KittyCat Rescue Wairarapa was established in January 2017 with a stong passion and desire to help tame, socialise and rehabilitate kittens born in the wild, rehome stray and abandoned local cats, and to support cat owners in need of rehoming when in difficult circumstances. In 2017 we rehomed 33 cats and kittens, and 35 in 2018.
The Wairarapa SPCA closed 2015 and left a big gap in animal welfare in the area, making us one of the only other active cat rescue in the Wairarapa region. But with the reopening of Masterton SPCA, who work within the Wairarapa community region to offer support or help when able, to look after stray, abandoned and surrendered socialised cats. Now we can focus and concentrate on taming wild kittens and finding homes for them – as unsocialised cats are not always able to be covered by the SPCA. As of February 2019, we have already taken over 20 kittens into care.
By taking in feral kittens and desexing the parents, our organisation helps to control the wild and feral cat population, which in turn helps to keep cats from reproducing, and distracts from our native wildlife. This decreases the wild and feral cat population in a humane manner – and not only improves the welfare of the cats, but the environment and local communities as a whole.
Wild kittens and young cats are fostered by a network of our incredible foster carers until they become tame and socialised enough to be adopted to a forever loving home. Whether a wild born kitten/cat can be tamed is dependent on their age and temperament. The optimum age to tame a wild born kitten is 8 weeks and under. Older kittens can be successfully tamed depending on their individual temperament, but once they reach 16 weeks of age it can become more difficult, hence more understanding, effort and time. It can take anywhere between 2-6 months of care before a kitten is ready to adopt. Every kitten and cat is different, and we do all we can to help them nourish and grow into a domestic/household cat.
Our adoption fee is $210. This helps cover the costs of desexing, vaccines, microchipping and flea and worm treatment. Not to mention the invaluable time, patience and care we and our fosters spend on our cats.
KCR does extensive fundraising to cover the shortfall between the adoption fee and the vet treatments which includes market stalls, bake sales, sausage sizzles and raffles, but we still need your help! Please check out our Givealittle to donate—every little bit really does help, and you can help us to make a difference!
Bank donations can be made to our KittyCat Rescue ANZ account 06-0689-0962655-00 Ref: Donation.
If you’d like a tax receipt please be sure to email kittycatrehoming@gmail.com
