Puss in Chutes Charity Skydive, we did it!

On Sunday 6th October our Charity Skydive took place at Dunkerswell Airfield (Honiton). Our girls have spent months raising sponsorship and organising fund raising events such as our Puss in Chutes coffee morning and car boot sales. 

We were very lucky with the weather, all that week it had rained, but Sunday was a lovely warm sunny day for our skydivers. Myself and my managers Phil and Sandra had the privilege to watch our skydivers in action and of course we had our cameras to take lot photos of the day. Some of our CCAs and a few brave volunteers all skydived from 15,000 feet, most of them enjoying the experience! After the jump everyone celebrated together with a well-deserved Champagne picnic.

From this event we managed to raise almost £4,000 for the Centre! On behalf of the staff and cats at Exeter Axhayes thank-you; and a very well done to all the jumpers and thanks to those who came on the day to support them.

Feral Garden update!

We do apologise for lack of blogs, we’ve had a busy couple of months with a full centre of cats, a wedding and summer holidays away from Axhayes. We are back blogging once again. 

Our Feral garden/enclosure officially opened last month on the 23^rd September. There was a small gathering of some of the Friends of Exeter Axhayes Group and a few members of staff to celebrate the feral gardens completion. This feral garden wouldn’t have been possible with the generosity from our supporters over the years. We would say another HUGE thank you to everyone who made this possible.   










Our first three cats to stay in our feral enclosure were Minnow, Hello Kitty and Polly, they moved in during the summer. They have been enjoying the tranquil open space with lots of scrubs, long grass, cat mint, tree stumps to sit on and tunnels to hide in. In the evenings a newly built warm cosy house with comfy beds and meals delivered by our cat carers. 

 









We are pleased to tell you that these lovely ladies soon found an outdoor home together two weeks ago; we are so pleased for them. Now our feral garden is looking for new residents to move in. We are always looking for outdoor homes for our feral cats. If you interested in recruiting some out of work mousers, please get in contact us our centre via our website or facebook page.

New cat beds!

Couple of months ago we had shiny new cat beds delivered from Cats Protection head office. These beds are called “Feline Forts” which look like kitty bunkbeds, they are great for cats to hide away underneath or to sleep above.

This year these beds have been great for our kittens, like Si and his sister Sarah. They just love sitting in the top looking out of the window or playing hide and seek underneath. Si and Sarah are currently looking for a loving home together, both very friendly, affectionate and playful. They will make great additions to the family!

Please visit our website or facebook page for more information about adopting Si and Sarah :) Thank you.  

Our 25th Anniversary

Our adoption centre celebrated its 25^th Anniversary this open day. On our information boards, we displayed many of our old newspaper articles and old photos of the centre which our deputy manager Phil had collected over the years. Here are some facts about our centre and some photos from the early days….

 

• New building first opened in September 1987
• First cat homed from Centre was called Bagpuss
• Officially opened on 14^th August 1988 by TV Personality Johnny Morris
• In 1989 our centre had some special visitors from Russia (former Soviet Union) – The Moscow Cat Club filmed around our centre, this film was shown cinemas across the USSR.  
• In early days, Axhayes not only re-homed stray & unwanted cats & kittens, but a wing was dedicated to boarding cats until the mid 1990’s.
• There is an on-site surgery where the vets perform basic operations such as neutering, this was upgraded in 2007
• Outside chalets & pens have been rebuilt & refurbished over the years, the Centre now has a dedicated Isolation block
• During the 25 years Axhayes has re-homed in excess of 17,000 cats & kittens and helped thousands more through our neutering support programmes & advisory services
•  We are always looking at new fundraising ideas and in November 2010 the Friends of Axhayes Group was formed and has since held many fundraising events including a Firewalk & our infamous annual Easter Extravaganza!
• These funds raised have not only helped maintain the upkeep of the centre but has enabled us to build our Feral Enclosure – to be opened very shortly

• Several of the staff are taking part in ‘Puss in Chutes’ Skydive in October. We are hoping these funds will help our future cats and kittens.

We would like to thank everyone for their help and support over the years. We hope to continue helping thousands of cats and kittens in the future....

Happy Endings - Allium and Sweep

Some of you may remember Allium, our very friendly boy who loved the children from Mill Water school who visited our centre. He has been in his new home for eleven weeks now and is doing very well. He’s now been renamed Archie, he spent the first few days of hiding under the sink cupboard, he is now confident and happy. We’ve been told his favourite occupations are sleeping and grooming. He’s been out in the garden but would rather be around the house. His owners are very pleased with him and we are pleased he’s happy and settled in his new home.

We have also heard from Sweep’s new owners after a couple of weeks. Sweep came in with Tinkerbell back in March after their owner sadly passed away. He was very shy when he came to us, after lots of TLC from the girls his confidence started to grow. His owners have contacted us, he’s doing really well and getting used to his new surroundings. He loves to lay in the sun when it shines in through the window. We’re so pleased that he’s happy with his new family. His friend Tinkerbell has been reserved and will be going to her new home in a few days.

We would like to thank Aluim (Archie) and Sweep’s owners for sending these wonderful photos and stories. If you would like to give any of our cats or kittens a loving home, please visit our website at www.axhayes.cats.org.uk. Thank you.

Success Story - Ruddle

Regular Facebook and Blog followers may remember little Ruddle one of our kittens from last year. He came into to us in October 2012 when he was 3 months old with his sisters Otter and Tanglefoot. He was always a little shy and needed a lot of TLC and cuddles from our CCAs and volunteers to help build up his confidence. His sisters found homes, leaving Ruddle behind, after six months he finally found a loving home.

Last week his owners sent us some lovely photos of him (now renamed Casper) with his new canine companion Daisy. He really enjoying his new home and exploring the garden with Daisy. We are all so delighted he is doing really well and would like to thank his owners again for the lovely photos. 

Here are some of the photos of him…

If you would like to give any of our cats or kittens a loving home, please contact us www.axhayes.cats.org.uk. Thank you.

Bob's Story

A cat with a small name and a big personality…

Bob came to Axhayes on 26 March after being handed into St Davids veterinary surgery by a member of the public. He was straying in Exeter and had some obvious injuries that needed to be treated by a vet.

Bob resting his weary paws

He had lots of scratches, a broken tooth, an abscess on the front of his leg and weepy eyes. He wasn’t neutered or microchipped so we couldn’t trace an owner for him.

No one reported him missing so Bob was kept in our care until he was medically ready to be adopted. Bob received antibiotics for his wounds and cream for his eyes. He also had to be neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and treated for fleas & worms.

Bob really made himself at home and was soon making friends with all the staff. He craved attention so much that as soon as you opened his pen door, he would climb out and cuddle you or jump on the floor and climb up your legs until he was picked up.

Bob and I enjoying a cuddle

He was so hungry and ate all of his meals in record time without stopping and would look up at the cat care assistants with his chubby cheeks and sad eyes to see if he could get an extra portion. The way to Bob’s heart was definitely via his stomach and although he had problems with his eyes, his hearing was excellent. He could detect the sound of a rustling packet of treats very well and would always be ready to comply with whatever was asked of him for a tasty snack.   

When he was examined by our vet, it became clear that Bob’s eyes were weeping for a reason. He was diagnosed with Entropion of both eyes. This is when the lower lid folds inward. It is very uncomfortable as the eyelashes constantly rub against the cornea and irritate it. Surgery is needed to correct the problem but if left untreated, the trauma caused to the eye means it may need to be removed. Luckily for Bob, he was in the care of Cats Protection and we were able to provide him with the treatment he needed.

Bob became available for adoption at the end of last week and got lots of attention from visitors to the centre over the weekend.

He is such a friendly, chatty, cuddly cat that we knew he wouldn’t be short of admirers.  He soon won over his new owners who met him on Sunday and came to collect him yesterday.

We wish Bob and his new family a very happy life together and hope they will send us some photos of him when he has settled into his new home.

We will miss Bob, a very charming cat!

Bob with his cute smile on adoption day

One of the reasons, we do the job we do is to help cats like Bob who have no one to care for them and as a charity we rely on donations to fund the medical treatment that they need.

Some of the cat care assistants have decided to do a Tandem Skydive later this year to raise money for our centre so that we can continue to care for cats in need like Bob.

“Puss in Chutes” will be taking place on 6 October.  We’d really love you to sponsor us or if you want to join in with the jump, you can raise your own sponsor money.  For further information, please click on this link to the events section of our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/160076540823650/