Bees

We live on a wonderful 83 acre farm, with ponds, nice dogs walks,  trees and wildlife.  Apart from having 112 rescued cats at the moment, we have goats, Mr and Mrs Peacock, geese, ducks, chickens, rabbits and dogs.

It has been really quiet here during lockdown.  The pathways have not been cut, so the wild flowers have flourished. You can hear the wildlife going about their business.  Yesterday Holly found the biggest rat we have ever seen here, obviously caught by one of the cats.  The ponds are full, due to all the recent rain, and now the sunshine is out everything is growing fast.

Well today started off with me only finding two left shoes, I went to the toilet with a cat curled round my neck and spraying the deodorant the wrong way round so I got a face full.  I then found another pair of shoes which had a right one as well.  So we headed off across the fields on our usual dog walk, me with a scarf over my head to stop the ticks falling on my head or the bees getting caught in my hair.

The walk went really well, we had only three cats following us today and we reached the pond, without incident, which was quiet and beautiful as always and the dogs love to go in it to look for frogs.

After remarking how tranquil it was and how lovely it was to hear the wildlife, taking picture and enjoying the moment, we set off back home.

We had just said to each other how nice it was that the wild flowers were allowed to flourish this year as it helped the bees, when a bee decided to land on Holly's hat.  Screaming to me that she had a bee on her and 'GET IT OFF' 'GET IT OFF' was spewing from her mouth at great speed, while she shook, jumped and threw herself around.  I whipped her hat off, threw it on the floor and told her it had gone.  The dog thinking this was most exciting, grabbed her hat in his mouth and proceeded to treat it like prey, tossing it around and catching it in his mouth.

Two seconds later, she was screaming again 'ITS IN MY HAIR GET IT OUT' so in her hair I go lifting bits, parting bits, searching for the bee.  I finally found it and it didn't seem to want to exit. I tried everything I could but it didn't want to leave.  Holly, by this time, was hysterical and it took all my strength not the laugh and I was in so much pain trying to hold it together.  We finally got the bee out of her hair after she had ripped out her hair tie, shook her head around vigorously, screaming and jumping around.

So the walk continued for another 2 seconds.  It was then that I couldn't contain myself any longer and burst out laughing so much I was crying, as Holly screamed, cried and yelled that there was a third bee down her t-shirt now and proceeded to launch her top off onto the floor,  revealing that she was wearing absolutely nothing underneath.  She bounced around in full glory, doing the ministry of silly walks, making sure the bee had finally departed.  The dog by this time was on excitement overload and was barking, running around grabbing her hat and t-shirt in his mouth and thinking this was so much fun.  I on the other hand couldn't see for laughing, the vision of Holly running back to the house, partially dressed, arms flailing around, hair cascading down her naked body, with friendly bees following her just made my day complete.

My thoughts for the day are, how lucky we are to live in a remote rural farm with so much land around us.  Wonderful to have so much wildlife around us, even if they get a little too close.  Great to be able to have a laugh everyday even during these difficult times.

Stay Safe and love from The Funny Farm.

Strange Times

We are in the middle of very strange times.  The roads are deserted, the shops are empty and the skies are quiet.  We at the Funny Farm Cat Rescue are without all our lovely volunteers, all the people who help the charity flourish and continue.  All our brilliant supporters are locked away in their houses, all our planned events are now cancelled and we are feeling quite sad.  

We currently have around 100 cats and kittens who we look after daily on the farm.  We have a few who have been adopted but due to the lockdown situation are residing with us until this pandemic is over. 

On a daily basis we have to clean around 40 cat toilets, we get through around 100 litres of cat litter when we change all toilets, we use around 20 tins of cat food a day, around 24 sachets of meat, around 15 kgs of cat biscuits a day. We have around 5-6 loads of washing to do everyday which takes around a bottle of washing liquid every 4-5 days and we are in constant use of kitchen rolls, disinfectant, surgical gloves,  bleach, mop heads, clothes, plus when we have tiny unvaccinated kittens we use lots of shoe protectors, aprons and masks. 

For all the above we solely rely on donations.  On a Wednesday, which is our open day, we receive lots of food donations, we have some people who order online and have the cat food delivered to us, we have some people who donate money to buy cat food and without all of this kindness we couldn't carry on our work.  Today the sales room and cafe is closed.

We have massive vets bills because every kitten that arrives on the farm has to be tested, micro chipped, vaccinated and sterilised.  Even with a discount this costs of lot of money. If you have a little family of kittens arriving and there are 4 girls and 1 boy, for example, it would cost us well over 1000 euros to get them ready for adoption. 

Without our shop and cafe being open every week our revenue has ceased.  Without being open ever Wednesday our donations of food has stopped.  We have a few wonderful supporters who have sent us food parcels for the cats which has been invaluable. Without a finish date to this pandemic we are in crisis.  Our little hungry mouths don't understand that they are on rations and that we are trying our best to give them food everyday.  I know lots of charities are in the same position and we feel for you all. It is a very difficult time for us all.  We have a job to do and a responsibility to all the rescued animals in our care but this is a team effort and without all our volunteers, supporters, followers and people who care we wouldn't be able to do the job we do.  

Without all your kindness all the animals in our care would not be alive now.  They all have a story to tell and most are very sad stories and today we are pleading for your help during these scary times.  

PLEASE  

IF YOU CAN HELP US IN ANY WAY WE WOULD BE REALLY GRATEFUL

SHARE OUR STORY AROUND THE WORLD

THINK OF ALL THE CHARITIES AROUND THE WORLD WHO ARE STRUGGLING AT THE MOMENT - IF YOU CAN'T HELP US HELP THEM

FINALLY PLEASE STAY SAFE AND WELL AND WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS DREADFUL TIME 

 SENDING OUT LOVE AROUND THE WORLD 

STAY STRONG 

PayPal - thefunnyfarmrescue@gmail.com

Cheque - payable to The Funny Farm Cat Rescue

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The Funny Farm Cat Rescue

Le Grand Beaupuits

79200

St Germain de Longue Chaume

France

The Funny Farm Cat Rescue

We run a little Association that rescues abandoned kittens and cats.  We neuter, vaccinate, chip and test and then do our best to get them adopted.  This is no easy feat.

10 years ago we were given two cats that the owner couldn't keep as they were moving away for work.

We then were given a tiny kitten from the vets.  He had been brought in and the vets didn't expect him to live.  I remember bringing him home and putting him on my daughters bed and told her to try to keep him alive.  It was just after my mum had died and everyone was in deep depression.  This tiny white blob gave my daughter a reason to breath.  She cared for that little white kitten like her life depended on it and he is still with us now.



We were then given a cat with a leg missing.  He had been found on the road by the pompiers and brought to the local vets.



We have since had kittens found abandoned in the woods, kittens left on our drive way, young cats left locked in flats with no food or water, cats left behind when people move, kittens found on the side of the road in a box, kittens who have lost their mother to the road, little deaf blind kittens, kittens thrown away when not wanted anymore, kittens about to be drowned, disabled cats, cats with seizures, kittens with severe life threatening injuries,  we have taken on old cats when their owners take them in to the vets to be euthanatised, we have taken on cats when their owners have died and the list just goes on and on.



















I remember one little kitten who came to us covered from head to toe in fleas.  They were visibly crawling all over her face, in her eyes, in her ears, all over her body, just about every inch of her body.  We gently held her in a sink of warm water.  Took over an hour taking every flea off her face and body and washing the dirt out of her fur.  We actually saw her body go from a tense ball to a relaxed relieved little life.  She suddenly went limp and started purring.  The relief must have been so wonderful, not to have her whole body crawling alive.

We were given two little young cats who had been left in a flat with nothing, they were skin and bone.  One had lost most of her fur because she was infested with fleas.  We spent a few months building her up, medicating her and showing her love.  She gradually grew her fur back and put some weight on and started looking like a healthy pussy cat again.

We have battled through illnesses, staying up all night trying to get kittens to feed otherwise they would die.  We have spent weeks medicating 30+ cats, we have watched kittens slowly fade away - known as fading kitten syndrome.  On many occasions we have been at the vets in the middle of the night, helping to put drips in kittens and injecting them in an effort to save their lives.  We have watched a cat , who had been so severely mistreated, go through operations never to recover.  We have lost count of the times we have driven to the vets at 3am in the morning with a sick kitten.  We have sat and cradled many kittens until they passed away.  We have spent sleepless nights helping kittens to live and watching them slowly come back from the brink.  We have also driven out in the night with powdered kitten milk for someone who has just found some kittens. We have helped mum cats to give birth and we have waved goodbye to 100s of cats as they go to their new homes and start their new lives.


We have re-homed many hundreds of cats, which is our main aim.  Below is the sales room before our wonderful volunteers arrived and organised it.  This was my efforts which I thought were quite good!! Looking at the difference between then and now there is no comparison!



We have lots of wonderful volunteers who have transformed the place. We cannot put into words how grateful we are for the hard work they put into making the place look so good.  We are truly grateful for the support we get from everyone who donates their items for us to sell.  Our sales room now looks fantastic and we have a beautiful cafe where we have freshly brewed coffee and tea and homemade cakes every week.














We have various events throughout the year including a quiz night, Easter Fun Day, Christmas Fete, Summer Fun Day and many other wonderful days. We have an online auction every month, we have a sponsorship programme for the cats who never found homes and reside on the farm.  We have a foster programme for people who would like to help us with the cats and kittens and we welcome people to become members of our little Association.

We are blessed with volunteers who come and help us with the task of cleaning, feeding and caring for the many kittens and cats we have.  These people don't mind getting dirty and mucking in, cleaning our the litter trays, taking bedding home to wash, taking bags of recycling home to put in their bins, cleaning out the crates, washing bowls, sweeping the floors and cuddling the cats.  We have volunteers who knit blankets for the cats and sew lovely bedding out of donated duvets and covers. We have people who regularly bring food for the cats and kittens and some people order online and we get a very unexpected but very needed box of cat food arriving on our doorstep.



We rely totally on the kindness of people who donate and the hard work put in by our volunteers is priceless. We have been able to take on so many more kittens since, due to the fact that we have so much support.















We have a variety of products that we have designed.  We had some lovely calendars for this year, we have some mugs with our logo on and some with our rescued cats on.  We have t-shirts and bags and we have a variety of handmade cards and some with our rescued cats on.











At the moment we are in the middle of a neutering programme.  All the last years kittens (29) are now getting to the age where they need to be neutered.  We have vaccinated them all, chipped them all, tested for FIV and FeLV and now they need to be neutered.  Then the last step is to get them all adopted. This is the most important thing because we are full and we will be unable to save the new kittens that will be abandoned and in need this year.  This picture is just a few of the kittens that need neutering.



We try to be as transparent as possible and post on facebook everything we do and raise and keep everyone up to date with all our cats and kittens and everything happening to them. We hope to give everyone something of interest to read.

Please share this far and wide so people get to know us and what we do.  We love to see or hear from new people.  We have a wealth of knowledge and are happy to share what we know.  We try to help cats and kittens even when we cannot take them on the farm.  We have sterilised a lot of wild cats , we post pictures of cats in need of adoption but are not staying with us.  We do all we can to help, in whatever way we can.

If you would like to check us out, our facebook is:
The Funny Farm Cat Rescue
Our Website is:
thefunnyfarmcatrescue.com
If you would like to contact us our email is:
thefunnyfarmrescue@gmail.com
If you would like to donate our PayPal is:
thefunnyfarmrescue@gmail.com
If you would like to come and visit us we are open on Wednesday afternoons 2pm-4pm at:
Le Grand Beaupuits, 79200 St Germain de Longue Chaume France

Thank you for taking the time to read our little story, we hope to hear from you or see you.  Please tell everyone about us and what we do so we can get our little Rescue Centre known around the world


Thank you

Heather and Holly X