Kat Kabin In Memory of Joan Bentley Pet Samaritan

Joan Bentley, founder of the Pet Samaritans Animal Sanctuary passed away just before christmas. She had been battling illness with cancer for sometime but was determined to carry on with rescuing animals and wildlife right up until going into hospital. She was an animal lover and devoted her life to rescuing animals and campaigned to the well being and happiness of all animals through education. She was particularly fond of cats and was never seen without some feline orphan in her arms or by her side. In 2013, she was recognised for her service to the local community by winning a prestigous Peoples award.

In memory of Joan and her last wishes before she passed away, we would like to rebuild the ‘Kat Kabin’ she spent most of her days in, tending to cats and rescued animals. She left drawings and instructions for the project and we would like to dedicate it to her in memory of all the animals she saved and the lives of people she touched. We are optimistic with your help, we can make something truly special for her and the animals at the sanctuary.

Pop up to the sanctuary to find out more about making a donation towards the cost of the project. You can pledge a donation in person or via our donation page online.

Joan had started writing a book about all the happy endings from the Pet Samaritans Animal Sanctuary. We hope to make this available soon in book form with all profits from its sale going to the animal sanctuary. We thought we would share an extract from one of the stories with you now.

Tiny Tim
Left to freeze to death
Stories from Safe at Last by Joan and Daniel Bentley

We’d stayed up till after midnight on New Year’s Ever, not to celebrate but in case of fireworks. We had one or two dogs in who were terrified of them. It turned out to be a quiet night though and it wasn’t until just after 4.0am that we were woken up by the phone ringing. On and on it went until I stumbled out of bed to pick it up. “Hello,” I managed to say. I was still half asleep.

“I’ve found a dog,” a gruff voice told me. “Oh sorry, we don’t open till ten,” I began. He broke me off, “You’ll have to tek him, he might be dead.”
There was panic in the man’s voice. “Has he been knocked down?” I asked thinking about a road traffic accident. “No, he’s frozen stiff. Been tied up, all night by the look of things.”
“Good heavens.” I found it hard to contemplate this, it was a bitterly cold night with a hard frost. “Bring him – straight away.” The man knew our address, he was on his way to work when he’d noticed the dog tied up to a lampost. Only the yellow light had saved the dog, if he’d been in shadow he wouldn’t have seen him and would have driven past…

If you would like to read more about what happened to Tiny Tim and Joan, let us know. We’d love to hear from you.