Animal lover Rhona gives home to 150 rescue cats

Lifestyle – Judy Murphy meets a woman who devotes all of her time to looking after sick and abandoned felines

There are two types of people in the world – those who don’t like cats and those who do.

And then there’s Rhona Lucas who is simply cat crazy. So much does 70-year-old Rhona love the 150 cats in her care that she is leaving her home in Kylebrack, Loughrea, and relocating to a remote part of County Clare, rather than give up any of them.

Rhona moved to Loughrea eight years ago, following a successful career in Child Protection Services in the UK. Her new home was close to a national school. At the time, she and her husband John, had just two cats and dogs, so that wasn’t a problem.

But 150 is too many for some people.

“While my cats are wormed, treated for lice and fleas and vetted, not everybody likes animals being close to children,” she says.

So, she is in the process of gathering them up and relocating to rural West Clare where she has bought a property with sheds and barns to accommodate the cats, as well as her dogs.

In her Cat Dubh sanctuary in Kylebrack, the cats had the run of the house – apart from the guest bedroom and the living room – but in their new abode, the sheds will be their home. That’s the plan, but given Rhona’s love of animals, it’s by no means certain.

 “I have always loved animals but I didn’t ever intend to have this number,” she explains.

That happened after she moved to Loughrea. People realised she would care for strays, so they began contacting about feral cats. She organises for them to be trapped and neutered and in many cases, holds onto their kittens, simply because nobody else wants them.

For the past three years Rhona has got a small grant from the Department of Agriculture for her work because An Cat Dubh is open to regular inspections. This has increased from €1,000 to €3,400 and all goes towards the vets’ bills, which totalled €4,000 last year.

“When you are trapping and neutering 180 cats a year, it adds up,” she says.

Rhona originally moved to Kylebrack, because she had family in Whitegate in East Clare and that was the closest she could find a suitable property.

She worked for the department of Social Welfare in the UK which is where she met her husband, John.  “I grew up in the city but I was always a country girl at heart,” says Rhona, who has six grandchildren and a great grandchild.”I loved flowers and nature.”

However, it wasn’t until she was 62 that she got to fulfil her dream of country living. Now aged 70, she has no intention of quitting her work with animals.

“I really love what I am doing and I hope to do it for 10 years more. I’m trying to give animals some quality of life, free from the burden of giving birth to sick litters who die.”

Jim Smyth’s Railway Veterinary Clinic in Loughrea gives Rhona’s name to people who want to contact somebody about animal welfare issues, especially cats.

“I work well with feral cats,” she says. “It takes time and patience to get them used to humans.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.