About us
Our sanctuary is a purpose-built home for cats based at Harling Road, Norfolk, and accommodates 100-150 cats at any one time.
We are proud to be an independent cat charity, able to support and care for feral, stray and domestic cats, through rescue, re-homing, neutering and educating the public on the responsibilities of pet ownership.
Our team of staff and volunteers work tirelessly to relieve the suffering of all types of cats by providing a calm and safe space of sanctuary for their care. We believe we have a duty to the cats as a species and as individuals and you can find out about our policy on euthanasia here.
We admit cats on a temporary or permanent basis, regardless of age, health, and behaviour and always aim to find permanent homes for the cats who come into our care.
We carefully manage our intake to support those least likely to find help elsewhere or to those who need it most urgently, always with their future happiness and safety in mind.
While the charity always aims to help as many cats as possible, its work can never be quantified by numbers alone as the priority is and will always be to help those most in need.
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Our history
Feline Care began life as Feralands, part of another cat rescue charity based in West Sussex, set up to provide lifelong sanctuary to cats from that area, who for various reasons were not able to find homes.
Alongside a very active TNR (Trap, Neuter & Return) scheme, over time we began taking in cats from the local area and facilitating our own adoptions.
In 2011 our parent charity made plans to sell our site leaving us with the choice of returning all our residents to their site in Sussex or purchasing the land and becoming a charity in our own right. The choice was obvious!
With huge support from volunteers and the local community, we were able to both raise the funds and establish as a separate registered charity in the extremely tight timescales given to us and keep our doors open to cats.
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Our home
Our sanctuary base is set in nearly four acres of land, tucked away at the bottom of a small industrial area in the Breckland region of Norfolk.
The sanctuary set-up includes animal bedrooms and communal pens in a purpose-built single storey building, underfloor heated and UPVC double glazed throughout.
Larger areas allow multi-cat families to stay together while their social bonds are assessed prior to rehoming as well as giving socialised cats
the chance to make new cat friends.
We have two quarantine areas used for both quarantine and short stays and an intensive care room for those admitted with medical needs and aim to be flexible enough with space to meet the needs of individual cats.
Our purpose built ‘Jellicle’ pens, primarily for cats admitted through the TNR scheme, are unheated and enable outdoor cats to be temporarily sheltered at familiar temperatures, crucial for them to retain their thick coats.
For free roaming residents, mostly feral cats, there is ample outside space with over three acres of woodland, scrub and meadow which provides a green, pleasant and stimulating environment for those preferring to reside outdoors.
Great effort is made to ensure feral cats have a calm and safe experience. Our entire site is fully enclosed with cat proof fencing, ensuring those that live on site are safe from roads and external factors.
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Numerous shelter options are offered and all outdoor residents have access to our heated bedrooms, should they wish to use them.
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Our finances
As an independent charity we have full responsibility not only for our current costs, but to make sure we remain financially viable into the future.
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Cats that we rehome this week, may still need us to be here for them in 15 years or more, and we want to be here for cats, forever. That needs financial stability, forever.
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We were founded on watching the pennies and this remains our ethos despite our growth because it is important to make sure we never have to budget for the care of an individual cat.
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We follow Charity Commission guidelines for holding emergency reserves proportional to our running costs.
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If you would like to look a bit deeper into our financial position, please view our latest annual report here.
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