celia hammond animal trust
Animal Rescue Charity
Celia Hammond Animal Trust is a unique non destruction charity providing essential low cost veterinary services for sick and injured pets as well as a rescue and homing service for unwanted, abandoned and stray cats in London and the South East.
Please help us build a dedicated rescue and rehoming centre, and secure the future of our Lewisham hub for decades to come
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A NEW RESCUE AND REHOMING CENTRE IN LEWISHAM
In October 2023, we were granted planning permission to redevelop the Friendly Street warehouse and former shop at the rear of our Lewisham site into a new rescue and rehoming centre.
Phases 1 and 2A of the project have been funded by legacy gifts. Phase 1 of the building works has already been completed and phase 2A works are to commence shortly. We are now fundraising to pay for phase 2B, the construction of the main two-storey building, and we really need your support in funding the next stage of this project.
Please donate whatever you can afford and help us continue caring for animals who need us most.
Celia Hammond Animal Trust
OFFICIAL PAGE Celia Hammond Animal Trust, UK. We rescue rehabilitate and re-home abandoned animals.
🧶 MIA’S YARN SWAP FUNDRAISER! 🧶
Calling all fellow crafters and cat lovers! 💕 Come along to this fantastic event organised by our wonderful volunteer Mia from Barge Knitters, alongside @destasher_uk, who are helping to organise, promote and run the event - all to raise vital funds for our new rescue and rehoming centre at Lewisham!
📅 Saturday 19th September 2026, 1pm
📍 The Catford House, Catford Broadway, London, SE6 4SP
🎟️ Tickets are just £6, with 100% of the entry fee going towards our building project!
Mia volunteers with us as one of our cat socialisation volunteers, spending time with some of the shyer and more nervous cats in our care. She’s seen first-hand how much a calm, supportive environment and a little patience can mean to a rescue cat, one of the reasons she’s so passionate about helping us create better facilities for them. 🐱
Our new centre will give us 23 additional walk-in cattery pens, improved ventilation and an expanded space for our low-cost veterinary services.
So come along, swap your spare yarn, discover some new stash treasures and meet fellow crafters and cat lovers! 🧶
🎟️ Ticket link: www.outsavvy.com/event/38541/autumn-yarn-destashrestash-
A huge thank you to Mia and @destasher_uk for putting this together and finding such a lovely way to support the cats in our care. ❤️
And there’s more fundraising from Mia on the way… 👀 ... See MoreSee Less
🍂 Four little kittens hidden in a pile of garden debris 🍂
Last month, two of our rescuers attended a call in the IG11 area after a kind woman heard the faintest little cries coming from her late father’s garden.
The house was getting ready to be let, so all of your usual renovating tasks were being ticked off: clearing the house, decorating and repairing and tackling the garden. As they worked through the weeds and tangled growth, a large pile of garden debris was made with the intention to clear away later.
Over the previous few weeks, she had also noticed a scruffy-looking female cat coming and going from the garden. Then, while she was in the garden, she heard it - tiny, muffled meows coming from inside the pile! 🍂
Hidden amongst the branches, weeds and garden cuttings were four very small kittens. One boy and three girls. They were tucked away together, silent apart from their little cries. But where was the mum? Thankfully, the lady stopped what she was doing and called us straight away.
Our rescuers Matt and Amanda carefully gathered the kittens and brought them into the warmth and safety of their carrier. They were safe for the moment, but they couldn't leave the mum there alone as she would be looking for her babies.
A clever little rescue trick we use is to play kitten sounds loud enough for mum to hear if she was close by. So as one rescuer played sounds of one-month-old kittens crying from YouTube, the other kept watch from an upstairs bedroom window looking out across the gardens.
And sure enough, it wasn’t long before they spotted her. 🥹
The mum was making her way back through the neighbouring gardens, following the sound of what she thought were her babies calling for their mum. Once she arrived, she was easy to trap. She is such a friendly girl and there was something very moving about the way she came back for her babies. Maybe she had once known the comfort of a family home? Or maybe she simply knew that she and her babies were finally about to be warm, safe and cared for? Either way, the mum and her babies were reunited.
We checked her for a microchip, hoping there might be an owner looking for her, but sadly she wasn’t chipped (even though it is now a legal requirement in England for pet cats to be microchipped). Without one, it is incredibly difficult to trace where a cat belongs or reunite them with anyone who may be missing them. It’s exactly why microchipping your cat, and making sure the registered details are kept up to date, is so important.
Mum is now called Cinders and her kittens, Blaze, Ash, Ember and Smokey - Matt said the names were pretty fitting, considering this little family were found during one of this summer’s heatwaves! ☀️ 🔥
They have now all been wormed and flea treated and are now getting the care they need before they’re ready for their next chapter. They will soon all be vaccinated, neutered and microchipped.
There is already one lovely part of this story to share: the woman who made the call, and who gave this little family their chance, has been home checked and approved to adopt two of the kittens when they are ready. We think that is such a beautiful ending!
You may be wondering about Cinders’ eyes. Our vets have confirmed that she is blind in one eye due to a congenital condition. This does not stop her being the lovely, affectionate girl she is, but it does mean she will need a safe, loving indoor-only home when the time comes.
For now, Cinders and her babies are together, warm, fed and safe. Because one woman listened to those tiny meows, their story has a very different ending. ❤️
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🐱 40 FACTS FOR 40 YEARS - PART 4 🐱
As the Trust grew, Celia knew that some cats would need more than just a temporary place to stay. They needed somewhere safe, where they could take their time and simply be cats. ❤️
That’s where Greenacres came in. 🌳
Over the years, Greenacres has become a very special part of CHAT. A place where cats who were feral or semi-feral, abandoned or simply not suited to a normal home could finally feel safe.
For some, it’s a stepping stone to their forever home. For others, Greenacres becomes their forever home with us. 🐾
So many cats have passed through those gates over the years, each with their own story and each leaving a little pawprint behind.
🎬 In Part 4, we’re looking back at the story of Greenacres and the very special place it holds in the history of Celia Hammond Animal Trust.
And there’s still so much more of our story to share…
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🦴 Renn may be tiny, but he already has a HUGE personality 🦴
This two-month-old little chap was brought into our Lewisham clinic by a kind member of the public after being found in a garden with a serious leg injury. He arrived in a cardboard box, which isn’t a safe way to transport a cat and certainly isn’t something we would recommend, but it was what his finder had to hand at the time. They just wanted to get this little boy somewhere safe as quickly as possible. ❤️
Despite everything he had been through, Renn certainly wasn’t going to let a little thing like a broken leg stop him investigating his new surroundings! He was busy playing peek-a-boo, popping his little head up and having a good look at everyone around him. 😂
As Renn is such a friendly little boy, we wanted to make sure we did everything we could to establish whether he had an owner. We found that he wasn’t microchipped and even though we tried hard to find out where he had come from, we’ve had no luck so far. More than a month later, no one has come forward to claim him.
His x-rays revealed a severe fracture in his leg and we were initially worried that we might not be able to save it.
Thankfully, our orthopaedic vet was able to help and fit Renn with a cast. Renn wasn’t particularly impressed at first. Being the cheeky, energetic kitten he is, he had much more important things on his mind, like exploring and playing!
The good news is that Renn has been making great progress. Just one day after surgery, he was already standing on his injured leg and as of last night, his cast has now been removed! 🥳
There’s still a little way to go. In a couple of weeks, once our vets are happy that his leg has healed sufficiently, he’ll have the plate removed. Then it’s time for the next important kitten milestone - getting neutered! 🐱
Once Renn has been given the all-clear by our veterinary team, he’ll be ready to find his forever home.
We’re so pleased with how far this tiny kitten has come and we can’t wait to see what the next chapter holds for him. 🐾
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🐾 Happy Adoption Thursday 🐾
“This is Custard, the cat formerly known as Apricat, who we adopted from Celia Hammond Canning Town last August after being charmed by him immediately.
He’s full of personality and has made quite an impression on our street, keeping an eye on the neighbours from his favourite window seat overlooking everything and having quickly befriended a local group of cats who he’s now patrolling the neighbourhood gardens with.
When his work for the day is done, he’s curled up into a cinnamon roll between us on the sofa demanding chin rubs until he moves from purring to snoring. Bringing this guy home with us was the best decision we’ve made, and we like to think he’d agree.” - Felix
We love this update, Felix. From neighbourhood patrols to snoozing between you on the sofa, it sounds like Custard has truly found his place. We can definitely picture him keeping a close eye on everything from his favourite window seat! Thank you for giving him such a wonderful home. 🐈
➡️Have you adopted from Celia Hammond Animal Trust? We’d love to hear from you! Send your photos via DM using the words “HAPPY ADOPTION” to share your update. 🐾 💙
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Well, Sunday was rather lovely at Greenacres!
After a summer of sunshine, we had our fingers crossed for more of the same for our free, ticketed Open Day. We had the odd shower, but the weather pretty much behaved itself, so we can’t complain! And with the event a sell-out, it was brilliant to have so many people through the doors.
There was lots of chatting, cat cuddling, cake and a serious amount of strawberries eaten! And, naturally, the cats got involved too.
Two of our residents, pictured, Arthur and Howard, rescued from a horrendous situation in Tunbridge Wells, have come such a long way and are now very much part of our resident cat family. They decided our nearly new stall was the perfect place to set themselves up and supervise proceedings!
We work incredibly hard every day rescuing cats and caring for them, so it was really lovely to share a little of what we do and show people some of the cats behind the scenes.
We also shared two things we would absolutely love to make happen and we've shared both project videos here.
Dream Project 1 is another Cat Cabin. In the video, you’ll see the beautiful Cat Cabin we were recently able to build thanks to a very special legacy from a wonderful lady called Helen. The power of a legacy is bigger than you think, and Helen’s legacy is one beautiful example.
Dream Project 2 is our Pigeon Palace heat and cool system (the name is explained in the video!), and we’re delighted to have already received two very kind donations towards it. We’re halfway there! Which is AMAZING!
The video explains a little more about why this particular project is so important to us. It is a little sad, as the heatwave was simply too much for some of our elderly cats and, despite every possible effort from our wonderful vets and our team, we sadly lost some of them.
Just as with older people, prolonged high temperatures can put significant additional strain on elderly animals, particularly those already living with heart disease and other chronic health conditions. We never want anyone to think we simply let a cat suffer in the heat. We did everything we could for them, but it showed us that we need to do even more to protect our older and more vulnerable cats when temperatures become so extreme.
That’s why these Dream Projects matter so much to us.
And then …. watch this space, because we’re working on something rather exciting: a pop-up ethical cat café. Real rescue cats, in a real rescue centre environment, with the freedom to roam and meet visitors on their terms! 🐱
It’s still being worked on, but we think it could be something really special.
And if you love what we do at Greenacres, please keep spreading the word about our absolutely fab charity. Tell your friends, share our posts and help more people discover the cats and the work that goes on here.
Greenacres is the rescue, sanctuary and one of three homing centres of the Celia Hammond Animal Trust, and we’re incredibly proud of what we do for cats who need us.
If you’d like to help us make our Greenacres Dream Projects a reality, click link in first comment below or contact us to find out more 🐾💚
#cat #kitten #bekindtoanimals
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🐱 40 FACTS FOR 40 YEARS - PART 3 🐱
By this point in our story, Celia had already spent years fighting for animals and challenging the way things were done. Her amazing work became the main focus in her life and she decided to give up modelling to commit to her cause.
Her pioneering work with feral cats was starting to change attitudes, showing that there was a kinder, more humane way to manage feral cat populations through neutering instead of killing. ❤️
In 1982, her work was finally recognised with an RSPCA Award for her dedication to animal welfare.
But Celia was far from finished…
In 1986, she founded the Celia Hammond Animal Trust with the aim to make essential veterinary care available to more people. 🐾
🎬 In Part 3, we look at the pioneering work that helped change the lives of so many cats and how it all led to the beginning of CHAT.
And this is where our next chapter begins…
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🐈⬛ Tommy has been keeping us very busy and completely wrapped around his little paw!
When Tommy came into our Canning Town Clinic last month, he had a nasty wound on his neck from a burst abscess that needed treatment and careful management. It wasn’t going to heal overnight, so our team have been cleaning and managing the wound, giving him treatment and keeping a close eye on his progress. Alongside his treatment, he has also now been chipped, vaccinated and neutered.
It’s time consuming work, but it’s exactly why we’re here, to make sure cats like Tommy get the care they need when they’re injured, unwell or vulnerable. And it’s our supporters that always makes that care possible.
Tommy had been living as a stray, but a kind member of the public had been feeding him and looking out for him. When he needed more help, he came to us.
Even though it took a week and a half for us to catch him and bring him into our care, he’s been a very willing patient - although we suspect the cuddles have helped!
Fenna, one of our vet nurses, has been caring for Tommy throughout his treatment, but she’s also become one of his favourite people. He knows her when she comes to see him and loves nothing more than a cuddle. So much so that he starts mouth dribbling. 😂💙
While we’re looking forward to seeing Tommy back on his paws soon, there’s a never ending stream of cats needing our help.
Across all three of our centres, there are cats needing care every single day. Some need emergency veterinary treatment, others need ongoing nursing care, medication or somewhere safe to recover. We wish we could do more for every single one of them, but the reality is that funds, staff and veterinary resources are limited.
So, because it’s payday week and it’s a Bank Holiday weekend, we’re setting ourselves a BIG challenge…
‼️CAN WE RAISE £5,000 TO NEUTER 111 CATS? ‼️
Neutering helps prevent suffering, injury, unwanted litters and homelessness. It means fewer cats ending up injured, abandoned or struggling to survive like Tommy and it means we can help more cats before they reach crisis point.
Whatever you can comfortably give, it all counts. If you can’t donate, please SHARE! You could be the person who gets this appeal in front of someone who can help us reach that £5,000.
Donation link in first comment below. 💙
£5,000. One Bank Holiday weekend. One big mission. 🐾
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🐾Happy Adoption Thursday 🐾
“This is Mellow - I fostered her from CT in 2022 and then ended up adopting her...a lot of her fur was missing due to over grooming and now she is my boss and rules the roost. She's adorable!!
She stands staring at her bowl every time I go into the kitchen, looking at me, pleadingly, pretending she is starving to death - and of course I give her a bit of food. When I'm working she comes and pesters me with her head until I relent and give her a bit of food. She stares out of the window watching birds, lies on my neck at night and loves being brushed. She sits on anyone's knee who visits me and is extremely confident and friendly to anyone she meets in my house (she's an indoor cat).” - Carolyn
From over-grooming and missing fur to confidently ruling the roost, it’s clear she’s found exactly where she belongs. We absolutely love hearing about her little routines – especially her convincing “I’m starving” act in the kitchen! It sounds like she’s wrapped everyone around her paw. 🐈⬛
➡️Have you adopted from Celia Hammond Animal Trust? We’d love to hear from you! Send your photos via DM using the words “HAPPY ADOPTION” to share your update. 🐾 💙
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