Heather Chapman – Instagram

Heather Chapman, like so many of our volunteers Heather kind of just woke up one day realizing she was now a volunteer 😀 As much as we have some volunteer roles advertised on our webpage, they are really more for inspiration than anything else. The reality is that volunteering is something that is about what you feel that you can offer, be that joining a volunteer day at the sanctuary or pricing up stock in a shop.
In Heathers case it really started with a surrendered cat that needed a place to land.
Heather had just taken over a cattery (
The Garden Cattery – Your cat's home away from home) and what better place for a nervous cat to get back on her paws! 😀

First things first: How did you find Hallswood?
-I first found Hallswood when I needed somewhere to donate the cat bed that my recently adopted kitten absolutely refused to use! I took it, along with some old clothes to 177.

How long have you been volunteering now and what do you help with?
-I have been volunteering since late September 2020, when I fostered and rehabbed a cat in my cattery. She'd not had the best of home lifes so needed somewhere to relax and let her know humans were okay. I help manage Hallswoods Instagram and I have sold earrings in the Handmade Hub as well.

What is your favourite part about helping Hallswood?
-My favourite part of helping Hallswood is knowing that there are so many like-minded people who all do little things to help.

And dare I ask what the worst part is?
-My least favourite part will be sorting out the recycling bins when people don't sort properly.

What would you say to encourage someone to help us by joining our crazy family of volunteers?
-Even if you can only give an hour of your time every month, we will find something for you to do, and you'll love it!

Famous last words: what is your favorite saying?
My favourite saying? We can't all do everything, but if each one of us does something, we can make the world a better place.

Heather and her husband run a cattery together - isn't it beautiful!

Shiny Cat and beautiful fashion

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Cat Nash of www.fashionfromvintage.co.uk has, for several years now, had a mutually prosperous working relationship with Hallswood Animal Sanctuary.
Damaged textiles, including tablecloths, duvet covers, pillowcases, doilies, and handkerchiefs from our shops, have been repurposed into stunningly unique pieces of individually designed women’s clothing.
She also helps price jewelry for Hallswood’s shops/website, provides homes for unwanted kittens, sends her husband to judge charity dog shows, and much more besides. Talk about all in 🙂
 
The photos you see here are from our amazing event at the Bishop's garden a few years back. The models some of the beautiful women helping Hallswood.
 
So go have a look at her page.
Help a local, independent business and get a truly unique piece of fashion (with the added bonus of helping us at the same time of course 🙂 )
 
xxMaria
 
PS. Right now she is donating £2.50 per sale from her web-shop - in case you needed some more encouragement 😉

Sad start to a Sunday morning :(

One of the most common call outs we have are for deer.
She is beautiful doe, huge kind eyes . Fallow deer stand over 3 ft tall she weighs 150 kgs
How can someone not see her? Yes they can come out of nowhere and have done to me in the past... however this is a wide open Rd with good visibility..... she is part of a 6 strong herd who travel together I have seen them many times.
How could they just leave her?
Why not call someone?
It was a on duty service person who called while on a emergency she found the time!!
Now waiting for the on call vet, she has had some pain relief but may of laid here in pain for so long:( .
Everything has too die but nothing needs to suffer like this:((

Gizmo

At the end of 2019 we were contacted by one of our loyal supporters about a neighbor who was struggling with caring for her three unneutered male cats. We and our supporter agreed to take on one of the cats each. They were neutered, vaccinated and chipped and our one was rehomed. Emily agreed to take her one into her own home.
 
Fast forward to this September and we were advised that the remaining one cat needed to be helped. Emily fed him while we waited for a space to become available. He was brought to us and kept at the sanctuary until we could get him neutered. This took a little while as it was during the second lockdown and vets were only spaying females. A space became available with Sandra, one of our fosterers, and we were able to get him neutered and vaccinated at our vets.
 
A few weeks before we had a lady who emailed us wanting to adopt a male tabby cat. This poor boy with us was terribly scared and nervous. We explained the situation to the lady and she went to meet him. She agreed to rehome him. We always try to get as much information about potential adoptees so we can try to find the perfect cat for your situation. Often the match is not instant but when it's found it's purrrrrfect 🙂
This is another happy ending now safely in his new home - just read these comments from the new owner!
 
"Just to let you know that Gizmo has settled very well, I picked him up a couple of hours ago xx"
 
"He slept on our bed all night, he's wonderful xx"
 
"Oh yes, he's wonderful, so affectionate albeit still a little nervous of loud noises xx"
 
Do you want to help us help more cats like Gizmo?
PayPal us a donation to paypal.me/hallswood or check out our homepage for more info on Hallswood and how you can help us help them <3
https://hallswood.co.uk/

We love local!!

Ken's Corn Stores are long term supporters of the sanctuary and they have been a fantastic support in the last year. They have donated food, installed a donation bin for their customers and allow people to pre order straw and hay for us so we can just collect! How amazing is that 😀
We just received a message from supporter Tracey who has done just that! Thank you again Tracey <3
Even in normal times we use more straw during winter, but with DEFRA restrictions we go through more than normal!

The pictures show the last time we emptied the donation bin at Kens. Isn't that just amazing!

#supportlocalbusiness
#AnimalRescue
#taverhamgardencenter
#kenscornstore

 

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Hogs hogging all the food :)

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It is almost hard to see that the bald ball in the picture is a hedgehog but it is. He is one of around 200 hogs currently being cared for at the main site.
He was brought to us with really bad mites, poor little thing, but is now being treated and doing really well.

The two tiny hogs are babies overwintering with us - too tiny to survive hibernation.

Every day we go through 45 tins of cat food to feed these little monsters. Where we would normally ask you to maybe buy a tin or two, now we feel it would be bad to encourage you guys to go outside unless necessary. So instead we have placed an order for £468 worth of tins from Aldi. At just 39 pence per tin, it is a really good price 🙂

Could you sponsor a tin or 2? If so, PayPal to [email protected] or go to www.hallswood.co.uk and click the PayPal button there to send a donation (you can use a card there).

Help us feed these little dudes for another month 🙂

xxMaria

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