How it began

It was over 30 years ago while living in London's East End that I first got involved with cat rescue, my son Jason, age 7 at the time, came home with a box of kittens; the box had been tightly sealed and the kittens left to die. I hand reared and nursed these kittens back to health and found them all responsible, loving homes.

Word soon spread that I cared for cats and soon I was being contacted by members of the public, the police if they found injured or abandoned cats and also by local veterinary surgeries if they had cats in need of homes.

In the early 80's my family and I moved to my present home here in Ingrave, Brentwood and I continued to rescue cats; as I had a bigger home I could now take in even more cats and kittens. Soon the cats were occupying more of our home than we humans! We decided to call our home PussyCat Lodge.

Someone very kindly donated a cat pen to me which my husband set up in our back garden. Then he built another; and another ... ! PussyCat Lodge was really taking shape and growing fast. Thankfully I was contacted by some cat loving people offering their help and soon I had a small group of volunteers helping with the day to day care of the cats.

Over the years pens have been replaced. We currently have 6 insulated, heated pens of varying shapes and sizes which when full can, family groups permitting, accommodate up to 25 adult cats. There is also the fully heated specially built mum and kitten unit; just in case we happen to have a hot summer it is also air conditioned.

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