CAT lovers are being invited to the Blackdown Garden Centre outside Wellington this week for the official opening of a new Cats Protection centre.

The Taunton Homing & Information Centre is able to accommodate ten cats available for homing and is open seven days a week.

Cats Protection is opening the doors to the centre on Friday (August 26) at 11am with Mayor of Taunton Deane Cllr Vivienne Stock-Williams officially launching it at 2.30pm.

Fun activities will continue until 4pm with free giveaways and activities for children, goody bags and the chance to meet some of the cats currently cared for by Cats Protection.

The new centre with five custom-built cat pens will focus on finding homes for cats that are ready to go to a new home and will provide a convenient information hub for cat owners to find out more about caring for their pet.

Cats Protection’s development manager Sadie Dalton said the centre has been designed to help encourage more people to consider adopting a cat from the charity.

She said: “Across the UK, Cats Protection has more than 250 volunteer-run branches and 32 centres helping about 200,000 cats a year but the sad reality is there are many more cats in need of our help.

“The location of our new Taunton Homing & Information Centre has been chosen to make it very convenient and easy to find, as well as benefiting from the large footfall of the garden centre. We hope this will encourage more people to adopt a cat and help us promote cat welfare in the area.

“Whereas our main adoption centres may be caring for cats which need some additional care before being homed, all the cats at this new centre will be ready and waiting to go to a new home.

“We’re looking forward to celebrating the opening of our new centre with the community. The day will be a great celebration of everything that makes cats such special pets – so if children would like to bring along drawings of their own cats, we’d love to see them.”

The new centre is open from 10am-4pm Monday to Sunday and will be an information hub for cat owners or anyone considering adopting a cat, with free cat care guides available.

Sadie added: “Cats Protection has so many lovely cats in its care desperate to find a new owner. We’re hoping this new centre will make it even easier for people to find out about adopting from us and to help them find their perfect pet.

“Adopting a cat from Cats Protection has many benefits, including the peace of mind of knowing your new pet has been examined by a veterinary surgeon. All our cats will also have been microchipped, vaccinated, neutered if old enough and will have four weeks free insurance.”

To find out more about the work of Cats Protection, visit www.cats.org.uk