Received this reply from Gloria after phoning her...
Dear Sandra,
It was lovely to hear from you yesterday after all these years, and good that you remembered the work that we in Thurrock do for the animals.
This branch has been in Thurrock for around 35 years.
As a branch we are entirely responsible for our own finances although Head Office keep an eye on all that we do. This means that we are entirely responsible for raising the income to pay for all out expensed but in particular the very large bills at vets at kennels/cattery. This is done by a succession of fund raising events, - regular jumble sales, Autumn and Easter Fayres, stalls at invitation events, quiz nights, and our Christmas Bazaar at which our Grand Christmas Draw is made.
Our policy is that no healthy animals is put to sleep and to this end our visits to vets are frequent if animals need treatment. All our animals are vaccinated, neutered , microchipped, wormed and had flea control treatment before being homed, and all new owners receive a home visit before getting an animal from us.
Currently we are the only rescue in Thurrock that is dealing with both cats and dogs.
The cat situation is dire but this is so throughout most of England. Many people come to us having seen our cats on the Catchat web site.
Currently among the cats we have a mum and her kittens that were left when a person moved; two cats that were traumatised when they were abandoned in two separate cat carriers outside the vets one morning. Their condition was poorly, but they are getting better. A cat whose owner die and he sadly had no family. He had led a quiet life so had little experience of people, but our cat cuddlers are helping him to overcome his fears. Another sad pair came from a disabled woman and they too needed quite a bit of understanding.
Fortunately not all the cats have problems, for many of the cats it is a matter of their owner being evicted and in the new accommodation they are not allowed to take their pets.
Among the dogs is poor little Pickle a seven year old Jack Russell who is a deaf. His first owner worked hard with him, teaching him hand signals but when a baby came along his life was upset. He couldn't hear the child approach and when he did see him he was frightened and he barked at the child. We explained this to the new owners, who assured us that this would not be a problem and they didn't have children and their grandchildren were older. However despite lots of support from us initially, suddenly they rang up to say they weren't coping. They were finding it too much to get to the dog as shouting was of no use. Diva is another of our long term dogs. For some reason people don't seem interested in him, as they just walk past his pen. One of the helpers at the dog training team attached to the private kennels takes both Diva and Pickle for walk and plays with them and they are advertised at our events. Our small dogs. like westies and bichons, find homes more quickly.
We have volunteers who do dog walking.
If there is anything more you would like to know, the please get in contact.
Many thanks,
Gloria
Branch Secretary.