In loving memory
One of the sad realities of cat ownership and caretaking is the time to say goodbye.
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Here in our Retirement Village, the main goal is have the cats in our care live out a healthy and happy end to their lives. We work closely with our vets to ensure we do what's best for the cats in our care, this includes operations, treatments and medications to help ease their ailments. Unfortunately, sometimes the best thing we can do is let them be at peace.
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We have a lovely collection of memorial stones in our village to honour those we have loved and lost, but since the rise in popularity on Social Media, we are aware that viewers and visitors have become fond of our Village cats and also feel the loss.
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So this page is dedicated to our past Villagers / Residents.
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Please note this will be updated as and when we are able to - it has started from our last memorial video in late August 2024.
If you or someone you know is struggling with the loss of a pet, Blue Cross have a fantastic pet bereavement support service and we highly suggest you check them out at : https://www.bluecross.org.uk/pet-bereavement-and-pet-loss
Popeye
Popeye arrived in May 2024 as a stray from another rescue, missing an eye and blind in the other, Popeye was a big soft cat who happily settled into the village and enjoyed wondering around minding his own business!
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His docile ways made him a favourite with volunteers and cats alike.
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He started to loose weight gradually in the past few months and despite weeks of investigations nothing was coming up as a cause. Suddenly at the start of September, his mouth was inflamed, his teeth and gums sore and his body was starting to give up.
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Even with our vets vast knowledge and experience, we simply couldn't get ahead of it and his suffering meant we had to do what was best for him. We sadly said goodbye in September 2025.
Primrose
Primrose arrived in March 2024 in a severely neglected state. Crippled with pain, sores all over her body and covered in bald patches, she was a very sorry state! She was suffering so much that she could barely move from her bed, between her own fear and her pain, we had to be very careful with her.
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But she showed that she was still a loving and friendly lady with a big personality hiding beneath. So we got working on helping her feel better, working on her skin and helping her pain levels whilst working out what we could do with a nearly 8 year old at the time.
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X-Rays showed that she had severe fusion of her neck vertebrae meaning she was always walking with a tilted head and unable to move her neck. To ease the discomfort, she was put on medication and brought down to the Village in an attempt to help her exercise and loosen her stiff limbs.
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After a while she started to flourish! On meds for her stiffness and sore skin, she found her way around the village with ease and made all the volunteers and visitors listen to her stories about her day (and demands for attention!). She loved life in the Village and showed visitors that the Village is more than just a home for old cats. It can help younger cats rehabilitate too.
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Unfortunately due to the fusion, she slowly started to loose feeling in her leg and by August, she couldn't bear weight on it at all and the other was starting to weaken too. She had decided she had enough and let us know she was ready to be at peace. ​
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Flora
Flora arrived in April 2024 after her owner sadly went into care and she was left alone. Scared and now alone, Flora struggled to adapt to our Village and didn't want volunteers to touch her for long. So we respected her wishes and left her to find her place in the village.
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After a while, she softened and enjoyed being around people, even coming up to request fuss and attention! She enjoyed her time in the village, despite her dislike for the other cats, she took it in her stride and settled.
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In early August 2025, her appetite suddenly slowed and in the short span of a few days, she developed a lump on her face. As it grew further, investigations showed it was a fast growing mouth tumour that was already impacting her jaw. So she was put to rest before she suffered anymore.
Jingle
Jingle was rescued as a stray on Christmas Eve and arrived at the shelter a few days later.
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With a lot of health issues mainly revolving around his skin and his mouth, a distrust of humans and cats, Jingle had a rough start with us. We tried to adapt him to our Village where he found a way to co exist with the other cats.
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As time went on, his skin issues continued to flair up causing him pain and irritation that we could not manage. The damage had been done and the pain mixed with the medication side effects eventually caused him to turn on the other cats and volunteers.
Eventually it was clear after several attacks on the Villagers that his pain and health issues were far too severe that we had to let him go.
Mabel
Mabel arrived with 7 other cats in late January 2021, when their owner had become too ill to care for them anymore. Despite not even being 10 at the time, Mabel had ongoing issues with non-cancerous masses growing down her ears so moved into our Village so we could keep an eye on it and treat when necessary.
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She later developed high blood pressure which rendered her blind, but still enjoyed her sun spot in the Village!
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Unfortunately, she started to decline rapidly at the start of April 2025 and it was found that one of her masses had developed into cancer and it was spreading fast.
Pipsqueak
Pipsqueak came to us in May 2022 when her owner passed away.
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Originally a Villager, she struggled to settle around so many cats and eventually became a Resident. Happily coming and going from the outbuildings and often found in the office, Pipsqueak was a chatty lady who most visitors met along the way.
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She already had kidney disease but it was maintained by medication for the time being, she also was arthritic and had high blood pressure - but never complained about the extra treatment she received because of it!
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In early April 2025, her weight started dropping dramatically and her demeanour changed. Tests showed her kidney's were shutting down and the best thing we could do for her was let her go.
Nerina
Nerina was one of our longest standing residents on site, arriving in May 2011 as a semi feral with kittens, she remained on site after her kittens were rehomed.
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Happily living on site with limited interaction with humans, she only found herself needing medical intervention once after an injury to her tail meant it needed amputating.
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With us for over 14 years, Nerina taught volunteers that not every cat needs a lap, fire or a human sized bed to sleep on to be happy.
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Unfortunately we lost Nerina in March 2025, her age had started to creep up on her. At nearly 15 years old, a pedigree and semi-feral, she was arthritic, in need of some serious dental work and had started to present with a serious head tilt. A tilt that later revealed to have been cancer - something we just could not help.
Glory
Glory arrived with her sister, Blaze in September 2024 after her owner became too ill to care for them anymore. Originally from us as kittens many years ago, they returned and soon settled into a life in the Retirement Village.
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Outgoing and affectionate, Glory loved her new life in the Village, however was struggling to keep weight on. She started to show signs of a gut infection so we ran all the necessary tests.
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Unfortunately, she was found to have several infections and after months of giving her all the medications, her body continued to decline and was unable to improve. Still the friendly, happy little girl, we let her go peacefully in Feb 2025 before the pain became too much.
Bronwyn
Bronwyn arrived in late November 2023, a skinny, balding and incredibly flea ridden little older lady, who was found wandering the streets and brought into a vet practice.
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Despite her raggedy appearance, Bronwyn was a sweet but quite strong minded cat, who took some time to settle into Village life. As we helped her gain weight, helped her with her flea problem and nursed her back to health, we realised she was maybe not quite as old as we thought originally. Featured on Dr Scott's Rescue Vet Show, we set out looking for a home for Bronwyn, but she made it clear she did not want to leave Village life.
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Soon, she came down with an incredibly bad case of cat flu, something that she really struggled to bounce back from. She became one of our 'chronic flu cats', blessing us with a snotty nose every morning! But she was happy, bright and didn't pose a danger to the others. In early December 2024, after another bout of flu, she started to drop weight dramatically and refused all of her medications, she was showing signs of severe gingivostomatitis, and her mouth pain was becoming unmanageable.
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In the new year of 2025, she unfortunately took another dive in weight and behaviour, we were out of options and unable to manage her pain, she was no longer happy, nor eating and was withdrawing from us. The decision to let her go was made in mid January 2025.
Kupala "Koop"
Kupala arrived in the midst of a Covid-19 lockdown, June 2020, with her two litter brothers, Xbalanque "XBie" & Hanahpu "Han" (Named after gods - and boy did they know it!). An incredibly friendly girl from the start, she was already being medicated for kidney disease, so we continued her care from the start.
Unfortunately, we lost Han not long after they settled into Village life, and XBie around a year later, but Koop was never bonded with her brothers and once she was granted the space to be without them, she was off! Never to be seen around her brothers again! A true independent queen.
Koop was with us nearly 5 years without many hiccups in her health, taking her medication well and always behaving herself for vets. She started to show her age (nearly 20!) in late 2024, and declined rapidly in the new year. She was seen for her constant weight loss and was found to have some further underlying health problems that we would be unable to treat. So we let her go peacefully before she declined further in mid January 2025.
Titch
Titch came to us in early 2013 as a young blind cat suffering badly from cat flu, given a two week life expectancy due to her illness, she was placed in our Village for rest and made comfortable.
She soon beat the odds and showed us that she in fact, was much younger than originally expected and soon started to thrive in the Village.
Whilst she never fully overcame her cat flu, we helped keep it at bay and she continuously beat several illnesses life threw at her!
From surviving persistent infections as an aftermath of Cat Flu as a kitten, operations to open her ear canals in order to remove a mass, to a ruptured and later removed eyeball, Titch beat them all and carried on being a favourite amongst visitors and volunteers. So much so that she was a sponsor cat with a long line of fans!
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Unfortunately she started to slow down in November and it was clear something was going wrong, so during a routine check up, it was found she had a huge liver tumour and there was nothing we could do to help her. The difficult decision was made to let her be a peace in December 2024.
