Lonely old ginger Tom.

[mrsnec]

My great aunt died recently. She left behind her faithful companion, her big old ginger Tom who has been living in her house on his own for the past 4 months.

Local animal charities won't take him. (Despite the fact she left them her entire estate) There are no relatives nearby.

We'd take him but we are abroad and apparently he wouldn't survive the flight. My DM is executor of the will but lives nearly 3 hours away and says her house isn't cat friendly so she can't have him.

So, at the moment a neighbour visits him daily but the other neighbours are complaining saying it's neglectful.

What would happen if they complain officially and what would you do?

@Chemenger

Does the Cinnamon Trust do this?

That's the one, Chemenger!

cinnamon.org.uk/cinnamon-trust/ They might be able to help or advise.

Can we see a photo of Lonely old ginger Tom, if that's ok?

Definitely put him on Facebook. There’s lots of grass roots rescuers out there.

Also, I’ve contacted Four Paws Cat Rescue where I adopted my girl last summer to ask if they have any connections in Cardiff. 🤞

I would certainly say that at his great age he'll probably be purrfectly happy to be an indoor cat with your Mum. We keep our litter tray by the back door in the sitting room.

I'm amazed at Cats Protection. We've rehomed 2 elderly cats from them in the past.

@mrsnec I’ve had a quick look for you, as mentioned the smaller charities can be better at this sort of thing.

www.annasrescue.org/ based in or very close to Cardiff.

www.cardiffcatclinic.co.uk/ - cat exclusive vet, we got our last cat from our local vets as very often people hand them in and vets often work with bigger charities to help fix a cat up to get it ready for adoption. Worth a call.

If you google Forgotten Felines you will find their face book page. It looks like a local person who takes in older and injured cats. Not sure how close to Cardiff they are though.

I would take him in a heartbeat but I’m in London I’m afraid. (Also husband would probably kill me!)

Have a look at Usk New Start Cat Rescue on Facebook. They’re relatively local to Cardiff. We got our older cat from there so they definitely take on older cats.

You can contact Animal Lifeline and ask for Kelly-joy. That’s the recommendation from Four Paws. Xx

We lost our beautiful Springer in September and that meant neighbours cats came into our garden (because he wasn't there to chase them away) to bully our nearly 16yr old huge fat ginger Tom.. He started pooing in the house.. We put a litter tray down and he started using it straight away.. Hopefully your old boy would too? Good luck with rehoming him...

Animal Lifeline 07733 125279

This makes my blood boil. Absolutely go to the press. Please let us know what happens to him x

Absolutely try Annas rescue. They're amazing and very caring.

Thanks for all the responses everyone.

My DM was telling me that our old ginger (his name is Biff btw) has befriended some workmen over the road. One of them has taken a shine to him but won't take him on without a full check up at the vets.

I passed on the wisdom from everyone re litter trays and it already sounded like DM was going to find it hard to hand him over but it sounds like taking him to the vet might be a good idea anyway but then mum got worried the vet would just put him down.

I think our Welsh ginger friend might be off to Devon. Incedently, we have since discovered my great aunt adopted Biff in 2006 and he was an adult cat then so 15 was a very conservative guess!

I don't have any pics unfortunately.

Anna's rescue in Cardiff are goo! Personally I wouldn't touch CP. If he is near Cardiff I would go around and give him a cwtch. Also I could have an ask around my friends and family if the workman doesn't work out!

PM me OP, I live near Wales.

Poor, poor Biff. Shame on those charities to take your great-aunt's money and not her lovely old boy. He must be so lonely.

Please keep us posted, OP.

Glad it looks like he has a home.

I'm surprised about the charities, one of my foster cats (from cats' protection) was 19, she was rehomed to a lady who was 90.

Aaaaw poor thing!
I just lost my lovable big ginger boy a week on Wednesday. He was going to turn 17 in September and I took him when he was 14.
It's sad that the charities aren't helping you, I foster for two charities and we rehome older cats all the time. And the two charities I work with are actually quieter at the moment, at least quieter than any other February when it's normally kitten season. A shame the charities are not being more helpful especially when your great aunt made a generous donation. Please let us know how it goes and if you get stuck, I'm in the Cambridge area but happy to take Biff in if needed.

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats

If your great aunt's money has gone to local rehoming charities who are refusing to help with her cat, I'd go to the local papers. Name and shame the charities involved who will then undoubtedly fall over themselves to help.

I agree.

I would have taken him in but my middle cat would struggle.

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats

If your great aunt's money has gone to local rehoming charities who are refusing to help with her cat, I'd go to the local papers. Name and shame the charities involved who will then undoubtedly fall over themselves to help.

I'd be so tempted to do this. They've got an absolute liberty!

It's a really tough one. It does make me a bit cross and I am tempted to push my DM to go public with the charities but it's going to be a while before they get the money anyway because we're a very long way from probate being granted. That's probably how they see it. The property isn't even on the market yet. I think it's enough to try and get the message out there for people to think twice about leaving big legacies to the more well known organisations and that doesn't just apply to animal charities. I certainly won't be leaving anything to the RSPCA or the CP after this!

CP varies hugely from branch to branch. Ours covers a huge area and is very active and is pretty well organised. At the moment adoption is more difficult to organise than usual and fund raising is near impossible. We normally have monthly adoption events and a series of fundraising events of all sorts through the year. We always have a waiting list of cats to come in for fostering and it’s longer than usual. Although your cat is a heartbreaking case he’s not in imminent danger of starvation, abuse, illness or giving birth without a home. Given the choice of picking up a stray we can see is struggling, or a mum and litter of kittens from under a shed in the snow, we couldn’t prioritise a healthy cat being adequately, if not ideally, looked after. We don’t have any premises, most fosterers can only have one cat family at a time, a couple have outside pens. We cover a city and surroundings and have a capacity of about 15 cats at a time. We rehome over 200 cats a year in in normal times. With more volunteers, like every charity, we could do more. With more money we could build a shelter, we have identified where and how it could be staffed and managed. Then we could at least double our capacity.

So he's in good health for his age. He's getting fresh food and water twice a day and the neighbour stays and chats for a bit if he's around. The heating is ticking over and sometimes she sticks the radio on. The only thing Biff doesn't have is company 24/7 So it's easy to see why the charities may not have considered him a priority.

A lot of people don't understand how CP operates in the branches, they see a wealthy national charity and think that we have local full time staff who are available 24-7 and infinite capacity. You should see the abuse we get on social media, when we are doing what we can with what we have. Our branch coordinator was physically assaulted by a disgruntled member of the public. So please, if you want to kick up a fuss, think about what you want to achieve and who you are attacking.

I do get that and years ago I volunteered for the RSPCA at a very busy and we'll known centre but in this case we are talking about very substantial legacies. My other great aunt left everything she had. Not one single family member was named in the will so the local CP and RSPCA got 6 figures each from her. They'll probably get the same from this one too so we're talking half a million quid from one family in a year and neither of them could find room for dear old Biff so yes I probably won't go to the press out of respect for the volunteers but I can't help feeling a little bit bitter. Incedently, if we were in the UK we would have taken him on ages ago and I am greatful I've managed to convince my DM to take him with some of the wisdom I've got from here.

I'm not sure that local branches deal with legacies, maybe we just don't get them in our branch. Our funds run to 4 figures and we're thrilled when we make a few hundred at an event. We wouldn't have resources to deal with large sums of money or the accounting skills etc, so I imagine it would go to the regional organisation. Branches that run a shelter are possibly different and may well have employees who could manage large sums. I know a lot of people have issues with large charities and how they spend money (and I have issues with how CP use money to a certain extent) but volunteers put an amazing amount of devoted work (I'm not talking about myself here, I just have a series of lovely cats to look after and sell the odd calendar at a spring fair) and if people are put off volunteering then fewer cats will be helped.
I don't know anything about the RSPCA, we don't have them here in Scotland (though they happily accept money from Scottish people who don't know that).