RESCHEDULED CHRISTMAS FAIR
The rescheduled Fair was a great success and raised £1,916-28 in just 2 hours. Many thanks to all involved in any way.
RESCHEDULED CHRISTMAS FAIR
We are so sorry that the Christmas Fair on November 23rd had to be cancelled. It is something that has never happened before but never before have we had to contend with Storm Bert! Although the event didn’t open until 10-30am we needed to be there at 8-00am to get everything ready. None of us could get there and the van, which takes all the goods to the hall, had to be abandoned in the snow whilst the poor driver walked home. We had a great fair planned so were extremely disappointed. We were unable to put the cancellation on the website because something had gone very wrong with it and it could not be accessed by anyone. We are aware that there were people who tried to check the website who risked setting off, only to find that there was no event. Please accept our apologies. It really was not our day!
Luckily, we have been able to reschedule and the Christmas Fair will now take place on December 14th. Please do come and join us
AUTUMN MINI FAIR
The Autumn Mini Fair on September 28th raised a total of £1,180 – 36 and £865 in donations, a good, much needed boost for our greatly diminished funds. Thank you to all who helped to raise this amount.
A VERY DIFFICULT DECISION
So far we have neutered 1,500 cats. Some are owned cats but a good number are strays reported to us by kind people wanting to help them or, in some cases, give them a home. Often these cats have been strays for a long time and have other issues besides not being neutered. In the case of males it is usually fight wounds. Fleas and matted fur are also common problems with both males and females. The 3 cats above are perfect examples of stray males we have helped very recently. It is so important to neuter these cats as they quickly become part of feral colonies which are a huge problem in Leeds. The person wanting to help Reginald has him on the waiting lists of several rescue organisations and, on the shortest one, there are over 100 cats before him. It’s a bleak picture!
At the close of this financial year our vet bills were just short of £100,000. We can’t sustain this degree of spending so we decided to stop paying for microchipping the cats that we neuter and also that we can no longer help with vet bills for people who simply can’t pay when their cats need urgent surgery or treatment. Sadly, these measures have not been enough and our funds are now so depleted that we have had to stop neutering and all other help until the end of the year in the hope that our funds will recover enough to help us to survive and to continue to neuter as many cats as possible. It was an incredibly sad and difficult decision for us to make but, at this point, there is no other option.
SPRING FAIR
A good turnout for our Spring Fair on March 23rd, despite the heavy rain showers in the early morning. A very enjoyable event which raised a much needed £1,375-47 for our funds. Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard and to all who came who came to support us.
PLANT FAIR & CREAM TEA
The Plant Fair and Cream Tea on Saturday May25th raised £711-36. An amazing selection of plants and a delicious cream tea with home made scones, what not to like? A huge thank you to everyone involved in making it such an enjoyable afternoon.
OPEN GARDENS
On June 23rd, Open Gardens Day, Jan, our secretary, and Ian opened their garden to raise funds for St Gemma’s Hospice. Some of our committee members helped out and we had a plant sale for Leeds Feline Friends. We raised £186-50 and enjoyed a lovely afternoon in this beautiful garden. Thank you to Jan and Ian for all your very hard work.