Run, swim and cycle! sounds exhausting?! Congratulations and a big THANK YOU from all the cats and volunteers at the sanctuary to Sue Brady for fundraising and completing a very challenging Triathlon on behalf of Chestnut Cat Sanctuary £400+ was raised with much generosity and kindness. (pictures to follow!) We are always extremely grateful for people who go out of their way to support the sanctuary and help care for the vast numbers of unwanted cats and kittens. The sanctuary is, as ever, packed full of cats and the mini versions! (aka Kittens) another busy weekend caring for them all! Am off tomorrow evening to encourage two felines out from under the floorboards armed with a large tin of John West best Tuna and a big torch - i will keep you updated as to my success (failure is not worth considering!). For all of you who like to know the comings and goings Maria and Piper are shortly off on their way hooray! Katie has settled in very well! and Mabel pictured inset is simply PURRRRRFECT! Love to you all x x

P.S Huge thank you! to Jackie, Gill, Sharon and Hamish for giving up their Sunday at the Thornwood Village Fete to fundraise for the sanctuary you are FANTASTIC and the cats specially asked me to pass on their paws of appreciation for all the effort and time you have given up to raise much needed funds for the sanctuary! X X X X

FANTASTIC NEWS! Our dear Katie has found herself a home! Everyone at the sanctuary is delighted to send Katie on her way with lots and lots of kisses and cuddles. A quiet weekend at the sanctuary, however, despite only a few visitors to the sanctuary we still managed to be asked frightening questions. Thought you might like to hear a taster of what goes on at the sanctuary during the crazy weekends! Question. If I go away on holiday can I leave the kittens behind? Answer: Sure I am sure that they will suss out how to open a tin of cat food no problem! (correct answer you can be prosecuted for leaving an animal without access to a daily supply of fresh food or water). We have heard of incidents where people have left buckets of water and buckets of food in order to go away on holiday without having to pay for cat boarding or getting a neighbour in to feed. This is a prosecutable offence) Question: If I take kittens now but dont want both of them later on can I give one away? Answer: why not that seems like the best thing to do?!!! duh! maybe not.... (correct answer - Chestnut Cat Sanctuary has on the very rare occasion been required to involve the RSPCA and police to retrieve a cat which was not being cared for in line with our terms and conditions). The tiny kittens we have are the most popular however they are also the kittens which are guarantted to in 6 months time turn into adult cats. We have a huge influx of 6 month old cats who are no longer kittens. It is very sad but unfortunately true. It is frightening the number of kittens and cats who are not cared for properly. (picture inset I may be cute and cuddly now but................... When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now, will you still need me, will you still feed me..when I am 64?!).

Paws and paws of thank you's! to everyone who helped on Saturday night for the 1st (and possible the last!!) Chestnut Sanctuary Quiz night! It simply could not have happened without your support and it was lovely to have so many willing hands ready to get involved for two very worthwhile charities. We managed to raise a staggering £938! which will be divided equally between Chestnut Cat Sanctuary and Cancer Research UK. Watch this space for the presentation of the cheque to the Cancer Research Volunteer for the Epping Area.

We were extremely pleased to see Margaret and Roger's table scoop the much deserved first prize what an intelligent lot you must be!! I was amazed to come in 3rd - well done my table very impressed with your efforts I have never come close to winning before! we took the risk to play our joker on the "Cats" round which played off with 10/10! Thanks also to everyone who donated such great raffle prizes. I expect the signed rugby books are already up on ebay! I look forward to hearing about the 1000 cheese sandwiches made with the 20kg block of cheddar up for grabs! Danielle and Jackie you did a fantastic job at selling those tickets it who could resist your smiles!! (pictured inset) The quiz master has gone through about 10 packects of throat sweets to ease the pain but it was well worth the agony and tiredness! Thanks to all the behind the scenes volunteers Andy, Pete and Gillian! If I have forgotten you it is by no means intentially It was a fabulous night one to remember for a long time to come. Hope everyone had a great time and is pleased with the monies raised. I always indebited to the support given by those who perhaps have very little free time of their own but still manage to go that extra mile THANK YOU SO MUCH! X

Well it is finally here! for those of you who haven't been to the sanctuary in a while we have been heavily promoting our fabulous fundraising quiz night in honour of both Chestnut Cat Sanctuary and Cancer Research. Hosted by our very own quiz master Mr Dennis Sweeney himself! we are looking forward to a fantastic event tomorrow night with lots of fun to be had for everyone. I hope that everyone involved got the message that entry is subject only to dressing up as a nominated sanctuary rescue cat?! if not don't worry we have spare costumes for you all - prizes available for the best tom cat impression!! (looks not smell please!) Naturally I will be donning the black Lycra cat suit myself in support of the occasion and if you are gullible enough to believe that then I might as well also say all the cats and kittens in the sanctuary have been homed!! Ha ha!! how wonderful it would be to say that unfortunately as ever we are packed to the rafters with dozens of unwanted / mistreated cats and kittens. Having said that our re-homing process is as stringent as ever. Finding the right home for all theses very needy fur babies is of the utmost importance and something we will not compromise on. Apologies for the long blog today......! lots of updates to let everyone know about. Whilst we are triumphing our way to win the quiz (no pressure my table!! but in case you haven't noticed I do like to win!!) a wonderful lady called Sue will be getting much needed restful sleep in anticipation of her triathlon on Sunday in honour of the sanctuary. We wish you all the best Sue and hope the weather stays good for you!! - make sure you pack in the chocolate energy supplies - what a wonderful excuse perhaps you and I Jackie should give it a go?! We are extremely grateful for these acts of kindness and free time give up for sponsored events to support the sanctuary's good work. It is simply stunning how many cats require neutering which is one of the many financial pressures we face on a weekly basis including food, heating and veterinary bills. Finally for those of you avid blog readers I am shortly off to the wonderful annual volunteers tea in the Epping Forest District to give my first ever talk on "what volunteering means to me" fortunately I don't often have to explain how much I enjoy being at the sanctuary because my face often says it all! To sum up however corny it may sound it means so much to simply "be able to actually make a difference" and until I am no longer able to do that I am pretty much hung up on volunteering! (Yes Jackie there is no way you are going to get rid of me!!)

See you all tomorrow night! x x

Sunshine at last! the cats at Chestnut Cat Sanctuary enjoyed basking in the sunlight over the weekend. The white furred cat seemed to be the height of popularity as 5 all white cats were re-homed! It is very important with completely white cats to check they aren't deaf or blind. Also in the sunshine you often have to put suncream on the thinnest part of their ears to protect them from being sun burnt! These are high maintenance cats! Lots of other cats and pairs of kittens were happily re homed this weekend. If you are looking for a cat it is also advisable to come early Saturday morning as we are open from 10.30am! By Sunday afternoon lots of our family friendly moggies have already snared themselves a perfect pad! The hard working volunteers will be taking in over 15 new cats and many more kittens this week. It was great to have the opportunity to fund raise at Tescos this weekend where we managed to collect over two trolleys of much needed cat food so a huge thank you to everyone who helped at Tescos, at the sanctuary or who kindly donated always much appreciated!! (Pictured inset our gorgeous grey girlie's homed a few months ago!)

I love hearing how our rescued cats are getting on in their new homes. It was a privilege to meet Picalo and Jynx our orientals boys (pictured inset) It is a wonderful feeling to know you have been part of the process in caring for and finding them a new loving permanent home. Often it is interesting for people to just to come and visit the sanctuary to see how hard we work to care for all the unwanted cats and kittens. We often get asked by visitors whether the sanctuary is actually for boarding cats and sadly have to reply that actually these are all looking for a new home. The sheer volume of calls on a Monday morning from people wanting to give up their cats is staggering. If you have a loving home to adopt one of our gorgeous residents or free hour or two to help us in our vital work come and see us in action there will be plenty of purrrry cuddles waiting for you!