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A map and opening hours are at the foot of the page giving directions to both the Sanctuary and Charity Shop.
Please read the information on this page in full before visiting. We are a responsible Charity and wish to
make prospective visitors think fully about all aspects of pet ownership.
Please ensure that you are fully aware of the expenses involved in owning pets (eg. neutering, annual vaccinations
and other veterinary treatment, food/litter costs, regular flea and worming costs, and cattery fees), and the associated
responsibility of looking after pets which requires an established household and stable home life, with sufficient
regular income in order to meet these expenses.
An owner is legally required to look after their pets and this includes obtaining both routine and emergency
veterinary treatment when necessary in order to avoid neglect - see the Animal Welfare Bill (on the DEFRA website) which
became law on 6th April 2007 and put a duty of care on to owners. There are fines of up to £20000 and up to a year in
prison for failure to meet certain levels of care.
All cats that we rehome have been vaccinated against cat flu, enteritis and chlamydia, are neutered
(if they are old enough, ie. 4 - 5 months old) and microchipped. All our cats remain
registered for microchip purposes to CCR at the Sanctuary address, as we maintain responsibility for these records. Please
notify us by letter or email if you move house.
We have in most cases spent between £70 - £100 on veterinary treatment for each cat (in some cases much more), to give
you an idea of donations to help continue our work. (Cash, debit card or cheque with a valid banker's card
accepted.) This donation goes towards our vet bills which are our biggest expense - almost £60000 in
2008.
We also offer 4 weeks' free pet insurance through Pet Plan to help with vets' bills. If you decide to continue the
policy after the 6 weeks, we benefit by receiving commission for the life of the policy, which we put towards running the
Sanctuary. We do recomment this in view of the cost of veterinary treatment.
When you visit the Sanctuary, we will discuss your circumstances and ask you to complete a detailed questionnaire
to tell us more about yourself so that we can try to find the right cat(s).
Our welfare officer is in charge of rehoming, and she will then assess whether any of the cats currently
at the Sanctuary are suitable to be shown to you.
Please
do not be offended if you are refused a particular cat or kitten. We take our rehoming responsibilities seriously and if
we think a cat isn’t suitable, we will explain why. We get to know them very well and we have many years' experience
predicting where, and with whom, a cat or kitten will fit in so that they do not have to come back to us, which is very disorientating
for them.
Please also bring proof of identity (eg. passport/driving licence) and proof of current address (eg.
utility bill under 3 months old) with you if you are wishing to rehome a cat.
People are welcome to visit us at the Sanctuary during our opening hours (see below), even if you are
just wanting to have a look round.
Unfortunately we receive new cats each week so there is a high turnover. We always seek to place the right cat with
the right household, and may do home checks before allowing a cat to be rehomed. If you do not own your home,
we will also require a letter from your landlord confirming that you may have cats, and that you have a lease of
at least 12 months, which will be able to be extended (so that the newly rehomed cat has some stability in its new surroundings.)
Please note that we have to consider the welfare of the cats, and cannot home cats to certain roads/areas
that would be too busy/dangerous. This is a policy common to many other animal welfare charities rehoming cats,
eg. Cats Protection and the RSPCA.
Also, we generally only rehome cats in the local area, within about 10 - 15 miles of Colchester, ie. from
Witham in the south to Ipswich in the north, Clacton in the east, and Sudbury to the west, as we may want to do
a home check.
If you are not in our area, please go on to the very good cat charity website www.catchat.org that lists all Essex and Suffolk cat rescues (including RSPCA and Cats Protection branches) if you click on Essex.
You can write to us or telephone us at the Sanctuary address below, or click this address to send us e-mail:
mail@colchestercatrescue.org.uk
You can visit us at our registered address at the Sanctuary, which is open to the public 12.00 - 3.00pm on
every Sat/Sun/Mon/Wed/Thurs.
We are open every Bank Holiday Monday during the year too.
We are also open on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (but closed as usual every Tuesday and Friday, including
Good Friday.)
We are closed over Christmas, ie. Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
We are open as usual on New Year's Day - if it falls on one of our normal opening days (ie. not Tuesday or Friday.)
Colchester Cat Rescue
"Lyndhurst"
Bromley Rd
Colchester
Essex
CO7 7SF
Tel 01206 864284
See "About Us" for further directions about the location of the Sanctuary, for visitors travelling within Colchester,
and for directions from the A12.
Or you can give us a call:-
~ at the Sanctuary in Bromley Rd, Colchester
on 01206 864284 (during opening hours 12 - 3pm on Sat/Sun/Mon/Wed/Thurs, closed all day Tuesdays/Fridays) if you
wish to enquire about cats/kittens available for rehoming (you will hear a recorded information message if we are busy
with customers or have not managed to get to the phone quickly enough - it's a very large site!)
~
at the newly relocated Charity Shop open from Monday 7th September
2009 at 17 Eld lane, Colchester CO1 1LS on 01206 576085 to enquire about donating goods for sale or opening
times. The shop may be easily reached from Vineyard
St car park, by parking there and taking the stairs or lift up Vineyard Steps and turning right into Eld Lane. It is shown
by the red circle on the map link at http://www.multimap.com/s/joWrqmCyWe are just along on the right, opposite the Baptist Church. We are open Mondays to Saturdays from approx 10am to 4pm.
We do have a loading bay if you have a large amount to donate, so please call
us at the shop on Col. 576085 so we can give you directions and arrange to unload your car. If you are just unloading
you do not have to pay for car parking. If you are coming into town to do some other shopping, the shoppers’ special
parking rate is £2 from 10 – 3pm in Vineyard St car park.
We take
donations of most items (except electrical goods and furniture), so it is a good opportunity to clear out any clothing, footwear,
bags, china, hardback and paperback books, soft furnishings and linen, toys, board games, jigsaw puzzles, DVDs, CDs, videos,
cassette tapes, LPs and singles, kitchenware, unwanted gift items (toiletries, perfume, cosmetics etc), ornaments, glassware,
pictures, paintings, mirrors, cameras, binoculars, barometers, watches and clocks, football programmes, stamps, coins, buttons, make up compacts, perfume bottles, old tins, hat pins,
thimbles, metal toys (eg. Matchbox and Dinky toys),
chess pieces, musical instruments, scales/weights, brass or copper, and jewellery and collectables.
Colchester Cat Rescue Charity Shop 17 Eld Lane, Colchester, Essex CO1 1LS
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