It was a purr-fect day for Honiton Cats Protection as the charity celebrated the launch of its new shop.

Branch co-ordinator Lizzie Manley and shop manager Sue Pears were joined by local MP Neil Parish and town crier Dave Retter for a special ribbon cutting ceremony last week.

Honiton Cats Protection has had a shop in the town for 10 years and will now be making the most of its bigger premises at 116 High Street.

“The shop opening was a great success and we hope that this will continue as it provides the money to support all the work our volunteers do to help cats in the local area,” says Lizzie. “We were delighted to have Neil here and he was interested in our feral neutering campaigns, which are particularly important in the more rural parts of our EX14 catchment area, such as the Blackdown Hills.

“We’re actually running a free neutering campaign at the moment to try to cut down on the number of unwanted kittens we will otherwise have to try to rehome later in the year.”

In addition to the shop, Honiton Cats Protection has an office where cat care advice will be freely available.

She added: “We were amazed to look back at the last 10 years and find that we’ve rehomed 1,200 cats and kittens, as well as neutering 1,000 more. If we hadn’t had the funds to neuter all those cats, imagine how many there would be today.”

Volunteers are being sought to lend a hand for more information call 01404 45241 or visit www.honiton.cats.org.uk. Donations can be brought to the shop.