Urgent appeal for rural home owners to adopt cats

Sugar, who is three-years-old, is looking for a new rural home

A charity is calling on people living in rural homes across the South East to adopt cats under its care.

Six of the 79 cats being cared for by Cats Protection, who are based in Chelwood Gate, need to be re-homed in open-spaced areas.

Daniel Warren-Cummings, the charity's central behaviour officer, says these cats had "limited socialisation with people" during the first eight weeks of their lives.

"These cats may struggle in traditional, busy pet home environments and this can lead to stress for the cats and the owners," he adds.

"We always want to find homes that best suit individual cat's needs."

Three-year-old Sugar is looking for a rural home, and Cats Protection describes her as "very unsure of people, but is content to be around people from a distance".

Libby the grey tabby has been under Cats Protection's care for a while

Eight-year-old Libby came to the charity's care due to her owner's ill health.

She "prefers to keep her distance from people" and the charity stresses being in the centre will only make her more wary of interacting with people.

Molly, aged seven, was unable to settle in her new home after her owner had relocated.

She enjoys "interaction on her terms and enjoys being around people".

Molly is described as an independent cat who interacts with people on her own terms

Mr Warren-Cummings says: "Many cats rehomed to rural homes benefit from being cared by a care-giver while having the freedom to choose how much they want to engage with people or the home environment.

"Often, these cats build better association with people in a rural home than they would if they lived in a busy urban population centre."