Cat lover’s pet adoption centre answers the call
A WOMAN who spends more than £22,000 a year on vet bills to help abandoned animals has opened her own adoption centre.
Cardiff animal lover Anna Mason has reached her latest landmark after rescuing and rehoming 1,200 animals since last year.
A former veterinary nurse, the mother of three set up Anna’s Rescue Centre in 2017 after years of helping other charities rehome unwanted pets around the capital.
Since then she says she has been overwhelmed by people asking for help – and can receive more than 40 phone calls a day.
Anna, who also works as a childminder and currently looks after 15 kittens in her bedroom, said: “The rescue centre just happened. It’s in my blood – I knew it would happen eventually.”
She added: “It’s 24 hours, there’s no closing time when you run a rescue. When you’re feeding kittens through the night every couple of hours, it’s exhausting – I’ve had 15 kittens in my bedroom for the last six weeks.
“My children and husband are very supportive. They don’t even blink when I come home with a box because they know there will be an animal in it.”
After launching her own adoption centre in Rumney, Anna can now look after about 100 cats as well as other small animals before they are found a new home.
To help her along the way she has a team of 15 volunteers, including fosterers who look after animals in their own houses before they can be found their “forever” home.
She said: “Every single pen has a cat in it, it’s been that busy. Since last year, we have rehomed 1,200 animals which shows how much Cardiff needed another rescue centre.
“At the moment we have about 40 cats in the cattery and another 37 out in foster care. If we have a mummy cat and six kittens, it’s not ideal to have them in a pen so they will go into a home environment to get some TLC.”
As part of her rescue centre policy, every cat is checked by vets when it arrives at and leaves the centre, as well as being neutered.
Anna and her team also inspect every house before animals are rehomed and teach the pets social skills before they are fostered.
She said: “We spend £22,000 on visits to the vets per year, so it’s well over £1,000 a month. Food is a couple of hundred every month but we get given some stuff by Pets At Home and through our ‘sponsor a cat’ scheme. The rest is petrol costs running around. I wouldn’t like to add it up.”
As well as cats, Anna, 50, often rescues and rehomes other animals including guinea pigs, rabbits and tortoises.
She said: “There’s an awful lot of abandonment around. I get phone calls from landlords who will go to a house or flat once the tenants have left and there will be a cat with four kittens. Often they had no idea there was a cat there.”
For more information about ARC or to donate, go to facebook. com/annasrescue or call Anna on 0772 064 1653.