Spalding pet store’s annual competition helps out cat charity
A popular Spalding pet store is feeling the feline love after the winner of its photo competition donated her prize to a cat's charity.
It was back in July when Caroline Wharton entered handsome cat Nev into the popular Rooke’s Pet Products annual competition, where owners enter hundreds of animals, of all shapes and sizes.
After being short listed in the final 20, it was the Rooke’s customers who voted Nev to his worthy winning status.
However, Nev’s weren’t the only perfect paws being captured by the photographer at his winner's photo shoot. Rescue cat Maisie and her gorgeous kittens Moo and Gus also popped in for their moment in the spotlight and to collect Nev's prize of £200 worth of cat supplies on behalf of White Rose Cat Welfare.
Caroline said: “Nev has changed our lives. We got him seven years ago and we simply cannot imagine life without him – he is always there for us whenever we’re going through a difficult time. White Rose is a fantastic local cat charity, so when we found out that Nev had won the competition, I saw a chance to help a very worthy cause.”
White Rose is a small cat welfare charity run on a wholly volunteer basis by Yvonne Husband, with the support of her partner Lee Johnson. Run from their home in Sutton St Edmund, their main objective is the neutering of feral cats to help reduce the over- and inter-breeding of these wild animals. The charity is mainly self-funded by Yvonne and Lee with the additional support of a small number of people who make donations of money and food.
“We feel very passionately about the work that we do,” says Yvonne. "However, as with most charitable work, it is a vocation and, while we do as much as we can, we desperately need donations of money, food and other supplies. That’s why the help from the likes of Caroline, Nev and Rooke’s is just invaluable. We can’t thank them enough.”
Managing director of Rooke’s Jason Rooke said: “We love the Face of Rooke’s competition, and we’re blown away by how popular it is. Having our customers’ pets feature in our marketing promotions is fantastic. It makes us all feel like we’re one big family.
"Thanks to the generosity of Caroline and Nev, this year a charity is also benefiting. In previous years we have helped other local charities through the sales of calendars from the competition but this is the first time we have had a winner actually ask to donate their prize. It’s a very generous gesture and we couldn’t be happier. We will continue to help Yvonne and the White Rose Cat Welfare in any way we can.”
