Help us save cats & kittens from the cold this winter

Thank you for considering our winter appeal. I'm Holly Brockwell from Holly's Merry Moggies, a small, independent shelter in the Midlands specialising in disabled and elderly cats. You might have seen some headlines like this one from The Guardian about how cat abandonments have gone up by a third this year as the cost of living crisis kicks in. I've been running the shelter for four years now, and honestly, I think it's even worse than that.

Every year, we and the other shelters are swamped over the summer during Kitten Season. Usually, it stops at the end of August, but this year, it's almost November and it hasn't even slowed down. I've never seen anything like it. I'm getting requests literally every day to take abandoned kittens and pregnant mums.

There are also vastly more homeless cats on the streets this year, and it's about to get really cold. I won't lie, I'm worried sick. Just this week I got this heartbreaking photo of an unwanted cat trying to find something to eat in bags of rubbish:

And we recently got a call about this kitten who was found begging for scraps outside a McDonald's:

I want to be able to say yes when cats like this come in hoping for a miracle. Like this 7-year-old kitty whose substance-addicted owner has neglected her to the point that she's skin and bone with multiple rampant infections and needs urgent help to save her life:

Or this kitten found wandering the streets, who has already lost one eye to a genetic condition and may well need surgery to remove the other:

I really, really hate asking for help like this and always do everything I can to avoid it. But I'm out of options. My credit cards and overdraft are maxed out, and last month I took a £5,000 loan (the maximum I was allowed) which has already gone on vet treatment (I am happy to provide proof of any of this, send me a DM). I still owe over £1,000 on vet treatment and have cats coming in constantly who desperately need medical help to stop their pain and suffering, to get them healthy and happy again. (We never, ever put a cat to sleep unless there's absolutely nothing else we can do -- we are a no-kill shelter).

If you can contribute, you will be directly helping cats who have nowhere else to turn. Cats who've done nothing wrong but who are facing a freezing winter with nowhere to shelter, nothing to eat, and no one to love them. Every donation means a chance for an unwanted cat to come in from the cold, to be cuddled and fed, and maybe even to have a home of their own this Christmas.

Thank you.