About Cat Chat

Our Mission Statement:

"To facilitate the rehoming of unowned cats and kittens nationally through cat rescue groups, and to promote kindness to all animals."

Cat Chat - Who We Are:

Cat Chat is a UK Registered Charity (reg. no. 1100649)
We are a web-based Charity, currently finding loving, permanent homes for over 5,000 unwanted and abandoned cats every year from rescue shelters across the UK and Ireland through our ‘Virtual Cat Shelters’. Our on-line homing services are given free of charge to rescue groups, large and small, from the many hundreds of independent rescue centres and rehoming groups to branches of the larger organisations. We also help vet practices to find homes for cats left in their care.

How it Started:

Cat Chat was first launched in June 2000, by founders Mandy and Steve, inspired and assisted by their two rescue cats Gemini & George. As the website developed, and more shelters and cats were featured, so increasing numbers of rescued cats began finding homes through the site. The internet, and Cat Chat in particular, was fast becoming a vital rehoming resource for shelters. So, with the aim of helping many more rescued cats into homes, a small group of trustees was recruited and in 2003 Cat Chat became a registered Charity.

Since then, the Cat Chat site has found loving homes for many thousands of cats from rescue shelters and rehoming groups across the UK and Ireland - currently we source homes for over 5,000 rescued cats each year. To see a selection of cats recently homed, visit our » Rehoming Roll of Honour

Today, we have a dedicated team who keep the various areas of Cat Chat running » meet our Team. We are delighted also, to have two very special patrons: MP and animal welfare campaigner Sir Roger Gale and the wise and wonderful Bagpuss » meet our Patrons

Over the years the Cat Chat site has developed enormously, and continues to do so. We have recently extended our services to help vet practices when they have cats left with them for homing. Currently in development are new, improved cat homing pages for the shelters, and a brand new 'cats needing homes' section... watch this space!

Our Objectives

Through the Cat Chat website, we aim to help rescue centres in any way we can, to find more homes for cats in their care. Rescue centres are still continually full with stray, abandoned and unwanted cats and kittens, and despite the constant message of 'neuter, neuter, neuter!' it still seems there are too many homeless cats and too few homes. There are literally thousands of cats in care in the UK and Ireland right now, and it is still a sad fact that many cats are put to sleep each year because there are simply not enough homes to go round. We aim to do all we can to redress that balance.

The Objects in the Cat Chat Constitution are:

• "To promote the efficiency and effectiveness of charities whose purposes are to promote animal welfare, by the provision of an internet website, IT support and facilities"

• "To advance the education of the public in matters of animal welfare by the provision of a website and information service"

Our Activities

Here are some of the ways in which Cat Chat is currently helping rescue shelters, and helping cats:

• Cat Rehoming Pages for Shelters - We offer free cat homing web-pages to any UK or Ireland based rescue centre or rehoming group, enabling them to feature their cats seeking homes on the web. We set the page up, link it from Cat Chat and host and promote it at no cost to the rescue. We believe every cat in care should have an equal chance at a new, loving home, and these pages enable every kind of rescue and rehoming group, large or small to give them that chance. For full details click here »» Free Web Rehoming Page.

• Helping the Harder to Home Cats ('Top Cats' section) - Most shelters find they have a few cats that always seem to be overlooked, and often stay in care for months or even years. They may be elderly, have a medical condition, be very shy, or are simply passed by in favour of prettier or younger cats. Rescue shelters and rehoming groups can feature any 'harder to home' cats on our Top Cats section. This section has been very successful in finding new homes for many cats, some of whom had almost given up hope. Some of the cats rehomed via Top Cats appear on our »» Rehoming Roll of Honour.

• Rescue Shelter Listings - We always encourage people to go to a rescue centre when seeking a new animal companion, rather than going to a pet shop or breeder. To make this easier, we provide an extensive county by county database of rescue and rehoming centres across the UK and Ireland. We currently have around 1,300 rescue centres represented on our pages, and we are continually adding and updating our listings.
  Want to rescue a cat ? Start here »» Shelter Listings

• Kittens for Homing Listings - Most rescue shelters find they take in unwanted or abandoned mums and kittens from about April through to October (Kitten Season), and some even find they are inundated with them! We help find more homes for these kittens through our Rescue Centres with Kittens section. This not only helps the kittens, but frees up those rescue places for other cats in need.
  Want to adopt a rescue kitten (or two)? Start here »» Rescue Centres with Kittens Section
  
  
• Help for Vets - Vet practices tend not to have as many avenues for finding homes as rescue shelters do, and often find themselves either sheltering a cat for weeks, or even months on end. Therefore, our online services are also available to vets, to help find homes for cats left in their care.

• Public Advice & Education - We advise members of the public in matters relating to cat rescue and cat welfare, via our forum, helpdesk and via our qualified, volunteer advisers. We also aim to advance public education on a range of cat welfare issues through our Advice & Information pages.

• Feline Fund - Our 'Feline Fund' comprises of 5% of all page sponsorship and advertising revenue, plus 5% of the profit on sales of all items on our Web Shop’, plus £1.00 from each cat tribute placed on our Remembrance Page. The fund is donated to a rescue group or shelter chosen at random from our shelter listings each time the fund reaches £100. »» Feline Fund info.

We have achieved a great deal since our launch in June 2000, but we have much further to go, and lots of plans are in the pipeline. We believe we can make a huge difference to the future of the 'unowned cat', and maybe, just maybe, one day every cat will be a wanted cat. If you would like to help, find out how here »» How to Help Cat Chat

Cat Chat Newsletters

Our quarterly newsletters bring you the latest happenings & homings at Cat Chat. Available to view (PDF) here: