A Cat Called Freya, and Teego Too!

Hi Furriends!

I saw a TV programme this morning. It was called Mad Cats and Englishwomen. (Just in case my American furriends don’t know about the title, it’ a play on the song “Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun”)

I’m sorry this Blog post is a little sad, but it’s about a very important subject.

It’s a documentary contrasting the differences and similarites between the Celia Hammond Animal Trust, and a “mad cat lady” who is a kind of independent animal rescue person.

Celia Hammond was a big star Vogue fashion model in the 1960s until she started to cause a stir about the Fur Trade. In 1995 she dedicated her life to her animal trust, which specialised in low cost animal neutering in an inner city location near London.

Back to the documentary. It’s available on BBC Iplayer  at http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/vn1w4/ (sorry Americans, you can’t see this, unless you use some sort of anonnymising software to make it look like you live in the UK) But if you’re in the UK, it’s a FANTASTIC documentary. There’s an article about the show here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11588413

It really moved me to tears a few times, once where the independent lady had to send one of her favourite cats, Tom-tom to sleep, and she cuddled it until the injection made him go to sleep, and seeing this just brought back a lot of sad memories for me of my cat, Scampie.

Beloved cat gets put to sleep

Another extremly moving part was when Celia Hammond was nursing a couple of kittens that had been left under a tree, and were completely infested with fleas, where you could see them crawling around the kittens faces. You saw her trying to inject some food into their mouths, but one of them was just too weak, and the next shot, you see the kitten actually pass away in her arms.(The other one, I think, pulled through, and was ok)

Rescue kitten has face covered in fleas

I really hope lots of people get to see this documentary, as it expires in 7 days. It’s part of the Wonderland Series, so I doubt it will be re-shown in the USA. It has some really tough, hard-hitting scenes in it, but sometimes you need to be shocked in to action.

The film really inspired me to look for some way to help my local shelter because however distressing the two scenes I described are, animal rescue charities are experiencing these things EVERY DAY, so for me to be a real animal lover, I need to do more to help them.

So in the comments, please list as many different things people can do to help their local Animal rescue charity. Maybe everyone knows they can donate money, or food, but is there anything else can people do?

I’m planning to donate some of my time to helping one or two shelters, and I’ll take my camera with me to Vlog about it.