Linda Daly visits Kitten Cottage, where Maire Egan rescues and looks after abandoned cats and kittens, while also doing her bit to keep the population of wild cats under control

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

Our visit

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.

A puppy farm dog

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.

Caring for kittens

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.

Trap, neuter, release

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.”

Calling it a day

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.

You can help

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.

Everyone knows how cute and adorable little puppies are, but those little cuties do grow up and get bigger and are living beings that are depending on YOU to care for them.  Caring for them can be a very costly exercise, both for your time and your wallet!

Our Dog Policy has always requested that no Dog ad on our site can use any words or photos that suggest in any way that a pup can be a Christmas present.  Any ad found to contain these, will have the details removed. It’s an old saying at this stage, but still so true: “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas“.

To help us also ensure that pups are only rehomed when they are old enough, we have also updated our Dog Section to include a compulsory Dog Age field.

It is not recommended that a pup be rehomed before the age of 8 weeks, so we’ve set that as the minimum age you can place a pup on our site.  On each new dog ad placed, you will now see the age of the pup/dog under the photo.

While the vast majority of breeders using our site are absolutely concerned with the welfare of their pups and always breed responsibly, some less reputable breeders were rehoming their pups before eight weeks. We therefore have had to enforce this blanket rule for all dog ads on our site.

If you spot any ad that seems to have tried to get around our system checks in regards to either of these areas, please report them to us by clicking “Report Ad” in the blue box beside the particular ad.

If you are considering getting a dog, PLEASE think about it very seriously before you commit to your forever friend.  A recent article in the Independent.ie says that it can cost up to €30,000 to care for your dog over it’s lifetime.

With the HUGE number of dogs in Ireland that are crying out for a home, we would LOVE to see our DoneDealers REHOMING a rescue dog from one of the many rescue’s around Ireland, including the ones that take part in our Rescue Section.

With all this in mind, we are hoping to encourage people to plan the breeding of their dogs a little better, help find their pups forever homes and help make Ireland a better place for Dogs. Thank you so much to all the Dog lovers and DoneDealers for your continued support for Irish Dogs.

Thanks to Independent.ie and DSPCA and Ireland AM for the BRILLIANT articles we linked to in this blog.

A desire to help animals has turned into a full-time job for Helena and Remi Le Mahieu, who rescue some 700 animals each year and, as Linda Daly discovers, have seen some truly horrific things

Being surrounded by seven dogs in a living room with a fox sitting in the corner would be a bizarre situation for anyone, but it’s exactly where this city girl found herself in October at the home of Helena and Remi Le Mahieu, owners of ASH Animal Rescue.

ASH is located off the beaten track in Kiltegan, Co Wicklow, is well worth a visit and is open to the public every day except Friday.

Elton at Ash Animal Rescue

A warm welcome

I was ushered into Helena’s home with a warm smile and a hearty handshake and immediately greeted by two of the largest dogs you’re likely to meet: a gorgeous black Newfoundland and a St Bernard. Both are elderly dogs, so there was no fussing, just a little welcome for the stranger and then back to their own business.

Helena brought me into the sitting room where the seven barking residents and an excited fox quickly settled down and were soon snoring away.

Helena and Remi

For the next hour-and-a-half, I heard the fascinating tale of Helena and Remi. The couple moved from the Netherlands 20 years ago, have three grown children, two of whom live in Ireland, and also have grandchildren.

They always intended to rescue animals but what started out as a small operation turned into a massive rescue mission, which now sees them save up to 700 animals each year.

When I visit them, they have over 100 dogs, 80 cats, four foxes, a horse, a donkey, two pigs, a couple of rabbits, guinea pigs, ducks and hens on their six acres of land and a recently rescued ferret living in their bathroom.

Helena and Remi are hyper-sensitive about cleanliness. All trays, cages and runs are cleaned out once a day and the huge pile of beds for the animals means that they put on at least four washes in their industrial-size washing machine each day.

Feeding bowls at Ash Animal Rescue

Horribly sad tales

Unsurprisingly, Helena has way too many sad tales and I soon find myself welling up.

There’s the story of Elvis, a little Shih Tzu, who was brought in by a woman who spotted him around her workplace. His eye had become so infected it looked like a golf ball sticking from the socket and he was immediately brought for emergency surgery.

Before the vet could even remove the eye, he had to clip away the worst of Elvis’s matted coat so foul was the smell. But Elvis retained eyesight in his other eye and, under the care of ASH, began to thrive. His, thankfully, is a happy ending as he was recently adopted by a well-known Irish television presenter.

Cuddles and Hardy

Then there’s Cuddles, an eight-year old Westie who was cast out into her owner’s back garden after being knocked down by a car and having ‘accidents’ in the house. Four years later, the owner’s friend called ASH and asked them to take the utterly neglected dog.

She hadn’t been vaccinated since she was a pup; she was emaciated, she had open wounds on her body and her collar was so tight it wounded her neck.

While these stories are bad, there are also some truly horrific events, like the time a neighbour found a dog which had half his face blown off with a shotgun. Hardy, as he became known, had wandered around for three to four months before being found. So horrific were his wounds that you could see the bones in his skull. By some miracle, he survived and has since been re-homed.

Helena says the physical injuries are easier to mend than the mental ones and this is something I see first-hand as Remi shows me around.

A few of the dogs are truly terrified when they see a human approach. There are no tails wagging and they wince away from any human touch. It’s soul destroying.

Growing numbers abandoned

You’ll find every type of breed imaginable at ASH, from Jack Russells and Shih Tzus, to Labradors, Labradoodles, a Great Dane and an American Akita.

“We have definitely seen a deterioration in the state of animal welfare in recent years,” says Helena. “The recession means that more pure-breeds are being abandoned.”

The struggle for funding

Outside are numerous runs for the dogs, some old and some newly built thanks to donations and bequeaths. There’s also a brand new heated cat enclosure. But the money has dried up and there are older areas that are in much need of renovation.

“In the past we used to re-mortgage the house, which we did twice,” explains Remi, “but with the recession we can no longer do that.”
Every time I visit animal rescuers, I can’t help but notice how incredibly under-funded they are.

Helena and Remi received just €12,000 from the Department of Agriculture last year. They have two full-time staff, a couple of part-time workers and have to feed 200 animals, heat, clean and pay vet bills.

ASH is supported by fundraisers and after a hard day’s work Helena or Remi attend table quizzes or sell cards. Their latest idea is a perpetual calendar which Helena hopes people will put in their bathrooms similar to the Dutch tradition.

Respecting animal rescuers

Despite all their work, they still have dogs dumped in their car park – and on their doorstep – regularly. People even scold them when they are unable to take their pets.

I leave ASH full of respect and awe for these two people yet, I feel angry that they have been put in this position by an Irish tradition of treating animals badly.

When Remi tells me they get, at most, three days a year holiday, I ask him if it’s worth it.

“It’s a very rewarding job,” he says, “and we really love doing it.”

The ISPCA have launched their Hay Drive to help malnurished Horses this winter.  For just €3 you can donate a bail of hay to help the ISPCA fill their haybarn and help these deserving creatures.

We wanted tohelp the ISPCA raise as much awareness as possible for this campaign, so we’ve donated banner ads on our site to help them do this.  DoneDealers can click through from the banner ads to the ISPCA website and see how they can donate.

With over 190,000 DoneDealers browsing our site every day, and over 2 Million unique visitors every month,  you’re a very powerful lot that could make an enormous difference.

You can donate on their website,

or by texting “Hay” to 57802.

So please, please, take a moment DoneDealers to send the TEXT to give a bail of hay today!

Gill Brady, who started her own dog rescue centre eight years, has plenty of harrowing tales to tell of animal cruelty and neglect. However, some at least have happy endings, writes Linda Daly

Second up on our rescue centre travels is Celtic Animal Life Line, a Kildare-based rescue centre that is run by another remarkable woman, Gill Brady.

Abandoned in the snow: Elric

It was one of those rare sunny September days when my daughter Rachel and I headed to meet Gill in the village of Kill, Co Kildare. Our meeting point was the Dew Drop Inn, which was littered with a handful of patrons on that early Saturday afternoon.

Kennel costs

Gill’s operation is different to Tipp-Off’s (which we visited previously) in that, while she keeps sick dogs and pups at home, she houses the majority in kennels, paying €1,000 a month for accommodation alone. There’s no gasp of shock from me (although there really should be) when she tells me it comes out of her own pocket – it seems to be the way with these animal rescue workers.

Her funding comes from donations from fundraisers, including All For Animals calendar sales. She also arranges other fundraising projects to support her rescue’s costs, as well as receiving through funding her own work and from adopters’ donations. She also has a great relationship with her vet, who showed her how to vaccinate.

Gill became heavily involved in animal rescue around the late 1990s after coming across Irish Animals, which was the primary pet resource website in Ireland at the time.

Foster care

She started visiting the South Dublin County Council dog pound, taking photos of dogs that needed to be re-homed and putting them on the website. It wasn’t long before she adopted one of those animals herself, a German Shepherd who had bone cancer and died three months later.

“What happens is, you do something like that and start to foster, and then you start to foster more, and you get sucked into it. I always say rescuing is like the mafia, once you start you can’t get out,” she jokes.

Celtic Animal Life Line officially came into being in 2003 and became a registered charity in 2004. Since then, Celtic Animal Life Line has rescued and rehomed thousands of dogs.

We spend the next hour talking while Rachel flicks through the beautifully photographed All for Animals calendar – I know it’s early but consider putting this on your Christmas gift list. Gill tells me some harrowing and moving stories.

Disturbing tales

The worst scenario she ever encountered was a few years ago. Children, all under the age of 10, had hammered 40 nails into a dog’s body. She was found bleeding and close to death but miraculously, after months of treatment and much care, survived.

On another occasion, Gill was asked to assist a flea-invested dog who had been surrendered into the pound. The shaggy-haired creature’s coat was so matted that the pound workers didn’t even notice what lay underneath. When Gill went in, she lifted up his hair and saw that the dog’s eye was literally hanging out of the socket, the result of a full-force kick. Unfortunately, the vets couldn’t save his eye but they did save his life.

Gill explains that animal abuse transcends all economic borders, and can happen in all classes and areas.

Providing care

“I don’t judge a home physically. It’s about the owners and their ability to give the dogs a good life, to walk them, exercise them, bring them to a vet when needed, provide companionship and care for the animal. And that can happen in a small house.”

This year has been the worst year in Gill’s memory for people abandoning dogs and she says many other rescue centres have reported the same.

Getting the message out

Ultimately, says Gill, we need to change the system to educate people about pets. She hopes to start visiting schools to educate the children.

It’s worth pointing out that not all rescue dogs have been badly treated. On one occasion, Gill was asked to take in two much-loved dogs by their owner who was going in to St Luke’s hospice to never return home.

Worming and neutering

Gill is the second animal rescue operator who advocates and actively encourages the neutering of dogs. In fact, she says it’s cruel not to have your dog neutered.

“If you neuter your dog, he or she will be a happier, healthier dog. Males will be less territorial and will suffer from less stress due to the reduction in testosterone. Females will also be healthier, less inclined to roam, or suffer from certain cancers.”

Worms can also be a huge problem and Gill pleads with owners to ensure their new pups have been wormed.

“Once a friend of mine came to me with her pup but didn’t have a worming card. I wormed him and, for two days, worms came out of that pup’s nose, mouth and backside,” she says. “A bad case of worms can kill a pup.”

The lucky ones

After our hour-long chat, we head for one of the kennels where Gill homes dogs. Located in Kildare on 400 acres of lush countryside, the kennels provide the dogs with plenty of space and freedom to run around during playtime.

There, I meet two young boxers, Clara and Bandit, who had been left into a vet to be destroyed after their owners’ marriage broke up. The vet refused to do it and called Gill.

I also meet a one-year-old Labrador-Boxer cross, who arrived here with a completely matted coat. After six months of good treatment and nutritious food, I’m struck at how beautiful Raphi’s coat is. It’s gleaming.

Gill takes in a mixture of big and small dogs and we meet Elric, a Jack Russell who was found abandoned in the snow.

All are very excited to see their rescuer and the stranger who accompanies her, with all traces of their former mistreatment having disappeared.

When I meet her, Gill has 13 dogs in her care between the kennels and her home.

She says life would be a lot easier if there were foster homes for the dogs. It’s not a bad idea.