People must surrender their cats to rescue centres for many different reasons. Whether people are moving house and cannot take their cats with them, or their cat unexpectedly has kittens and they cannot financially cope, it is clear that the abandonment of pets is a huge societal issue. However, organisations like Romney House Cat Rescue are ensuring that these unwanted animals can have as many chances as they need of finding their forever home. 

Romney House Cat Rescue is a domestic cat rescue and sanctuary started by Silvana Valentino-Locke. The charity ensures that all cats are vaccinated, micro-chipped, and neutered before they are re-homed. Some cats that have been rescued from traumatising backgrounds and are therefore unlikely to become pets, have been personally taken in by Silvana and are free to roam the sanctuary as resident cats. 

Debbie Grudeken has been working at Romney House Cat Rescue since January 2022, previously volunteering there every Sunday for a year and a half. Grudeken enjoys working at Romney as “It’s less stressful than working in a lot of places that I’ve been working in, in veterinary before. It’s just so relaxing, it’s lovely being around the cats and just seeing them be rehomed.”  

Every month, the rescue centre re-homes an average of 45-50 cats per month, with the total number of cats re-homed from January to March 2022 being 148. According to Grundeken, “This month, we haven’t got so many cats to rehome [compared to previous months] which in a way, is a good thing as it means there’s not many cats that are looking for homes. It is coming up to kitten season, so obviously in the hot weather and days and months, we tend to get a lot of cats and kittens. It may work out that we will start to get busy again”.  

The impacts of the pandemic on the animal rescue sector have been devastating. According to Grundeken,  “We had an influx of cats; we had a lot of cats coming from hoarders. We had twenty-eight cats coming from one hoarder and we had 15 or so cats from another hoarder. Because of the pandemic, they [hoarders] weren’t neutering [their cats] and vets and especially charities weren’t doing any neutering as they were just dealing with emergencies, so things got a little bit out of hand.” It was not only hoarders that caused problems for the rescue centre as “A lot of people were taking advantage of cats being bred and sold during the pandemic- everybody wanted puppies and kittens. When the pandemic ceased, in my view, we did get a lot of cats that were too old to be sold and people weren’t buying cats anymore.” 

Romney House Cat Rescue greatly relies on donations from the public to be able afford the costs of over £10,000 a month to run the shelter and support the many cats that are currently living at the sanctuary. You can donate good quality items to the Romney House charity shop, with donations of items like blankets and cat toys directly helping the cats of the rescue centre. You can also volunteer at the charity shop or at the rescue centre itself, doing tasks like cleaning the enclosures and helping to socialise some of the cats. 

Romney House Cat Rescue website: Home - Romney House Cat rescue 

Facebook: Romney House Cat Rescue - Home | Facebook 

For any enquiries: Silvana@romneyhousecatrescue.org.uk