Why Clarence, Squash and Luna appeared on a Welsh cat rescue appeal as Forgotten Felines fought closure

When a Welsh cat rescue said it might have to close, donations began arriving under a parade of names: Clarence, Squash, Eddie, Dolly, Ernie, Luna and Ruby. Behind that roll call was a serious plea from Forgotten Felines, which said a £10,745.38 veterinary bill had put its future, and the cats already relying on it, in doubt.

The kind of rescue that says yes to the overlooked cats

Forgotten Felines has been caring for and rehoming cats since 2018, building its work around animals that can be harder to place. The rescue says it focuses on cats with disabilities or other added needs, along with cats needing palliative care and cats that have been abused.

Founder Bev Hibbert said the aim from the beginning was to give vulnerable cats and kittens another chance. Since opening, the rescue says it has helped 1,434 cats, and 253 were adopted in 2026 alone.

The cats coming through its doors are often the ones other people might pass over. Hibbert said the rescue works with deaf and blind cats, cats with cerebellar hypoplasia, FIV-positive cats and cats with Manx syndrome. Some, the rescue has said elsewhere, are not suitable for adoption at all. For those animals, Forgotten Felines provides rehabilitation, medical treatment and, where needed, a permanent home.

That mix of rescue, treatment and long-term care helps explain why the charity’s finances have come under such pressure. The work is not limited to matching healthy cats with new owners. It includes animals that may need more veterinary attention, more time and more specialist care than a small rescue can easily absorb.

A five figure vet bill exposed how tight things had become

The warning became public on 23 October, when Forgotten Felines posted on social media that it might have to close. The trigger was an unpaid vet bill of £10,745.38.

In its appeal, the rescue said it had reached a point where it could no longer keep pace with costs and asked supporters either to donate toward the bill or to share the message so more people would see it. The organisation has described itself as entirely self-funded, relying on donations, fundraising and the generosity of supporters to continue.

Its broader figures show how expensive that work has become. In an update after the first wave of donations, Forgotten Felines said its total veterinary bill for the previous year had topped £95,000. It also said it had explored multiple ways of bringing in money, including raffles, fundraising events and grant applications, but that the strain had been getting harder to manage.

Hibbert pointed to several pressures landing at once. Veterinary care has become more expensive, she said, and fundraising is harder because smaller rescues are competing for a limited pool of grants and funding opportunities. She also said the cost-of-living crisis has affected the cats reaching the rescue as well as the rescue itself.

According to Hibbert, more families are surrendering cats because they can no longer afford to keep them. She also said neutering costs can be out of reach for some owners, leading to unwanted pregnancies and more litters that then need rescue places. In other words, the financial squeeze is not only making care harder to fund. It is also adding to the number of cats needing help.

The rescue’s public appeals put the number of cats currently depending on it at either 146 or 150. Even without settling on one figure, the picture was clear enough: a large population of cats was already in care when the rescue said its future had become uncertain.

Then the names started appearing

What happened next gave the appeal its most memorable detail. Supporters began sending donations in the names of their own pets, turning the fundraising page into a list of cats helping cats. Clarence was there. So were Squash, Eddie, Dolly, Ernie, Luna and Ruby.

The messages came from more than strangers. One person who had previously adopted from Forgotten Felines said that without the rescue, they would not have their cat, Suki, and praised the work it had done.

The response was fast. On 25 October, Forgotten Felines said it had raised £7,819, a result it described as overwhelming and deeply moving. The rescue said it does not like having to ask supporters for help, but added that working with complex-needs cats can leave it in situations it cannot manage alone.

That sum did not erase the problem, but it changed the immediate mood around it. Forgotten Felines said the money would make a major difference in reducing the unpaid bill and that the support had given the team breathing space, hope and the strength to continue.

For a rescue that had just publicly floated the possibility of closure, those words mattered. So did the way the donations arrived. An appeal about debt can feel dry and grim. This one was answered with the names of household pets, former adopters speaking up, and supporters choosing small acts that made the rescue’s community visible in public.

Breathing space is not the same as safety

Even after that surge of support, Forgotten Felines said it was still not in a position to reopen fully. The rescue remains closed to new intakes while it concentrates on the cats already with it.

Its explanation was blunt. It said it could not endanger the future of the animals already in its care by taking on more than it could afford to sustain. That means the appeal was not the end of the story, only a pause in the worst of the pressure.

The rescue has laid out some of the ways it hopes to rebuild. It has been running raffles and promoting a 2027 calendar featuring its cats. It also highlighted support coming from outside its own team. A former fosterer got back in touch to say they would run the London Marathon in April 2027 in aid of Forgotten Felines.

Local backing has taken other forms too. The Reel in Aberavon hosted a live screening of The Celebrity Traitors finale and chose Forgotten Felines as its charity for the evening.

Taken together, those efforts suggest why the rescue’s original appeal struck such a nerve. Forgotten Felines is not only rehoming cats. It has made itself the place for animals that are sick, disabled, elderly, abused or simply less likely to be chosen quickly. Hibbert said closing it would mean losing an important support for some of the most vulnerable cats in its community.

For now, the rescue is still asking for help. Donations are being accepted through PayPal, and the organisation has continued directing people to its Facebook page and website for more information. The latest chapter in this story is not a neat ending. It is a rescue that said it might have to close, a community that answered with thousands of pounds and a string of cat names, and a shelter that now has a little more room to keep going while it tries to become financially sustainable.