White River Cat Rescue - caring for cats across the spectrum in St Austell, Cornwall

Our Story

Sisters Kathy Fox and Rowena Sharps founded White River Cat Rescue in August 2005 with their friend Alison Tyley. Kathy and Ro looked after the buiness end of the charity and recruited volunteers and fosterers to help with fundraising and look after the cats that came in to us. Alison was a relief milker ,at the time, on various farms in the area and took care of many feral cats and kittens, getting them neutered where possible and taming the youngsters, many of which became domesticated and found new homes.

It took us about a year of work to meet the requirements to become a registered charity and get that much coveted number. We have gone from strength to strength since and look forward to the day when we can open a much needed Rescue Centre in St Austell (see Rescue Centre Appeal page)

Ro's Story

Just one cat in need was all it took to put me on the road to setting up a Cat Rescue organisation.

Some years ago I moved into a farm house, with my family, and almost immediately discovered a cat with a litter of kittens (picture below) living in one of the barns. The farmer said she had been there for some time and, occasionally, he would bring food for her. Being a cat lover anyway I was happy to take over and make sure she was fed every day and, eventually we made friends with her. We called her Ling because of her oriental eyes but she was actually a beautiful tortoiseshell.

Over the weeks the kittens would follow her and, although wary at first, they also came to trust us. As I worked as a Vet's receptionist at the time, I managed to take the kittens in and find them new homes where they would be looked after properly instead of left to roam and re-produce. But I didn't get them all as I thought...

One morning I came down to find a kitten, the image of Ling only smaller, sitting on the doorstep. I saw Ling hovering by the gate, watching. I went out and picked up the kitten. She was cold, shivering and very undernourished. When Ling saw me take her in she gave a small mew and went back to the barn. She knew her daughter was in need of care, the kind only humans could give, so she brought her to me. I wrapped her in a blanket and took her into the vet where she was warmed up and given some food. That was all she needed. She was re-homed, given the name Suki, and is still enjoying the good life today
Being a bit of a novice at this Cat Rescue business I thought once I had sorted out the kittens, Ling would be okay. She seemed happy enough. She was being fed, she had a nice warm place to sleep. What more could she need?

The weeks went by and lo and behold, her sides began to swell again and another litter was on the way...I groaned... it so happened working at a vet's was an advantage, as some of the people you met were ‘in the know' about such things as cats having kittens in the wild. One such person was Alison Tyley, who did a lot of work with feral cats while working on farms as a relief milker. I knew she trapped and tamed feral kittens when she could so I asked her if she could help with my problem. Immediately she brought me a small pen, which I put in the garage, padded it out with blankets, a litter tray, food and water and, the next time I saw Ling, enticed her in. I thought she would fight me but she didn't, in fact, she seemed happy to stay. Almost relieved to have some help.

She eventually gave birth to a litter of five kittens...it was amazing. I had never experienced anything like this before and I was awestruck. The kittens all thrived and, when they were old enough I was able to find them homes and once Ling had recovered, she was speyed. She was so much better for it. She gained weight her coat became silky and, as I couldn't keep her myself, I found her a home with a very nice couple.

Ling, I have to say, was my inspiration to carry on with this work, although Alison had a lot to do with it too. Once she found out I was interested in rescuing cats she encouraged me to continue. Looking out for Ling was a learning curve for me. I made mistakes ( I should have taken her in and got her speyed as soon as I took in the last of her kittens). I haven't made that mistake again. The outcome was a happy one in that case- but for a lot of females left out there un-neutered it's a different story.

Rowena

Kathy's Story

In 1985 my children started to nag me about getting a pet. A friend of my daughter from school had some kittens in need of re-homing and she wanted to adopt one of them. I said not at the time but soon relented and agreed to take on one of these kittens, unfortunately they had all gone but having already committed myself I went to the local Cats Protection. The outcome was two little bundles of fur, one black who my son named Felix and one black and white who my daughter named Midge. Of course I did most of the looking after and when they both grew up and left home the cats stayed with me. Midge and Felix lived to the grand old age of almost 21 years and died withing weeks of each other. It took me about 18 months to take on another kitten but when a litter of came into the charity, I helped tame them and a hissing, spitting, clawing little bundle of ginger fluff won me over and now 4 years later he's the biggest, softest most laid back cat I've ever known. I called him Horatio.

Rowena and I share a house at the moment and we have 3 long term foster cats with us which could not be re-homed for various reasons as well as Horatio and Ro's cat Jack and her Jack Russell Marnie and in spite of their various ages and backgrounds they all get on very well.

Alison's ("Ali Cat") Story

Ali is a farmers daughter so was aware of the problem with stray and feral cats from a very early age. It was some years before she would get seriously into the rescuing business though.
Ali is a trained botanist and worked as a teacher for a number of years right here in St Austell. She spent time abroad before Ali felt she had had enough travelling and wanted to settle in this country which is when she came to her current location and took up rescuing...
With the help of friends, Ali found a "loft" above a barn and persuaded the farmer to let her fix it up. Being nothing more that a storage area and somewhat rat infested the farmers wife was not too keen on anyone moving in but she didn't reckon with Ali's determination and
ex- husband Mike's resourcefulness and eventually agreed if they were prepared to do it up. The farmer took Ali on as a relief milker for his herd of Dairy Cows.
Ali stayed in the newly refurbished flat while Mike flew off again to Dubai. Living back on a farm and being left to her own devices, Ali once again saw the problem with the feral cat population and decided to do something about it. To start with she asked for help with another cat rescue organisation who were only too happy to help with neutering. Ali took on the kittens young enough to be tamed and found homes for them and when Mike came back from his travels he built four pens in their garden where Ali was able to take in and, to a degree, keep the feral population down to a manageable level. Despite all this, she still found herself feeding over 30 cats at any one time.
It was during one of her many visits to the vets with another colony of ferals that Rowena came into her life. She was newly recruited at the said vets and was greatly interested in the work that Ali was doing. They eventually got talking and discussing the problem and as soon as Ali realised she wanted to help she wouldn't let it go. Ali was very helpful to Rowena when she moved into a farmhouse herself and found a stray cat with a litter of kittens (see Ro's story - It Started With a Cat.)
She was our inspiration to begin White River Cats Rescue and thanks to her diligence and determination many cats, who were in a sorry state, now have a safe and comfortable life.