High praise for Portsmouth cat rescue charity after national award commendation

Portsmouth Cats Lost, Found and Rehomed have been acknowledged for the work they do within the community to ensure that felines who have got themselves in pickle can get the help they need.

The charity, which is formed of volunteers who have a passion for helping animals, have been recognised in the annual Animal Star Awards and have been highly commended as cat rescue of the year.

The Animal Star Awards were established in 2016 by Mary Burgess who wanted to recognise the people constantly working in the background to help animals, as well as raising awareness for the demand of more rescues across the country.

Over the years the rescue charity has grown, and the volunteers dedicate their time freely to helping cats at all hours of the day to check their chips and reunite them with their owners, take them to the vet or look after them until they need to be rehomed.

Last year, due to the increasing demand of cats needing assistance, the charity set up cat cabins where they can be looked after until they find their forever home, and the team of volunteers have been working tirelessly and some of the jobs they have been undertaking includes the cleaning of the cabins, hugging and playing with the cats to get them used to people, the fostering of cats until they find a home and maintaining their fundraising efforts.

The charity was established in 2013 by Penny Parker, and she has been left overwhelmed at the support of the founder of the awards.

Penny said: ‘They recognise the rescues and so many people give awards to groups and people but it is not very often that volunteers are recognised and we have all worked hard. We work hours after hours, days after days, all year round and she set up the animal awards and it was incredible and it really was amazing to be recognised and although we didn’t win, it was just amazing to be recognised because all of these people are caring for cats, dogs and horses.

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‘We normally just sit in the background and it is more about Mary because she is recognising volunteers for their hard work.’

Penny said how it has been a ‘very hard year’ because there has been an influx in animals being abandoned due to the cost of living crisis, and the volunteers at the rescue have had to work even harder to try and ensure that all of the animals are cared for.

She added: ‘It has been a very hard year because of everything that is going on, so many people are giving up their animals because they can’t afford to keep them, but because most of the rescues are full they just being abandoned.

‘It is awful and it is probably only going to get worse.’

The rescue have seen their volunteers step up to the pressure over the last few years, making them extremely worthy of being highly commended in the awards, but Penny fears that they will have to continue full steam ahead in order to save as many cats as possible.