Oldies for Oldies Scheme in detail:

The scheme is designed to give our elderly community members a reason to get up each day, expand their support network and give them a team of friendly professionals to talk too and know they can rely upon.

Rescues tend to not be comfortable adopting to older residents due to the risk of the cat re-homed, outliving the resident in question. This is not the case with our rescue.

However, the issue lies in that older people are generally more concerned with matters pertaining to the financial ownership of a cat and concerns over handling and transporting the cat to a vets should a health scare arise.

As a rescue and with our experience in the field, we also note that older cats are systemically harder to re-home due to their age, with residents preferring younger cats/kittens to join their family.

As such these older cats remain in rescues indefinitely and bring their own costs. We as a rescue will never put a healthy cat to sleep which leaves us with a situation of having a steady build up of older cats and nowhere for them to go.

Our Oldies for Oldies scheme enables us to place these older cats with older members of our community. In turn this begins to help their own mental health & wellbeing and gives them purpose to get up each day. All this without adding financial worries to them as the costs remain with the rescue.

Our scheme combats loneliness as it enables them to have another living sole to speak too, though also opens them to contact with our rescue, with us having routine conversations on a daily basis, checking in with how they are and supporting them with food drop offs for the cats in their home.

Oldies for Oldies Background:

There are over 175,000 elderly people in Nottinghamshire. Over 27,000 of these feel trapped in their own home, with half saying the TV is their main company, while around 40,000 only see family and friends less than once a week.

Unfortunately, the causes of loneliness are multi-factorial and complex and therefore can be difficult to address. What is known however is that older people are particularly at risk of becoming lonely.

Loneliness is associated with depression, insomnia, high blood pressure, impaired cognitive health, heightened vascular resistance, hypertension, psychological stress and mental health problems. It also makes it harder for people to regulate their behaviour, so they are more likely to drink too much, eat unhealthily or exercise less.

In particular, people who are chronically lonely are at an increased risk of developing dementia by around 64%.

Loneliness increases the use of healthcare to support isolated older people. We’re striving to work hard to relieve the isolation and despair felt by so many older people.

Oldies for Oldies Testimony:

Please Meet Patricia & Tim 🧡

Patricia is one of our more senior foster carers who is supported by an incredible care team consisting of Kinga & Estera ⭐

Tim's world fell apart in September when his hooman sadly passed away. Peter was his world and everything changed. However, Peters family were keen to ensure that Tim was provided the future and security he deserved.

When we were contacted about Timmy (18/19 years of age), we wanted to do everything and more to give him the Furever home he needed. He was brought into emergency foster until a longer term solution could be found.

Kinga; who had adopted a beautiful cat called Quincy from us, alerted us to Patricias story who is a patient of hers.

Patricia does rely upon support of carers but has so much love to give. We spent a substantial time discussing this as a team and decided that the benefits to both Patricia and Timmy were a no brainer. Especially as the carers would also be signing up as fosterers, meaning that Tim would have three humans caring for him.

Within days, Patricia was a new woman. She now had a sense of purpose and a new friend to speak to each day. Both her and Timmy had been given a new lease of life. The opportunity to form a loving bond at a time when each needed the other.

Our companion scheme (Supported by Nottingham County Council) is designed for exactly this purpose.

When we set up the charity, it was for the public benefit and combatting loneliness was one of our top priorities in our local communities.

Timmys care costs remain with the rescue. So food, treats and any medical needs are met by us.

But Timmy's daily dose of love, care and compassion are provided by the amazing Patricia and supported by Kinga & Estera.

Our Companion scheme entitled Oldies for Oldies is open to all, but particularly our older community members that may find themselves more isolated or feeling alone.

If you know anyone who may benefit from our scheme, please do get in touch. The number of older cats needing placements are increasing. Kittens come and kittens go, but our hearts belong to this older souls that just want love in their later years 🐾

Thank you Patricia for giving Timmy the home he needed. Thank you Kinga and Estera for being by their side and joining us on this journey. Thank you to the Nottingham County Councils Local Community Fund for supporting us ❣️