Why CatCuddles Won't be Beaten By the Covid-19 Crisis: An Update
An Update on Our Activities During the Pandemic
It is a difficult time for the world, and among those hit hard by the current crisis are animal rescue centres.
All of the essential functions of rescue organisations have been impacted by the pandemic: adoptions, hands-on rescue work, rehoming, vet visits, fundraising. For no-kill charities dependent entirely on public donations such as CatCuddles, securing enough funds is a battle even in times of non-crisis. Now, it poses a greater challenge than ever.
Despite this, we’d like to reassure our supporters - the people for whom the charity simply could not survive without - that although this is a tough time, we’re still here, and we’re still working to better the lives of cats. This is the case even though the pandemic has struck at an absolutely pivotal moment for the charity, just as we were preparing for the launch of our new North London vet clinic, having recently welcomed a fantastic vet and vet nurse to the team.
This clinic will provide affordable, high-quality vet care to the cats who need it most. It will enable us to neuter many more and thus fight back against feline overpopulation and the terrible suffering it causes. It will also include a rehoming hub which will double the number of cats we are able to place in loving homes each year. In short, it will expand our reach massively and it will save lives.
Getting to this final stage has been a long, arduous process for the charity. At times it seemed an insurmountable goal, and now to be within a few steps of the finish line and be faced with so many new obstacles is a blow. But it’s not one that we will be beaten by. We have launched our Final Leap Fundraiser so that we can buy essential equipment for the clinic, and maintain our new staff’s place on the team. Finding the right, charity-minded people for such a project is no easy feat, and we do not want to lose them.
You can donate to help us do that here.
In terms of our regular activities, we are continuing to take cats into our care for rehoming, however under the proviso of no-contact hand over of the cats.
Some of those cats continue to be fed, cleaned, and socialised by volunteers at our SE2 hub, but with just one volunteer working per day. More vulnerable volunteers have opted to stay home for their own safety, and others have stepped in to fill in those gaps. The hygiene and cross-infection standards at CatCuddles have always been far more thorough and extensive than average, but now we have heightened them even more, with volunteers wearing gloves, frequently washing those gloves, and disinfecting high-contact areas & surfaces at the start and end of the routine. They’ve also stopped kissing the cats - a considerable sacrifice!
Our fosterers continue to care for cats in their homes, with all updates on their health and wellbeing done remotely. Vet visits now consist only of the essential, and our collaborating vets have been heroic in their efforts to see patients who cannot wait for treatment.
Most importantly, we’re continuing to find loving new homes for cats, under carefully revised conditions. Our adoptions team, now working entirely remotely, have extensive conversations with any prospective adopters, and conduct a home visit by video. The adopters are then invited to foster the cats for a period, to ensure there are no issues and the home is a good fit, before signing an adoption agreement. The Association for Dog and Cat Homes recently issued advice for rescue centres on how to continue providing essential services, and this process is in line with what they suggest. It seems we’ve been ahead of the curve.
This is all possible thanks to the tenacity and dedication of our Head of Welfare, volunteers, collaborating vets, and new veterinary team. It is also all possible because of you: your support and your donations are the lifeblood of the charity, and as long as you continue to offer them, we will continue to be here for cats.
Follow our social media pages in the next few weeks for some #pawsitivepics of the work we continue to do, which we hope will help spread some happiness at this dark time - because the only way through this is forward. Here's the first of many: charity mascot Mr. Cuddles enjoying a sunny day at CatCuddles HQ.
