First of all I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to our team leads, our volunteers, committee and sub-committee members for their ongoing dedication and hard work over this last year.

We have had successes and challenges and many unexpected joys peppering yet another year marked by Covid. Throughout it all, the care and love of all of our cats does not wane, and we consider all the effort is undeniably worthwhile.

Jeremy’s new building, aka the West Wing, has received final council sign off! It’s been a long haul but one that was totally worth it.

Jeremy himself has had surgery to remove a cancerous growth from the tip of his right ear but this hasn’t marred his manly beauty and actually gives him a rather rakish air!

Jeremy’s life and personality is celebrated, along with Colosseum cat Nerina, in “Pasolini’s Cat”. This is a small book published by university lecturer Dr Marco Sonzogni. With incredible generosity, he is donating all proceeds of the books’ sales to CPW.

Another unexpected gift was the recent arrival of flowers, cake and morning tea at the shelter from Wellington vegan bakery Sweet Release. They create gift packages for locally-based organisations, and these were enjoyed by both team leads and several volunteer shifts.

The last newsletter featured Cassy, who has since found his forever home. Fabio and Popcorn have also been adopted and now live in a multi-storey home with balconies.

Sadly Bostik has come back to us after a couple of months, as his fosterers felt they couldn’t provide the structure he needs. He has taken up residence in our new building again and seems to be his previous lively and outgoing self.

The Street Day Appeal went ahead in October, though in an abbreviated form. We had the collection at the Railway Station on the Friday morning from 7am – 9am,and a full day’s collection at New World Thorndon on the Saturday.

Many thanks to those who collected for us and the amounts collected at each area were easily as much as the collections two years ago!

This year CPW was offered a free stall at the Wellington Pet Expo and invited to attend the annual Blessing of the Animals at St Pauls, along with the SPCA.

Both events went well and provided great opportunities for positive PR and again, many thanks to those committee members who organised and volunteers who attended on behalf of CPW!

Good PR continues to also be maintained through the efforts of those who manage our Facebook and Instagram accounts. It’s rare that a weekend goes by without a visitor commenting on how much they enjoy the images and stories.

Tama’s life and times was followed with particular interest, even after he was fostered.

Despite our ongoing healthy adoption rates (only now starting to tail off as they always do at this time of year), our waitlist continues to increase to numbers never previously experienced.

Sitting at around 40 cats, the pressures on the team leads to balance need with space and shelter dynamics are significant.

As you can imagine, they spend a lot of time in communication with owners, trying to find acceptable and safe alternatives for care until they can bring their cats into us.

Difficulty in finding pet-friendly rentals continues to be the fastest growing reason for surrender and we know that all rescues are experiencing the same.

What is valuable, however, are the positive relationships established with these other rescues as we all work towards happier outcomes and forever homes for these cats.

Christmas is now round the corner so, as always, many many best wishes from us all at CPW for a happy and safe festive season, wherever you are and whatever you are doing!

Iona Anderson