption profiles onto CatChat, which is an extremely useful tool for generating interest in Catcuddles cats looking for new homes. She is also the adopter of a cat who remains a volunteer favourite at CatCuddles - Nellie Noodle, who shares the limelight in the picture above.
Callum
In the spring of 2020, Callum and his partner Hannah joined the Catcuddles team as volunteer foster carers. They have since accepted a steady stream of foster cats into their home, providing them with comfort and companionship until permanent adoptive families can be found.
Ellie Baggs RVN CertECC DipAVN SQP Cert LM
Ellie came to work at Catcuddles Vets London as Practice Manager in July 2023, having spent the previous 12 years at a large multidisciplinary 1st and 2nd opinion hospital as Night Nurse and then Head Nurse.
Ellie holds a certificate in emergency and critical care nursing as well as holding an advanced diploma in medical nursing.
Despite Ellie’s transition to a managerial role, as she holds a particular interest in advanced feline imaging, emergency and critical care nursing Ellie remains passionate about staying connected with her nursing skills and supporting the veterinary team.
Out of work Ellie spends time caring for her beloved cat Joyce, spending time at her allotment and cooking!
Gowri
Gowri’s phone is always full of photos of cats (sometimes even her own) so it’s only apt that she is represented here by her pocket-sized cat Juno, who is always happy to be in the limelight (& is a former CC cat!) Gowri performs various volunteer duties to help with the running of Catcuddles. She is an adoptions team member, a social media whizz, our fostering, vet & cat-sitting coordinator and a cat fosterer herself. She has a particular soft spot for seniors (like Juno) and extra-small cats (also like Juno).
Maureen
Maureen lives in an idyllic farm house in Sussex with her husband Ray, and many senior and special needs rescue cats. She became a volunteer for Catcuddles through her involvement in Egyptian cat rescue, helping to facilitate the safe passage of cats from Egypt to the UK. She volunteers for Catcuddles remotely, from her home, and is a long-term adoptions team member, handling adoption enquiries for cats that need outdoor space.
Lucie
Lucie started as a daily routine volunteer at Catcuddles in 2022, but has been in touch with the charity since she first adopted in 2018. Since then she has given a home to two more Catcuddles cats. Lucie has a soft spot for overlooked cats, or anxious cats who need lots of love and patience to build up their trust in a home. Lucie helps out occasionally with cat sits in South East London.
Lisa
Lisa helps out at Catcuddles in numerous ways, as a foster carer, transport volunteer, and occasional trapping and rescue volunteer. Over the years, she has spent hundreds of hours on cat trapping ‘stake outs’, but never grumbles about waiting around in the cold. She is the mother of fellow volunteer Rae and is also heavily involved in wildlife rescue work, as well as caring for numerous rescue animals at home, including disabled cats and a feisty chicken!
Liz
Liz is a daily routine volunteer at CCHQ and a Catcuddles foster carer. She started out fostering on an emergency basis, but slowly evolved into a regular foster carer who specialises in litters of kittens and their mums. She and her husband Les have provided a safe place for countless kittens over the years, including many who’ve been born outside and have never before known the comfort of a home, or had any interaction with humans.
Gavin
Gavin is another long-term team member at Catcuddles. He was a daily routine volunteer for many years and in the days before our Cat Clinic, did weekly vaccination runs to our collaborating vets. As a talented photographer, his cat portraits, taken during the daily routine, were legendary among volunteers & supporters alike. These days, he lends his skills in IT, electrics & technology wherever needed. He has a fondness for torties.
Josephine
Josephine is a Catcuddles veteran, one of our longest serving volunteers. A former daily routine volunteer, she now helps out at fundraising events, covers the occasional cat-sit, and generally is on hand to help in any way possible.
Samantha Aronson BVSc MRCVS
Sam is one of our beloved regular locum vets at Catcuddles Vets London. Originally from South Africa, Sam graduated in 2017 and made her way over to the UK in 2020. Since graduating, Sam has practiced in a variety of mixed small animal first opinion practices, but cats are most certainly her favourite species to work with! Sam loves helping at Catcuddles Vets whenever she can, providing caring and affordable healthcare for our feline friends and their lovely human caregivers.
Sam has a special interest in holistic healthcare and has completed numerous veterinary acupuncture courses. Sam is currently in the process of completing her qualification to become a licensed human acupuncturist as well! Sam has a strong belief in the philosophy of “one health” and the interconnectedness of humans, the animals and their shared environment.
In her spare time Sam enjoys reading, yoga, horse riding and walking her dog.
Lorna
Lorna is our longest serving daily routine volunteer, which means that she is responsible for feeding, cleaning and socialising the cats at CCHQ in SE2 once per week. With an animal care qualification from Capel Manor College, Lorna is as capable as she is dedicated and reliable. Lorna was a key member of our first team at our North London veterinary practice performing reception duties.
Rae
Rae has been a volunteer for almost ten years, & has been involved in various aspects of the day-to-day running of Catcuddles during that time. She currently helps out with the daily routine at CCHQ, cat trapping & rescue work, and fosters ‘difficult’ cats like semi-feral kittens. Rae runs her own wildlife rescue group, the Greenwich Wildlife Network, and in addition to working with animals, is a free-lance writer who assists with content creation for our website.
Angelika
Angelika has been with the charity for a number of years, first as a daily routine volunteer and then as a volunteer coordinator, a role that sees her recruiting new volunteers and overseeing the daily routine volunteer rota. She shares her home with Catcuddles cat Nyssa and has also assisted with the occasional rescue operation, in addition to trapping several stray cats in her area for neutering and rehoming at CatCuddles.
Hannah
After adopting two rescue felines, Hannah and her partner Callum were inspired to help other cats still looking for their forever homes. They became foster carers for Catcuddles in the Spring of 2020, and have provided a loving home environment to a number of foster cats since then. Hannah is a member of the adoptions team and also helps with cat-sits.
Cheryl
Cheryl is a Daily Routine Volunteer who has been with CatCuddles for several years, and who also often works alongside Liz. She is represented here by her cats Charlie & Kyla. It was at Catcuddles that Cheryl met her third cat, Mary, who had been transported from Egypt to CCHQ due to better adoption prospects in the UK. With three legs and irritable bowel syndrome, Mary needed a very understanding home, and found exactly that in kind-hearted Cheryl.
Berenice
Berenice started as a Daily Routine Volunteer at Catcuddles in early 2021. A lifelong lover of cats, she currently shares her home with Ollie & Roxie. She enjoys caring for the cats at CCHQ who are patiently waiting to find their forever homes.
Berenice learnt to knit during lockdown and is now often found knitting catnip toys available at local events and through our Facebook fundraising group for the discerning kitties of supporters, all in aid of Catcuddles.
Sara
Like the majority of Catcuddles volunteers, Sara is the proud adoptive parent of former Catcuddles cats. She helps out with cat-sitting in the North London area, a vital source of donations for the charity, and has also been involved in several rescue operations over her many years as a volunteer.