When Jane Barker founded The Sheffield Cats Shelter in 1897 she could have had no idea that it would still be going strong 125 years later, nor that the charity she founded would go on to give tens of thousands of cats in need new homes and better lives. We think that’s worth celebrating, which is exactly what we did on Sunday 25th September 2022 at The Sheffield Cats Shelter street party!

The day started off in great style even before the commencement of our afternoon celebrations. It was the day of the Sheffield 10k road race, and our charity manager Sarah was among five runners representing our charity in the race. Sarah even managed to persuade her son Josh to run while wearing our Travis mascot costume – and as you can see from the above image, he did us proud!

We hadn’t managed to hold an event at our shelter for three years due to Covid restrictions so it was great to be able to celebrate in style again along with our fabulous supporters like you! There was lots going on for all the family, from stalls, cakes and plants to cat bingo and our very first live stream! If you missed seeing our super cute kittens Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Fozzie live on the day you can see a still of them here:

There are so many people we would like to give special thanks to: The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Sheffield, Amey who gave us traffic cones and road closed signs, The Broomhall Centre who gave us seating, Tracy Cutts and Vami Von Kangur who ran for us in the Sheffield 10k, HSBC who allowed two of their staff to volunteer for us and help us prepare our shelter and catio, Sprig Candles, the authors Paul Grimshaw and Emma Woodthorpe, all the staff and volunteers who gave up their time selflessly to help us run the event, and to all our supporters who shared our social media posts or who attended on the day: THANK YOU! With your help we had a very successful day which was a fitting tribute to our cats and to Jane Barker and her legacy of love, and with your help we can look forward to another 125 years (and more) of The Sheffield Cats Shelter!