After buying our first house in June 2000, I knew the one thing that I longed for was a pet cat.  That Christmas my then boyfriend (now husband) offered to get me one so we set out searching the local rescue homes to find one that was right for us.

It was a hard, sad journey traipsing round the rescue homes looking at all the unwanted cats, desperately longing to be loved and looked after like they so deserved.  How so many end up in these homes is beyond me – as far as I’m concerned a pet is for life, part of the family, through fun times and hard times, they are always there for you and you are always there for them.

When we arrived at Gables Farm, we found this gorgeous female named Boggy who kept rubbing her head through against our hand through the glass. How could we resist?  We soon renamed her Twinkle and she became part of the family awaiting our arrival home from work each day to play games such as chasing string, being tickled with a feather or throwing little toy mice in the air and catching them.

Unfortunately earlier this year she became very thin and the vet discovered a huge tumour on her abdomen.  After major surgery where she was literally cut from head to tail to remove as much tumour as possible she came home but was never quite the same, she became frail, thin and started eating less.  Within a couple of months the cancer had returned.  Just over 3 weeks ago we had to have poor Twinkle put to sleep – see here.

I think we gave Twinkle a good life and who know’s where she would have ended up if we hadn’t rescued her almost 13 years ago – she was believed to be around 4 or 5 so she has had a good life.

It’s due to places like Gables Farm – who take in cats and dogs and find a new home for them.  Without them I hate to think what would happen to unloved and uncared for animals.  Being a charity, they rely on help and donations to keep running and caring for the animals so anything, however small is always a help.

When I came across the Happy Badger last week, a kind little badger from ao.com who loves to help out with good causes I knew I had to apply in memory of my dear Twinkle.  I requested for a donation to be made to Gables Farm in order to help them  continue their good work in rescuing unwanted animals.

The Happy Badger kindly agreed to donate £50 to their charity!

To find out more about Happy Badger or request a donation for a charity of your choice, please click their badge below.