Up to a few weeks ago homing had been agonizingly slow and despair was setting in, but one Saturday morning Dorothy Lowe homed ten cats, at least five of whom had been with us for a considerable length of time. Rosie, sleek and black, had been with us for exactly a year, having been frightened by a firework the pervious autumn. She wasn’t exactly “Ms Personality” but the lady who chose her wanted to take on a difficult cat - so off Rosie went. A devoted mother and
son, Kitty and Toby, again long stay residents, were homed together the same morning, as well as a pure white twosome. All in all Dorothy had a successful morning, but within an our or so was asked to take in ten more kittens - this is how it has been for most of the year.

The “Rescued Cats” calendar now plays a significant part in our Christmas appeal and one of our cats has actually made the cover this year! Dominic, a silver tabby kitten and his mum, a sable tabby, were found abandoned in an empty house after their owners moved away. His new owners sent us a stunning photography of him all grown up and optimistically sitting on their bird table. To our delight the “calendar man” down in Kent selected this photo for the 2006 cover.

Our fund-raising efforts this year have been the usual mix of coffee morning, combined with table top sales and Branwen’s car boot and garage sales. Thank you to all our helpers and to those of your who keeps us toped up with items to sell. Branwen will also be at the Dickensian Market in Buxton again this year. We also held a very successful quiz night in April and have finished the year with a table top sale in the Ram’s Head Disley. Both the room at the Ram’s Head and the room at the Disley Amalgamated Sports club where we held the quiz, were provided from of charge, and we very much appreciate this generosity.

We have also had this year cases where people have been allowed to take cats on trust without payment (one was a pedigree) as they said they had neither cash nor a cheque books with them. In one case telephone messages are still being ignored, and even a visit to the home and a discussion with a relative in the absence of the lady concerned has still not produced the payment. Dorothy Lowe is a pretty good judge of character, and has never experienced this sort of this before. We are also frustrated when expensive cat carriers are lent out, and not returned as promised This sort of attitude is sadly all to apparent in some sections of society today. The Sanctuary not only survives by careful management of it’s limited income. We hope for all our sakes that these selfish fold remain in the minority.

The same helper who rescued the iguana (we must buy her some glasses) was also involved in an incident involving a large black cat, the roof of a listed building and another friend of the Sanctuary nicknamed Indiana Jones. IJ gallantly positioned Karen at a safe distance from the building and instructed her to keep an eye on the cat while he negotiated a hazardous staircase inside. Karen, newly returned from holiday and sporting a fantastic St Tropez tan and sun top, duly took up her position. Suddenly a large flock of pigeons hastily left the building showering the immaculate Karen with decades of feathers, dust and droppings in the process, all to the amusement of a small crowd that had gathered. The cat was rescued, albeit hungry and frightened, and now lives in luxury in Wilmslow. Karen on the other hand, took somewhat longer to recover her composure, and her relationship with IJ is understandably still a little strained.

We have scores of people to thank for their support throughout the year, and if we leave anybody out we really do apologise. Pat from Oldham does a magnificent job with feral cats in her area and beyond. Three more friends of the Sanctuary actually run their own commercial catteries but take time out to help us - Denise at Three Chimneys, Mellor, and Joan at Drake Carr, Disley, sell calendars for us, and The Brookdale Cattery at Buxworth, supports us in other ways. We also thank Lady Jenny Melmoth for her kind donation and the gift of an autographed copy of her latest book “Dear Dear Mary” (letters from her cat Amber) for a Christmas Raffle prize. Finally, our own Dorinda who cheerfully sorts out the rotas and the day to day running of the sanctuary, coming in herself in emergencies and at weekends. She recently wrote a forceful letter to the local press about the irresponsibility of some cat owners and the effect on the current plight of the Sanctuary. As a result a wonderful Sir Galahad, regretfully not on a white horse but on a push-bike, swept up the drive and brought several boxes of cat biscuits out of his panniers. We really do thank him for his kindness and Dorinda for being Dorinda.

As Sanctuary workers we love happy endings, and we were delighted to be able to help a lady who supports all our fund-raising events when she can. She hadn’t seen her little ginger and white cat, Keira, for four days and rang one of our helpers two-miles away on the other side of Disley to see if the Sanctuary in Dove Holes had taken her in. Sadly we hadn’t, but when our helper mentioned the call a couple of days later to her friend and neighbour, also a Sanctuary worker, this lady was convinced she had seen a similar cat in her garden a day or so earlier. The chance that it could be Keira seemed terribly remote, but a telephone call was made, the distressed owner came over, stood in the garden and called her cat’s name. To everybody’s astonishment, the little cat popped out of the bushes and went straight to her. This string of coincidences defies the laws of probability - miracles we perform daily, the impossible takes a little longer, in Kiera’s case about a week!