Blog

When dreams really do come true!

After a very busy and wet Saturday our team at Woodlands Animal Sanctuary could give ourselves a very well deserved pat on the back as the move into our new cattery was completed and we could start to live the dream!

It was all hands on deck as our staff and trustees donned our face masks and accomplished the mammoth feat of sorting & moving more than 15 years’ worth of equipment from our old cattery to our new one, not to mention the 49 cats and kittens into their new apartments, lodges and suites.

But apart from the great British weather, the weekend went very smoothly & it is all credit to Vickie and the team that it did so.  So now marks a new chapter for our charity and one that no-one really dared to dream about, due to the costs that were involved.  As a fairly small, independent charity, we at Woodlands have to raise all of our running costs ourselves and this can run around the £3000.00 a week mark, which in itself is a fantastic feat and did not leave much room to find an extra £200,000.00 plus for a much needed new cattery. Our original cattery, which was insitu and in use even before the birth of Woodlands 15 years ago, could tell many an emotional and triumphant a story however, it was also becoming very tired and had become unable to deal with some of the more extremes of weather that we have experienced recently, meaning some pens became un-usable – which meant the our rescue wasn’t able to help the number of cats we would normally do.

Fast forward to July 2019 and Woodlands’ fairy god mother in the form of Support Adoption for Pets, visited our team to award us the biggest grant they have given so far, to our team, which meant we were able to begin to seriously plan for this new cattery.  In true acceptance speech style, it would take too long and we would be too worried about missing someone out be too able to do a comprehensive thank you list.  But without a shadow of a doubt Support Adoption for Pets enabled the project to be anything more than a pipe dream, Pedigree Pens were superb both with their design support and their construction team who seemingly achieved the impossible and errected the whole shelter, with help from Advanced Cladding Solutions Ltd for the roof within 3 weeks!! Vickie, one of the charity’s trustees and the operations manager for the rescue has put in an immeasurable number of hours throughout the whole process to ensure the end result is as perfect and user friendly as possible.  The whole board of trustees have made many, many decisions from start to finish about the project, the dedicated team of staff have also been involved in the planning process, given that they will be the ones spending their time in there & the local construction team who prepared the site, did the unpredictable groundworks as well as the landscaping around the new build.  

It really has been a team effort and every single person who has been involved has made a difference and given this animal rescue the lifeline they needed to look to the future, with facilities suitable for the work they want to do and for that they are eternally grateful. 

The team are looking forwards to welcoming Support Adoption for Pets back later this week to show them exactly what their money has created.

You may have seen that we have released a wish list of items which we wanted to buy for the new cattery.  And many of our supporters have put their hand in their pocket and helped us to equip this new facility with the best equipment we could and so to everyone who has supported us from their own home, especially during lockdown – we would like to say a huge, heartfelt thank you.

Keep your eyes peeled, because as soon as restrictions allow, Woodlands will be opening their doors for you to visit and see this new resource for yourself.

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