The Cats Whiskers working hard to find Alloa's cats a home

According to Cats Protection, there are around 11 million pet cats in the UK, and around 26 per cent of households have a feline companion.

Sadly, though, not every cat has a loving home to call their own, and rising vet bills and the cost of living crisis has not made it any easier for people to afford to keep their beloved pets in their homes.  

An estimated 250,000 animals go to rescue centres each year, where they hope to find new loving families.

The Cats Whiskers, which has a shop in Alva and a shelter on Alloa’s Broad Street, has numerous cats that they are currently looking for loving homes.

With 52 volunteers who help out at their shop and shelter, the cats in their care get plenty of social interaction with humans while they await their forever home.

One current shelter resident, Monty, is receiving help from The Cats Whiskers. As previously reported in the Advertiser, Monty was found at a farm in Slamannan, and he was malnourished and unchipped.

Angelo and Roxy are looking for a home together. (Image: Alexandra Baff)

Donna Hingley, trustee for The Cats Whiskers, said: “He’s doing fine, he’s putting on a bit of weight, he is eating like a horse and he’s quite cuddly, quite friendly, he’s definitely been somebody’s cat. We’ll hopefully get him in next week at the vets and he’ll go under general anaesthetic and that’ll let us know where we are.”

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Due to Monty’s various health issues, Donna thinks that someone might have had to give him up due to the cost of his treatments.

“He’s nicked everybody’s heart that one… The only concern I’ve got for the people that have had him, is that they miss him so much, but they’re so frightened of the vet bill that they don’t want to come forward.

"It’s not an issue, just come forward, we’ll sort him out. I would rather he was back in his house, and we support him anywhere we can going forwards, for whatever time he’s got left. I hope it’s a long time but it’s up to the owners, but he’s definitely somebody’s cat, definitely.”

In a survey, 86 per cent of pet owners told the PDSA that the cost of owning their pet had increased, with 33 per cent saying that the cost of their animal companion was more expensive than they expected it to be.

The current longest resident at the shelter is Kiri, who is 12 years old and has been an indoor cat and will rub around your legs for some affection. The shelter’s longest ever resident was Luna, who stayed with them for around five months.

Donna commented: “This is a stopgap for them. Luna was our longest stay, I think she was about five months and the side of Luna that we saw is not the side of Luna that her family actually see, it’s amazing, the change in that cat.

"That’s why I say, shelters, they’re a great stopgap, but they’re not for years for animals… I think with Luna we were getting to a stage where we thought, oh god, we’ve got our first shelter cat, how do we do this?”

The shelter is currently based in an old garage on Broad Street, which they officially opened on October 1, 2023. The shelter is fully licensed by Clackmannanshire Council and a lot of work has gone into the building to make it suitable for the cats.

Described by Donna as “a labour of love”, the building had a cat kitchen put in, as well as a kitchen for the volunteers, and the electrics and plumbing done professionally. Cats Whiskers has received a lot of support in obtaining and improving the building.

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Social Investment Scotland awarded the charity £150,000, to which The Cats Whiskers added £50,000 in order to be able to purchase the building. Pets Foundation also awarded the shelter £80,500 in August 2022 which got 11 cat pens and safety flooring. Then in November 2023, Pets Foundation gave them £30,000 for a vet and isolation room, and to regenerate the land at the rear of the shelter.

Monty sitting at his little window. (Image: Alexandra Baff)

Speaking of Pets Foundation, Donna added: “They have just been a blessing quite honestly, and then Social Investment Scotland, for them coming up and actually giving us the funding for buying it, has been a huge difference. But it’s not just a here’s the money get on with it, it’s actually a mortgage loan type of thing that we have, and the charity is actually paying that money back.”

There are also plans to create a memorial garden at the back of the shelter.

Donna said: “This June, July, I’m hoping we’ll be sitting in the backyard.”

The Cats Whiskers networks with other charities and groups. If the charity receives donations that it isn’t able to use, it will pass them on to one of the charities it has networked with such as Home Start to make sure all donations are used to their full potential and go to those who will benefit from them the most.

The cats are at the centre of everything the charity does.

“The cats are at the heart of it, and I think sometimes that now in animal welfare, that’s getting lost," said Donna. "It’s not the animals that are at the heart of it anymore, it’s really not, it’s becoming pound signs. It really is, it’s becoming pound signs.

“You know, we’re all sitting with waiting lists of cats that come into these spaces. We can’t get the cats in this country sorted out, because we’ve got this huge crisis of people saying I can’t afford the vet bills, I can’t afford £5 for a box of cat food. Before Covid you were paying about £2.25 for a box of Felix, now they’re paying £5.50 for it! It’s crazy. How’s this going to come out of everybody’s purses? It can’t. And we don’t charge a lot for the adoption fee, it doesn’t cover our costs.”

The effect of the cost of living crisis and rising vet bills has massively impacted people’s ability to look after their pets, but Donna is optimistic that the work that The Cats Whiskers does will continue and that the cats will get the help they need.

“I never thought I’d be living through the days that we had human foodbanks, and animal foodbanks.

“The need is there for them, and it just astounds me that that need is there, absolutely astounding. It’s part of the reason why I come down here every day and I just sit, and I think, no this place will survive.

"Yes, we’ve got a mortgage, we’ve got it for fifteen years, it’ll get paid and the cats will be helped. And every single one of the volunteers feels exactly the same.”