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The Fylde Coast Cats advent calendar starts here, with a nod to the precious boy that is reason that the charity exists in the first place, and who I miss terribly. This is Newt - he pops up on my memories this time of year as this is the time of year that we found him and his siblings living in someone's garden. Their cat had had kittens and they didn't want them in the house anymore so the poor things were living out in the filthy garden. It was freezing cold and all they had was an empty plate that didn't look like it'd had food on it in a long time. We knocked on the door and asked after the little ones. They said they didn't want them, and brought them out and thrust them at us. We weren't remotely prepared for this, but we'd been visiting and donating to Furry Tails for a while so we called them and they kindly made space for them immediately. I'd known that rescues were full to bursting and that the situation wasn't great, but seeing it first hand really hit a nerve and I thought of nothing else. We visited the little ones often, and decided to adopt the "least adoptable" of the bunch - a shy, odd looking little black male. Newt had a tragically short life and we lost him to FIP at a time when there was no treatment, but his impact on us was huge- we loved him dearly, and we felt compelled to help more. We began fostering for another rescue shortly after we adopted him, and eventually decided to set up our own charity shortly before his passing. I was keen that the rescue be registered as a charity so that donors had total transparency in terms of their money, and I was keen that all of our cats should be flead, wormed, microchipped and neutered (before leaving us if they were old enough, or with a neuter contract in place if too young) and that every home was checked before adopting. We'll always be a back up on those microchips, so I know that every cat that has come through us will always have us as a safety net. Fylde Coast Cats is my baby, but without my beautiful Newt it would never have been conceived. We'll love you always, Newton 🖤 (fb)