Appeal as Avid’s Angels Cat Rescue ‘bursting at the seams’

Jenny Herriot co-founded Avid’s Angels Cat Rescue alongside friend Michelle Morson in April 2023 – naming the organisation after Jenny’s beloved late feline, who passed away, aged 19, during the pandemic.

“Basically, he was a mummy cat to all kittens, he used to take every cat under his wing – well, not his wing, because obviously he’s a cat,” Jenny explained.

Based on Crompton Way, the organisation is run completely by volunteers from home.

Jenny’s 26-year-old daughter, Chloe, even runs the rescue’s social media pages.

Cats are first introduced to the rescue via the cattery in Jenny’s back garden.

They are then put into the organisation’s network of volunteer fosterers. Inless than a year, the organisation has already facilitated nearly 70 adoptions.

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Jenny said: “The volunteer list is growing, and we’re always asking for more. I’ve got in-house fosterers on board, I’ve got cattery assistants because I’ve got a cattery in my back garden for strays.”

The organisation helped Willem to recover (Image: Avid's Angels Cat Rescue)

To raise money, the organisation will now be holding an anniversary fundraiser at Heaton Cricket Club between 11am and 4.30pm on Monday, April 1.

The event, which will include an Easter Egg Hunt, stalls, refreshments, and a performance by the Bolton Baton Twirlers, promises to be a ‘good family day’, according to Jenny.

Jenny told The Bolton News that the fundraiser is needed as rescues become increasingly full.

The 49-year-old said: “We’ve always got animals coming in, we’ve got about 50 on our waiting list needing to come in – but we’ve just not got the space to bring them in at the minute.

“They’re still in the homes or we’ve got people that are just looking after them until we can bring them in.

“It’s awful really, because you’re having to play God all the time. If people would just neuter their cats. It’s just awful, we’re in a cat crisis at the moment.

“It’s not just my rescue that’s like this, a lot of other rescues are completely full up at the moment.

“There are schemes going on where you can get your cat neutered and chipped for as little as £10.”

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Jenny said she thought the ‘double whammy’ of the Covid pandemic followed by the cost-of-living crisis has exacerbated the problem.

She said: “It’s impacted for people who cannot afford to feed and look after their pets. They’re either kicking them out and we’re picking them up or they’re going on the waiting list to come in to us to be re-homed.”

Jenny added: “Can people just please ensure that they get their cats neutered. In the long-term it helps us as rescues because we are absolutely full to capacity, bursting at the seams, and it’s just awful.

“Some of the states that these cats come in to us, it’s just heartbreaking for us as rescuers. The decisions that us rescuers end up having to make at some points.

“Sometimes, obviously, dependent on how bad the cat is when we bring it in, sometimes you can’t save them all.

"We’ve got to do the best by the cat, obviously we do not advocate euthanasia for no reason, we obviously try and get the animal right and re-homed, but sometimes the state that the animal’s come in, it’s just horrific, because they’ve just been left to fend for themselves and they’re unneutered.

“Unneutered males fight, and they can fight to the death. They’re coming in with scars, abscesses, that type of stuff. Sometimes decisions need to be made which are not nice.

“There’s good parts to rescue but there’s also very sad parts, and unfortunately us as rescues, we see it all.”

This article has been updated with details of Jenny's co-founder, Michelle.

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