Sue is picking up a domestic cat & her feral kittens from a derelict cottage this week - Lisa & her mum will be taking care of them and will be handling the kittens a lot to get them socialized enough for homing  - thanks in advance for all their hard work.
Thanks this week also go to Sarah Wallder for her kind donation of £100; Linda & Kevin for their donation of cat food; and kitten fosterer Linda for bumper donation of 300 cat food sachets & tins!!
Special thanks go to David of Newburgh for driving Sue & Gilpin to the Glasgow Small Animal hospital for Gilpin to get his treatment, which he appears to be coping very well with.

Sue had a good day at the car boot sale in Edinburgh this week, raising £235. We are in desperate need of baby food jars, with their lids, for our jam-making – they can be dropped off at our shops in Newburgh & Auchtermuchty.

Calls are starting to come in for feral kittens that need to be collected – the only problem we have is where to put them! Would anyone like to help out with fostering? 'The only difference between domestic and feral kittens is FEAR" is the tag line in a very good article from the cats action trust. To read the rest of the article click  here

Over the past 3 weeks Sue has picked up 5 single smelly feral toms from all over the place. People happily feed these cats until they go on holiday when they are left to fend for themselves. 

Sue discovered a naughty goose sitting on 4 eggs out in the paddock this week – she was lucky the fox wasn’t about! It is very hard to move a broody goose so Sue retrieved the eggs and put them under 2 hens & the goose is now back where she should be!

We have sad news about Sue’s dog Gilpin – he has a tumour in the cartilage in his nose & has now been started on a month of radiotherapy treatment.Hopefully this will extend his life and he will be able to see the daffodils again.

A wee kitten called Hugo was taken to our vet this week for a check up after being picked up by one of our kitten fosterers. He was given a flea treatment & the fleas were literally falling off him – we stopped counting at 150!!! What you many not know is that FLEAS CAN KILL KITTENS – such tiny creatures can be made so weak by the fleas sucking their blood that they can quickly go downhill and die. So, please remember to regularly de-flea your cats & kittens (vets sell special kitten spot-on treatments).

The weather forecast for last Sunday wasn’t that great so Sue did the car boot sale at Edinburgh instead and raised £290. She would like to thank the anonymous person who handed in some lovely jewellery & watches to our Auchtermuchty shop – the money raised from them will feed the cats at Whinnybank for a week! We have had a nice lot of cat food handed in to both our shops over the past month – many thanks go to all concerned. Finally, thanks also go to Maureen of Auchtermuchty for her kind donation of money, plants and cat food.

 

Steven & David tried a new fundraising venture in St Andrews last week – they had a book stall in Church Square & raised £175. We will probably try it again some time. Thanks to Sophie & Ian for letting Steven park his car at their home after unloading – and for the donation of cat food, bric-a-brac and a bottle of wine.

Sue did the car boot sale at Edinburgh on Sunday & raised £280 – she had to laugh as a lady was interested in a pair of shoes that were £1 – when she tried them on they were way too big so she offered Sue 50p!!!

The Sanctuary is full of cats at the moment & we are now getting prepared for a busy kitten season too – a litter of kittens was born at Star of Markinch a week ago and we are getting more coming in on top of the ones our fosterers are already looking after. The two feral boys which we caught last week are staying at Whinnybank & are settling into their pen. Special thanks this week go to Donna for her generous donation towards the MOT on the red van.

Sue’s dog Gilpin, who is very much loved by all her friends and helpers is undergoing investigation for nasal problems at the ‘Vets Now’ Hospital in Glasgow. David from Newburgh kindly drove Sue to the hospital to drop Gilpin off, a kindness for which she is very grateful. We’ll keep you informed on Gilpin’s progress.

Good news – 2 stray cats have been claimed by their owners this week; bad news – we have 11 cats & kittens coming in this weekend! They are all from the same household and will be listed on our website soon with their photos.

We are recruiting volunteers for our Newburgh shop now – if you have a few hours to spare we are looking for anyone who could work half a day or more a week, we especially need cover Mondays – Thursdays.
We had a good car boot sale in Edinburgh at the weekend, raising £300, one man bought £25 of jam!! We are in need of baby food jars and lids for our jam, if you can remove the labels it would be a great help.

Many thanks this week go to Louise from PADS (Perth Abandoned Dogs Society) for the donation of cat food & cat beds; and to Claire Swan for delivering some duvets to kitten fosterer Linda – all she needs now to get started on making pet beds again is material. If you have any curtains, duvet covers or material, with kiddies designs or stripes, please call Linda on 01382 330457

As it was so cold last Sunday we decided to do Edinburgh car boot sale instead of Tayport so apologies to anyone who missed us at Tayport – we will be back next time. We had a good day at Edinburgh, raising £260 by selling a phenomenal amount of eggs and jam!!

Sue recently had a chance to get away for a few days with her Grandson so she wishes to thank everyone who made it possible, especially Lisa, Steven, Jan, Claire, John and Jasmine for looking after the Sanctuary and all its residents. We are not sure who was most pleased to see her home again – the dogs or the people! Thanks this also week go to Marjorie of Kingskettle for her donation of cat food and beautiful planters and hanging baskets – they are selling well for us at very reasonable prices.

Kitten fosterer Linda has been asked to make more large animal beds but has run out of both material and quilts. If you have any old quilts (not feather please) or nice material that she can put to good use please call Linda on 01382 330457. She could also do with more sewing machine needles as sewing through quilts is hard on them and they break regularly – she would appreciate donations of any size 16 needles for the quilts, smaller sizes for the material.

Kitten fosterer Linda, having just knitted & sold well over 100 Easter chicks to raise funds for Whinnybank, gave up her Sunday a couple of weeks ago to spend the day at her sewing machine to raise funds for us yet again.  She made 17 animal beds from lovely children’s animal print, tartan, and yellow striped material and passed them on to Clare the vet who sells them to raise money for the sanctuary.
They are selling really well - in just three days nearly £50 was raised. She has been asked to make more large beds but has run out of both material and quilts. If you have any old quilts (not feather please) or nice material that she can put to good use please call Linda on 01382 330457. She could also do with more sewing machine needles as sewing through quilts is hard on them and they break regularly – she would appreciate donations of any size 16 needles for the quilts, smaller sizes for the material. Keep up the good work Linda!

Thanks this week go to William and Ann Duff from Balmullo for their kind donation of bric-a-brac and cat food. It’s very much appreciated. Finally, we would all like to say a Very Happy 50TH Birthday to Whinnybank volunteer Kim from Edinburgh

Kitten fosterers Linda and Kevin who took on 2 pregnant semi feral cats a couple of weeks ago are pleased to report that both have now had their litters - a set of 3 and a set of 4 kittens.  They are proving to be great mums and are sharing the feeding of the kittens between them, even though there was a week between the births.
Linda and Kevin are putting in a lot of work and deserve special thanks for their commitment.

With these hard economic times we are starting to think ‘out of the box’ for ways to raise funds, for example, we have started to collect scrap metal which we can convert into food for the cats. We are also collecting old stamps, foreign/old coins and ‘coppers’  - something that Blue Peter has been doing for years! Coins etc can be dropped off at our shop; scrap metal can be dropped off at the Sanctuary or can be uplifted.

Kitten fosterer Linda has done her bit yet again and raised £150 with her knitted Easter Chicks – thanks go to Linda for all her hard work and to Susan & Jeff in the Gauldry shop, Norma from Gauldry, and Clare the vet for helping to sell them. The money raised will go towards reducing our vet bill.

Thanks this week also go to Marjorie for her faithful donation of plants – this week she donated lots of beautiful plants including verbena, mimulus, sunflowers and even pak choi!

At the book sale in Dundee last Friday we had a fantastic day. Long term Whinnybank volunteer Linda Naismith was shopping in Dundee and decided to help out for four hours – her encyclopaedic knowledge of books definitely helped us to raise £405! This was way more that we took the week before Christmas, which is usually our busiest sale. She is a busy lady but has promised to help out again in the future. We also did the car boot sale in Edinburgh on Sunday and raised another £160.

Sue is not happy with the finishing of our shop in Newburgh as it needs to be made safe for customers – apologies for the delay but we hope to reopen soon so watch this space. Special thanks this week go to Mr Gordon Blakely from St Andrews for his bumper donation of cat and kitten food