A MESSAGE FROM OUR PATRON
Sir Patrick Moore CBE DSc(Hon) FRAS
Winter is coming...
As I write these words (August) we are in the middle of a heat-wave. The temperature has rocketed to something like 90 degrees, and the sun is scorching. In a few months it will be very different. Ice, snow and fog will have taken over. I can switch on my central heating, but what about those who can't?
Cats love warmth; we all know that. Being cold is bad enough for us, but probably worse for them, particularly if they are hungry as well and ill. This will be the fate of many feral cats this winter, unless we do something about it. Oh, of course we can't solve the problem; and whatever we do, there will be cats who die cold and lonely but at least we can save some of them. Hence the current appeal. We need money (of course) and also helpers.
Adopting
a feral cat is no easy matter, but it can work out very well indeed. When I
was a boy (long ago now, alas) a feral cat deposited four kittens under my garden
shed in my home, then at East Grinstead. We found homes for three. The fourth,
a ginger kitten, made it clear that it wasn't going anywhere and it didn't.
My beloved Rufus lived to be twenty, and the joy he gave us all was incalculable.
But had he been left a few yards away, on the other side of my country lane,
it would have been so very different.