16th September 2007: Some very sad news for you all. Any visitors to the centre over the years will have met the wonderful dog Jack who lived here, we are sorry to say he is now no longer with us. He was 15 and 1/2 years old and unfortunately not everything was working as it should. He had a fantastic life and got a lot of love from anyone and everyone who met him!

He had a great last day and had chicken and bacon for his breakfast and lots of love and cuddles. We all have our own special memories of him, one things for sure, he won't be forgotten but he'll be dearly missed. 

15 April 2007: The sunshine has brought on new kittens!

Due to the recent sunshine we urgently need foster carers to look after kittens/cats. 
During kitten season, litters of kittens with their mums are looked after by fosterers until the kittens are old enough to be homed.

Skills & experience required: Some experience with cats is required although support and information is available from the Centre staff.

A suitable home environment: Foster cats are not allowed outside therefore your home must be safe and secure for the cat/s, they will need space for food & water, scratching post, litter tray, somewhere to sleep and room to play. 

Patience, calm and gentleness: Some cats from the centre have had a rough time and need to be reassured that they are staying in a safe and quiet place before coming out of their shells and being friendly and affectionate with people.

Time commitment: Fostering assignments can last anything from two weeks to 3 months. Centre staff will always try and assign you a foster cat according to your needs and commitments. Obviously, if at any time it isn’t working out or you go away on holiday, the Centre will take the foster cat back.  It is perfectly acceptable to work during the day but we ask our fosterers to commit to spending time with the foster cat in the evenings and at weekends.

We are looking for people with a commitment to supporting our work on an ongoing basis and hope to build up a lasting relationship with all our volunteers. You will also need your own transport or be willing to pay for regular taxi's. 

Please call into the centre or telephone to enquire about fostering.

18 February 2007: We urgently need volunteers to help with the website!

Could you give a couple of hours every month to help cats find new homes? We need people to take photos and update the website. You don't need any technical skills - it's all very simple and we'll give you full training and support. We usually update the website on Sunday afternoons and it only takes a couple of hours (depending on how long you spend with the cats when you take the pictures!). Send us an email if you're interested and would like to find out more. Thank you!

29 October 2006: Wanted - Handyman!

Are you a dab hand with a paintbrush? Do you own a drill? Can you do wonders with wood? We're looking for a reliable handyman to do jobs around the Centre as and when needed, someone we can get to know and use regularly.

Rate: £7.35 per hour (salary, not cash).

If you're interested, or know someone who might be, please write to Katherine Rogers (manager) at the Centre:

Cats Protection
135 Junction Road
Archway
N19 5PX

20 August 2006: Fostering Weblog

Two of our volunteer fosters have set-up a weblog about what it's like to be a cat fosterer, and posting pictures of the cats they look after. You can view the weblog at http://cat-fostering.blogspot.com

Last week, a man came into the Centre asking if we could look after his sister's four cats and their kittens. He then unzipped a suitcase he had with him, which contained the cats, and three kittens in a shoebox. The cats were exhausted from the heat, soaked in sweat, virtually dead and mouth-breathing (a very bad sign). It took the Centre staff a very long time to cool the cats down and it's a miracle they all survived. Unfortunately, the following day Chai gave birth to a stillborn kitten, hardly surprising given the trauma of the day before. 

The cats and kittens are all now doing well, although they are all extremely small; it's hard to believe that such small cats could be allowed to get pregnant and they have been pregnant several times each already - please remember that it is very important to get your cats neutered. We have also reported the previous owners to the RSPCA for animal cruelty.

Tinkerbell and Portia have gone to a new home with their kittens, and we would like to thank the lady who directed the previous owner to the Centre, and helped with the cats when they came in. We would be delighted to see her again and thank her in person - Chai and Tulip are still here and she can see how well they are doing now. 

16 July 2006: we urgently need volunteers for fostering!

Taking cats and/or kittens into your own home to look after them for a period of time prior to them being homed. During kitten season, litters of kittens with their mums are looked after by fosterers until the kittens are old enough to be homed.

Skills & experience required: Some experience with cats is required although support and information is available from the Centre staff.

A suitable home environment: Foster cats are not allowed outside therefore your home must be safe and secure for the cat/s, they will need space for food & water, scratching post, litter tray, somewhere to sleep and room to play. 

Patience, calm and gentleness: Some cats from the centre have had a rough time and need to be reassured that they are staying in a safe and quiet place before coming out of their shells and being friendly and affectionate with people.

Time commitment: Fostering assignments can last anything from two weeks to 3 months. Centre staff will always try and assign you a foster cat according to your needs and commitments. Obviously, if at any time it isn’t working out or you go away on holiday, the Centre will take the foster cat back.  It is perfectly acceptable to work during the day but we ask our fosterers to commit to spending time with the foster cat in the evenings and at weekends.

We are looking for people with a commitment to supporting our work on an ongoing basis and hope to build up a lasting relationship with all our volunteers. 

14 May 2006: there a couple of new ways to get involved in your local Adoption Centre.

Pet Gallery: we'd like to invite you to participate in our new Pet Gallery. Every week we will be exhibiting new photographs of pets that we receive from the public in our front window. Do you have a picture of your cat being silly, playful, cuddly, sleepy, inquisitive, adventurous or just out of the ordinary? We'd like you to share them! Please stick your photo onto a piece of coloured paper so everyone can see your pet more clearly, and please write your pet's name beside the photo. The most creative will be chosen as the Pet of the Week! When sending in your photo, please include a £1 donation which will help this charity assist cats in need.

Raffle: Cats Protection is raffling off a cat starter package including the following:

• Pet Carrier
• Litter Tray
• Cat Mate Automatic Feeder
• A food and water bowl
• 'Felix' brand wet food packets in various flavours
• Wind -up toy mouse

Ticket sales will start 21 May 2006 and a winner will be drawn on 4 June 2006. Visit us in the Centre for more details.

18 September 2005: our day out at the Gillespie Park Festival last week went wonderfully - thank you to everyone who baked goodies for us to sell; we're sure you'll be pleased to know that they all went! We took £400 so all in all it was an excellent day. Rosie, who's fast becoming the Centre's unofficial mascot, was there as well and enjoyed all the attention enormously!

28 August 2005: You know how every now and again there's a story in the papers about someone having an x-ray and finding a crayon lodged in their head from childhood? Well it doesn't just happen to people... Mitzy came into the centre for rehoming a couple of weeks ago and what should we discover but a sewing needle stuck in her head! This is the actual x-ray showing it stuck in her throat and mouth - it had been there for some time without the owner knowing because the needle had actually got quite rusty (yuck). Thankfully the needle's now been removed and Mitzy has a new home to go to.

17 July 2005: Do you remember Rosie, from our Special Cats page?

She'd been at the Centre for months, because we were looking for the perfect home for her.

She couldn't walk very well and needed these wheels to get around (thank you again, Eddie's Wheels, for donating them!) Rosie's now found a lovely new home, and you can read about it in her success story.

3 April 2005: Did you think we were all about cats? Well we're turning into something of a baby centre as well (we think there's something in the water). You might have met Phil on a home visit or if you've come to the centre during the week.

His daughter Lily just celebrated her 1st birthday (on April Fool's Day!), and she is with one of our extra special cats, Griffid.

27 March 2005: Our cats need some stroking! Could you volunteer to help us keep our cats happy during their stay with us by stroking, grooming & playing with them?

We need to make sure our cats keep in regular contact with people and get love and attention. Happy cats find homes quicker. For more information click here to go to our volunteers page. 

13 March 2005: Baby time again!

If you've ever come in to see us and the cats, you've probably met Sara. As we reported earlier, she gave birth on 5 February to a massive baby girl, Bethan, and here's the proud new family themselves!

6 March 2005: Special cats alert! We specialise here in happy, friendly cats that can fit into our family quite easily, but occasionally we get some pusses in who, through no fault of their own, might need a bit more attention and patience than others; they might be a little bit poorly, or perhaps they've been treated badly in the past.

So we've dedicated a special page to these special cats. Could they take a special place in your life?

20 February 2005:CHIP YOUR CAT & GET IT BACK!! An emotional reunion took place at the centre this week thanks to an Identichip. Woody the cat had been missing from Barnet for 18 months. He was picked up as a stray in Highgate last week and brought into the centre. All cats that come into the centre are scanned for chips and so Woody was immediately identified and a call placed to his owner Richard who rushed over to be reunited with his wandering feline.

Woody's sister Willow was equally delighted to have him back if a bit bemused about where he's been! It just goes to show that chipping really works SO chip your cat and get it back. Read more about lost & stray cats by clicking here.

28 January 2005: Here's a fab photo of our Christmas Compo winner, Bethany on her visit to the centre in early January.

Thanks again to Bethany and all the kids who entered our competition. We loved your drawings!

23 January 2005: We've started a new page for our stray cats. Sometimes people bring us cats and we know nothing about them, so we don't try and rehome them for at least two weeks in case their previous owners are looking for them. You can see them here. If they're not claimed, these cats will be ready to go to a good new home by the date stated. 

11 September 2004: Filing room only! The Centre has been so busy in the last week that we have had to resort to filing cats in the office! Only joking; this little cat was put in the office for safekeeping while its pen was cleaned and filed itself away in a quiet corner - so quiet that staff couldn't work out where he was until someone sat down at the computer and found themselves eyeball to eyeball!

10 September 2004: SUPERMUM! The Centre has seen a string of stray motherless kittens come through its doors in the last few weeks and was having quite a job keeping up trying to handfeed and clean all the little ones. Fortunately, Cinders, a beautiful white female, came to our rescue. Staff noticed that she had been a mother recently and had some milk and tried putting one of the kittens with her. She took to mothering the kit so enthusiastically that they tried a couple more. Now Cinders is mothering ELEVEN kits and appears to be blossoming with so much to keep her busy. We did our best with the photos but eleven kits are pretty difficult to sit still (note the kit in the next door pen - left - looking on interestedly!)