Free A Home for Shimmer by Cathy Hopkins

expected Mum to get up and tell Dad that we were wasting our time, but she didn’t. She was listening.
    ‘We do cover a very wide area,’ said Mazhar, ‘six hundred and fifty square miles throughout Somerset and Wiltshire.’
    Josh let out a whistle. ‘How many animals do you have?’ he asked.
    ‘We can house over one hundred and twenty dogs, one hundred and twenty cats, one hundred chickens and fifty or so small animals.’
    ‘That’s a lot of space you need,’ said Caitlin. I knew she was thinking the same as I was – that there was no way could we get that many into our land and stables.
    ‘We rehome about two thousand animals a year.’
    ‘What?’ I cried again. It was getting worse by the minute. That was impossible. I felt my heart sink.
    ‘Amy, be quiet,’ said Dad. ‘Let’s hear what Mazhar has to say before we panic.’
    Mazhar smiled. ‘A lot of people are surprised when they hear the figures. Money is also raised by businesses, schools, cake sales, local events, marathons– our pet shop makes us some money too.’
    I’d taken note of the shop earlier. We hadn’t thought about selling pet products and I thought it would be a good addition to the farm shop.
    ‘What happens if you’re full?’ asked Mum.
    ‘We have a waiting list. It’s one in, one out. We have a list of people who are willing to foster animals until we have a place for them and can find them a more permanent home,’ he smiled. ‘It’s really what all of them want, a home and to be loved.’ I thought of Shimmer and how happy she was to be part of our family and have somewhere she belonged. I prayed for the hundred millionth time that it would be permanent.
    ‘And how many vets do you have on site?’ asked Dad.
    ‘We have one vet and one nurse. All the animals get a health check when they come in – checked for fleas, worms, skin disease as well as getting their vaccinations.’
    ‘What about other staff?’ asked Mum.
    ‘We have about forty, some working full-time, some part and we have about three hundred people working here as volunteers – all the dog walkers and cat cuddlers.’
    ‘Cat cuddlers?’ said Caitlin, looking excited. Cat cuddling was her favourite pastime.
    Mazhar nodded. ‘They come in just to do that – and they cuddle the small animals too to let them know that they’re safe and not alone, but also to socialise them so when we do find them a home, they’re used to people.’
    ‘What happens when they first come in?’ asked Josh.
    ‘They’re put in an assessment block for seven days while we do what we can to try and find their owner, but of course that’s not always possible.’
    ‘Why do animals end up in here?’ I asked. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. Whatever the answer was, it was probably sad.
    ‘Oh, all sorts of reasons. Sometimes their owner dies, or is elderly and has to go into a home or hospital. Sometimes it’s a couple splitting up, sometimes an accident, or they’ve been neglected; other times, changes in the household like a new baby or a new job that means an owner can’t care for their pet, or lack of funds and people can’t afford to keep their animals. We see all sorts of cases, sometimes people just can’t cope with the responsibility.’ He looked over at the reception area. ‘This job can be a bit of a rollercoaster. One moment, it’s happy – rehoming an animal and knowing it’s gone somewhere safe – and the next having to tend to some poor creature that’s been abandoned. A cat was brought in this morning who had been left under a bush by the motorway. Poor thing was traumatised.’
    I sat and listened as Mum and Dad continued with their questions, but the more Mazhar told us, the more dejected I felt. The centre was totally amazing, but there was no way our family could pull off something similar unless Dad turned into Harry Potter.
    After half an hour, Mazhar offered to show us around and led us into the kennel area. As soon as we got in there,