Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hi. i'm hoping someone on here can help / offer advice. My uncle passed away recently. As executor of his estate I have flown out from South Africa to attend to this. He has, however, 5 cats. From what I know of them they are all rescue cats, 3 female 2 male, chipped and neutered, ranging in age from 5 to 11 years. I have to travel back to South Africa in 3 weeks and am at a loss as to what to do with them. I have been in touch with the local vet, and several rescue organizations in the area. They all say they are full and to try another centre. I have run out of options now. Understandably, I cannot take them with me, nor can I abandon them. We have no more family in the UK that may have helped, as we all reside in Africa now. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance x

Have you tried Cats Protection? As it is a national organisation they might know of somewhere not too far away but outside the immediate area covered by 'local' rescue centres.

Thank you for making such an effort for these cats. They are lucky to have you.

I'm sorry to hear about your uncle.

It's really nice of you to help his cats.

Here is Cat Chat's list of rescues by county:
https://www.catchat.org/index.php/cat-r ... uk-ireland

I would contact as many as you can in your uncle's area, but avoid the RSPCA.

If you tell us where you are, some of us may have contacts in that area.

I'm sorry to hear about your Uncle and I also want to say thank you for looking after his cats.

I can only reiterate what the others have said, contact all the rescues in the area and explain the situation, hopefully one can find room before you have to leave.

I would also say check any paperwork he might have for the cats, if they were rescues it might say where they came from, in which case contact that charity, most would prefer to have a cat they rehomed originally back rather than think of it going onto the streets or worse. (I don't know about anyone else, but I admit to still having the Cats Protection paperwork from when we adopted our first two cats back in '97, though the cats are long gone now).

I do hope you can get something sorted.

was your uncle friendly with neighbours? did his cats go outside?

if there are neighbours who knew him and his cats you might just get lucky and find someone to take a cat or two, so I would try flyers in the neighbourhood - if there is no one who can help there might be someone who knows someone - I can't see any harm in trying this

you might also find a local paper would run a piece about your plight, which might find a new owner for you

Resources can be very stretched for rescues maybe if you could offer assistance with the cost of care of the cats while they were in rescue payable from your uncles estate it may help be careful only to make such an offer to no kill genuine rescues such as cat protection though