Why we tell you to keep cats in for at least two weeks after adoption

Cats are not like dogs (which is probably not news to most people). A settled group of cats will recognise one another and bond socially, but they do not roam around together like a wolf-pack. Individual cats will leave the group's resting area to hunt singly, and, if something traumatic (like noisy fireworks) makes the group scatter and run they will re-group by returning to their familiar area. They get to know where there are safe hiding places and will run for them in case of danger.

By initially confining a new cat in one room, until confidently eating, using a litter tray etc., then allowing her to explore the house, and only letting her outdoors after several weeks have elapsed, you are establishing that your home is the safe core area where your group lives. This means your cat's instinctive reaction will be to attempt to flee indoors if anything outside startles her. If something prevents her from entering the house, her instinct will be to hide reasonably close at hand, rather than running away. Once the house is accepted as home, a normal adult cat will cautiously explore the surrounding area and won't get lost. A cat who is released before the house is seen as home, will tend to wander seeking familiar surroundings and will get lost (or return to their previous home).

This is why "indoor only" cats who accidentally get out can usually be retrieved without too much trouble (because they hide close by) and why cats who escape during holidays or trips to the vet really are lost.

Bit of good news for a change

Delighted to hear that the Rabbit Residence has had its planning permission renewed for another year. Everyone who volunteers there will still need to be cautious to avoid noise, obstructing driveways etc. as permission might not be renewed in 2010 if the local residents can prove the rescue is causing a nuisance to them, but it's a great relief.

Improving our fund-raising in 2009

We urgently need to increase our fundraising. If we had not received a substantial legacy last year, we would have been in very serious trouble — and we cannot expect a similar windfall this year. 

Last year's legacy will see us through 2009, but we will then have to start cutting back our services unless we can scale up our fund-raising efforts.

If we can succeed in opening a shop in a busier part of Cambridge that will help, but we cannot hope to do this instantly, and it will take time for sales to build up, even if the general economic climate picks up.

One way in which we can make more money without any extra setting up costs is to increase the amount of textiles which we sell on for recycling. Prices per ton are now actually higher than they were this time last year, and the recyclers will take even worn or damaged clothes in order to recover their fibre content. 

If you live near to either of the shops (188 Mill Road, Cambridge or 156 High Street, Newmarket) and are thinking of clearing out your old clothes, please don't throw them out with the rubbish. 

Providing they are clean (so they're not unpleasant for our volunteers to sort), we can use almost all textiles, including curtains, sheets etc, but not duvets or carpet. 

Cash flow figures for 2008

Just finished the spreadsheet of the accounts for 2008. The final figures in the branch Annual Report will be a bit different because these are adjusted for money owed by us (e.g. invoices for work done during the year not sent until the following month) or to us (e.g. VAT rebates not yet received). However the "raw" cash flow figures give an impression of the financial situation:

Total income: £378,880

Total expenditure: £242,877

Of this, £66,549 was spent on running the animal clinic, £40,515 on veterinary treatments at private vets and £33,237 on boarding animals until they could be rehomed. £61,860 was the overheads of running our three shops (including rent, rates and staff wages). 

Shop profits suffered a drastic fall to just a tenth of the amount we made in 2007. Considering the terrible general state of retail sales, we may have been lucky not to have actually made a loss.

On encouraging people to get their pets neutered

This topic can become very heated, as some people feel the problem of homeless pets is so serious that we should simply refuse help with the cost of veterinary treatment to anyone who lets their animals breed. Others would like to see us offer universal free neutering; or campaign for legislation to enforce neutering; or refuse to work with any person or organisation involved with pet breeding. 

One possibility would be to follow the stance of the Dogs Trust scheme for dogs belonging to homeless people. This scheme does not pay for any costs associated with whelping or pregnancy and requires owners to get their pets neutered within a set length of time after registration for help with veterinary treatment. The trouble with this is that it's not an awful lot of help to the pet who's brought to us already in labour. In fact, like mandatory spay/neuter programs in other countries, it falls down because any sanctions for non-compliance are quite likely to hit the pet much harder than the owner. 

In practice, we do the best we can. We offer low-cost spay/neuter at our clinic and by voucher at private vets. We won't help with the cost of vaccinating litters of puppies which are clearly going to be sold on, as that's just increasing the potential profit per puppy and encouraging the owner to breed another litter. 

RSPCA Week 2009

Once again Tesco stores have kindly given us permission to collect outside their main stores during RSPCA week, which this year will run from 27th April to 3rd of May.

We need as many collectors as possible to get maximum benefit from this opportunity, and this year it will be particularly important because of the generally gloomy outlook for fund-raising.

In past years the public have been very generous—this is not one of those events where you go home thinking it would have been quicker and easier to stick a tenner in your own tin and go home to put your feet up. Even a few hours collecting typically raises a useful amount, and is all money we otherwise would not have had.

If you might be able to help, please email rosemary@rspca-cambridge.org.uk 

It would be helpful to know approximate numbers as soon as possible as we need to order tins, badges etc.

The map below shows approximate locations of the stores in our branch area.


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National Rabbit Week 24-30 January 2009

See the National Rabbit Week website for more information.

Staffy neutering campaign

David Grant, of Animal Hospital fame, is profiled in the Independent today.

In my opinion, the root cause of most of these cases seems to be the worrying trend towards owning these dogs as accessories, and as weapons. Because of the demand for certain types of dogs for such purposes – primarily on inner-city housing estates – there has been a huge increase in dog breeding for undeclared profit. As a result, we are seeing a lot of puppies who are diseased due to poor breeding. The number of dogs being dumped is at an all-time high, and Battersea Dogs' Home can no longer take in Staff-type dogs. The problem is seriously out of control.

Fortunately, in our more rural area, things haven't reached this pitch, but there's still a huge problem of irresponsible breeding of Staffordshire and other bull terrier dogs.

And, of course the puppy with parvo died

Just had the bill for last weekend's rottie puppy - euthanasia and cremation.

PLEASE, if you take on a puppy or a rabbit: get them vaccinated. You wouldn't think it was OK not to feed them, "because I can't afford it."

If you live within our branch area and are on state benefits (including working tax credit, but not child credit on its own), you can get your pet vaccinated at our animal clinic at the reduced rate of £18 (cat or dog) or £7 rabbit.

More rabbit woe

Two weeks into 2009 and Caroline has already taken in fifteen rabbits, homeless for a variety of reasons. 

Owner emigrating (5), moving into rented accommodation where no pets allowed (5), child lost interest (2), owner died of heroin overdose (3). 

Unfortunately it seems bunnies are not exempt from the effects of the current state of society.
On the bright side she has eleven booked to go out, so at least there is some movement on the rehoming front.

Caroline urgently needs more committed volunteers to help with caring for the rabbits. Even a few hours each week would be helpful—for example it would free her to do other things if she had some volunteers able to take over the job of shutting the rabbits in for the night occasionally.

If you might be interested, please email rabbit_residence@hotmail.com

Due to planning restrictions on the field where the rabbits are kept, volunteers need to be prepared to park some distance away and walk down the private road that leads there, and also to keep noise to a minimum.

Coming up in April

Region East will shortly be launching a campaign to encourage owners of "bull breed dogs" (i.e. mainly Staffordshire bull terriers, but also English bull terriers, American bulldogs etc.) to get their pets neutered.

Each branch in Region East will be supported by up to £1,000 matched funding from the Regional Fund. This will be in addition to the normal low-cost spay/neuter we offer for dogs belonging to owners on state benefits and will probably be free to owners registered with one of the local homeless charities. Owners on benefits, but not homeless will be expected to pay part of the cost, but less than we ask for other breeds.

The campaign will aim to educate owners about the large numbers of bull terriers we are asked to take in each year, and the need to reduce irresponsible breeding, but also to promote the image of well-trained, properly cared for staffies as wonderful companions in the right situation. 

Please spread the word by sharing the "staffy neutering" widget. Click "menu", then "share this widget" and copy the code to paste it into your own myspace page, blog etc.

Cat updates

Gizmo, our longest-staying cat, is booked to go to a home this weekend.

Joshua's various fracture repairs went well and he's due to go out to a foster home (with a view to permanent adoption if he gets on with the resident cats) today.

I picked up Sox yesterday evening and Janine's fostering him for a few days, and has a possible permanent home lined up.

Unfortunately Santa's collar wound has been giving some problems and the vets are planning to do another surgical repair once they get back the results of a bacterial culture of the infection. If these are OK, he'll have a graft from the fatty tissue near his gut to provide a basis for blood vessels to supply the (hopefully) now healthy skin flaps. This sounds pretty drastic, but generally does result in proper healing although it does leave the cat with a palpable lump in the area where the surgery was done, so a future owner needs to be warned that it's not a tumour.

Animal Welfare Statistics for 2008

Just finished the spreadsheet for 2008. During the year, RSPCA Cambridge rehomed a total of 190 animals, neutered 277 animals and provided 4,069 veterinary treatments (some animals had more than one treatment, so this represents less than 4,000 individual animals).

Rehoming email address

Apologies - there is a problem with the rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk address at the moment. If you email rspcacambridge@aol.com that will work. There's a problem with the redirect from our email domain to AOL, but using the direct address will work.

Interested in becoming an RSPCA trustee?

Would you like to use your skills and experience in becoming one of the RSPCA's charity trustees? The Council discusses plans for the RSPCA and makes the decisions that will affect how the RSPCA deals with animal issues in the future.

The RSPCA Council comprises up to 25 volunteers elected to serve as the charity trustees of the Society.

Fifteen national Council members are elected by the votes of the whole RSPCA membership and serve for three years, retiring on a rotational basis... [read more on the National RSPCA website]

RSPCA branches are also directed by trustee bodies: each branch elects a minimum of seven and a maximum of fourteen committee members at its Annual General Meeting each year. Branch trustees normally play a more "hands on" rôle than members of the RSPCA Council, because branches rely less on employed staff, so the committee members are responsible for carrying out the board's decisions as well as making them in the first place.

To stand for election to the committee of your local branch you need to be an adult member of the society of at least three months standing at the time of the AGM, and to have been nominated by two other adult branch members. It is important that committee members are "team players" and willing to learn. Most people will have their own particular areas of interest, such as pet rehoming, veterinary treatment or campaigns, but it is important that everyone is prepared to take a balanced view and accept that all aspects of branch activities are important in fostering animal welfare locally.

If you might be interested in standing for the Cambridge branch committee at our next AGM, please email secretary@rspca-cambridge.org.uk. If you're not already a member of the Society, you will need to apply to join, and you can do this online using the link at the side of this blog.

Another vomiting puppy

Yet another owner with no money and a 10 month old rottweiler puppy, "rescued" from someone else, and never vaccinated. Puppy has had vomiting and diarrhoea for three days, and the diarrhoea now has lots of blood in it.

I've agreed that we'll cover the cost of an initial consultation, but it doesn't look good.

Holiday planning

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Evictions

I hope this morning's call from someone who is due to be evicted from her home and needs to find somewhere for her animals is not the first sign of an avalanche. We've already noticed that the rate of rehoming seems to be slowing as people think twice before taking on new commitments. If this is accompanied by significantly increased numbers of emergency requests to take in animals, then we are looking at real trouble.

We always need more volunteers willing to foster animals (mostly cats, but some dogs and smaller animals too). If you might be interested, please email rspcacambridge@aol.com. 

We will reimburse costs for pet food, litter etc. to fosterers. 

Rabbit Residence featured in Cambridge Evening News

Cambridge Evening News's video section has a piece on Rabbit Residence. Good write-up and very cute video of groups of bunnies hopping about in the snow.

If you might be interested in adopting a pair of rabbits from Caroline, please email her at rabbit_residence@hotmail.com

Progress report on new charity shop

Not an awful lot, I'm afraid. We are trying to purchase the remainder (5 years to run) of the lease of a shop on Burleigh street. This is turning out to be more complicated than we had thought, because this is an underlease (from Coral, the bookmakers), who in turn lease the shop from the Prudential Insurance, the freeholders. Because so many entities are involved, all of them need to agree before a final lease agreement can be signed—and we need to be satisfied that we aren't risking branch funds by making ourselves liable for unexpected costs.

Renting commercial property is rather different from renting a house or flat to live in because the landlord isn't normally the one who pays for any repairs—these are either done and paid for by the tenant directly or else the landlord does the repairs and charges the tenant. It's also different from buying a house leasehold, because a shop lease is basically just an agreement to pay rent for a certain number of years—the only "resale" value it has is the worth of any fittings put in by the previous tenant. So we have to take advice from a local surveyor about the value of the fittings and the probable cost of repairs during the term of the lease, and what we will need to spend at the end of the lease in order to return the unit to the condition it was in when Coral originally took it out. 

We also have to get confirmation from the ultimate landlord (the Pru) of the rent they will be charging. This is what we're waiting for at the moment, as we daren't take on the shop without knowing for certain what the rent is going to be over the next five years. 

We do know the current rent (we are not completely daft), but the sticking point is that this rent was due for review in February 2008. At that point shop rentable values were still fairly high in Cambridge, and it would be legitimate for the landlord to set the rent at an amount which would have been fair a year ago (i.e. more than the current value, and more than we could afford to pay in the current conditions).