Elaine was inspired recently by an episode of Modern Family as one of the characters tried to find a rare impressive gift for his Father-in-law.
So she went trawling our site and found some really great gift ideas in our Antiques & Collectibles section. If you have someone that you’re stuck on gift ideas for, this could help!
When Maire Egan was laid up for two years after she broke a disc in her back, she made a resolution: she would do what she loved in this life. For the past seven years, it’s a resolution she’s kept. Maire is director of Kitten Cottage in Cavan, a rescue centre for cats.
The seeds for Kitten Cottage were first sown in 2004 when Maire’s two sons tried to catch a sick, wild cat. It took six weeks to rescue the emaciated creature, which was diagnosed with cancer. The vet wanted to put him down but he wasn’t in pain so Maire and her sons decided to keep him. The vet thought he would survive for three months.
Five years and 2,000 cats later, Snowball died in 2007. In the past two years, that figure has more than doubled. By November, Kitten Cottage had saved 4,436 cats.
Kitten Cottage's cute kittens
My daughter Rachel and I travelled up to Kitten Cottage one fine Sunday afternoon in November. It lies an hour away from Blanchardstown centre, just off the M3 and towards Munterconnaught.
The cottage itself lies below the road. From the outside, it looks like a quaint but well-kept home. Attached to the cottage, however, is a purpose-built house for cats.
On the way to Cavan I had visions of Maire as Brenda Fricker’s character in Home Alone 2 but with cats replacing the pigeons. Instead, I met quite a glamorous, attractive woman.
On the day we visited Kitten Cottage, Maire had 17 cats. This figure can go up to 75 during the summer months. She greeted us with Buddy, a gorgeous Bichon Frise, who she helped rescue a few years ago. While Kitten Cottage rescues cats in the main, some other creatures have come through its doors, including three foxes, a hare, birds, bats, snakes, hedgehogs, a badger, rabbits, guinea pigs and dogs.
Maire took Buddy on as a pup after she got a call from a local vet. A woman had bought Buddy on the side of the road for €400. He was about four weeks old and wasn’t eating or drinking. As it turned out, he also had three broken legs. Maire says that due to his condition and size (he has never grown fully), they suspect he was puppy farmed.
She warns against meeting people ‘half way’ when buying pets.
“If you meet someone on the side of the road to buy a pet, you may as well just hand over your bank account to a vet. They are breeding the smallest, weakest pups with the next smallest, weakest pups that won’t grow properly.”
Buddy was so unwell that Maire had to feed him every 20 minutes for three days and it was touch and go for three weeks. He wouldn’t eat for anyone else for 18 months.
“So I got stuck with him and he got stuck with me or we got stuck with each other. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me because he helps with the kittens,” she says.
Maire led us into the sanctuary where we met the cats and abandoned kittens. One kitten had been left in an estate between the kerb and road for a couple of days. People walked past and ignored her.
Maire told Buddy to go get his baby. He went over, picked the little kitten out of her bed, and started cleaning her by licking her.
“As a pup he was put in with the kittens and cats, and he obviously picked it up. He does it with all the babies,” says Maire.
Of the 17 cats, a few were wild. Kitten Cottage runs a trap, neuter and release programme for wild animals.
Kitten Cottage catches the animals, neuters them, keeps them for 48 hours to ensure their stitches have healed and then releases them.
“We caused the problem. We had our pets and we didn’t neuter them. It’s reckoned there’s up to 1 million un-homed cats in this country,” says Maire.
One cat can produce 18 kittens in a season and can start producing when they are six months old.
“Cats in this country are classed as vermin. There are no laws. You can basically do what you like to them. If we had cat licences it would help.”
This great operation almost came to an end in February when Maire couldn’t afford to run it anymore.
In the month after Christmas, Kitten Cottage received just two donations of €5 each. Maire was running it on her credit card.
“We worm the cats, flea them and, when we have the money, we vaccinate them. We always neuter them over six months old. It costs money and we will not apply for a grant as money is so short in this country and there are so many in need.”
The volunteers at Kitten Cottage pleaded with Maire not to close and came up with the idea of opening a curiosity shop. A few weeks later, Kitten Cottage Curiosity Shop opened its doors in Virginia, Co Cavan. It sells everything from toys to designer handbags, with very few items costing more than €10.
Seventeen volunteers help run the shop and Kitten Cottage. So far, it has been a success, paying all its own bills and half the bills at the cottage.
Maire says both entities need about six more volunteers to make them run smoothly.
Maire also calls for donations of old clothes, toys, books and other items. For every 10 rag bags Kitten Cottage receives, it can have one cat neutered.
Maire’s aim is to have the shop pay fully for Kitten Cottage. “I’d love if we could pay for ourselves. We’re not asking anyone for money. We’re asking people to buy something they’ll be buying anyway. The stuff we have is gorgeous.”
The shop is open six days a week. Kitten Cottage is also open to the public but you must phone (086 1994115/ 087 7676714) in advance to ensure Maire is there.
We’ve made it even faster for you to upload your photos, making it easier than ever to place an add!
Recently we added the ability to upload multiple photos at once – now our new photo uploader automatically resizes your photos so they upload much faster.
It’s very easy to use, in fact it’s the same from your point of view other than it’s much quicker.
For the techies out there… our photo uploader is flash based requiring your browser to have Flash Player 10 or above.
Lots of people will be buying Digital SLR cameras this Christmas for themselves of their loved ones. But these can be pricey when bought brand new.
DoneDeal has LOADS of Digital SLR cameras for sale by DoneDealers that could save you a few pennies.
Elaine recently met with the talented Paula Malone Carty from Bluebell Studios in Wexford for some advice. They’ve come up with this great list of tips for DoneDealers to bare in mind to get the best bargain when buying their Digital SLR.
If this article interested you, you might also want to read Buying hints for would be happy snappers!
We got the BEST news this morning! We were Ireland’s FASTEST-RISING Google search in 2011…even over Pippa Middleton and the iPhone 5!
Thanks to the millions of DoneDealers looking for our site, searches on Google for DoneDeal.ie have grown by 500% in 2011. That’s just huge and we’re absolutely DELIGHTED!
As always, DoneDeal is Irelands largest classifieds website because of all the top class DoneDealers that have stayed with us and grown with us over the years and we wanted to say THANK YOU for that!
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