On Saturday 4th October I spent the morning at the Cat Survival Trust in Welwyn, Hertfordshire.

The trust occupies 11 acres of land behind a pet food store just outside Welwyn Village on the B656 to Hitchin. It’s not open to the public but members of the trust can visit by arrangement. I visited with fellow Letchworth photographer, mark Tiller, who has been associated with the trust for the last couple of years & organises photo shoots for other photographers.

They have over 30 cats of various protected species from around the world. Most of them are rescued from other organisations in danger of being put down due to old age, lack of space or the closing of the organisation.

The Caracal, above, is often known as the desert lynx. It comes from Africa & the Middle East. The Trust currently has two males & two females.

The Bobcat is found almost exclusively in the USA & looks much like a very large domestic cat.

One of the most beautiful examples of the big cats has to be the Snow Leopard. Unfortunately, while I was there the snow leopards were engaged in a heavy bout of sleeping, we were treated to only a brief period of open eyes, their curiosity in our presence very short-lived.

The Trust provides opportunities for photographers on group trips during which they can have access to the inner sanctum of some of the pens. Most of then pens have a single cage and you can, with care, shoot through the bars. Other pens have a double cage with a path between the inner & outer. It’s impossible to eliminate the inner bars photographing through the double cages. With a group session a member of staff can allow photographers in to the inner section.

Unfortunately, two people pulled out of our visit at the last moment so as there were only two of us we couldn’t shoot some of the cats (photographically!) as the trust has to provide a member of staff to accompany the group.

The Cat Survival Trust is run entirely by volunteers; they have no paid staff. Part of their work & fund-raising goes to support their reserve in Argentina.

Their website (which is currently quite old & being redeveloped) can be found at www.catsurvivaltrust.org.