Happy New Year to you all.

We hope you are all as well as possible under the circumstances. Thank you so much to all of your who have supported us before Christmas by buying adoption packs, donating and also for your many messages of good luck for the coming year. It makes a huge difference to our efforts.

As you are all aware, we are currently rearing our beautiful rescue kitten Finlay and he is growing quickly and continues to show strong wildcat markings and behaviours.

Until now, due to his young age and vulnerability, he has been hand reared by two of our team members with extensive experience in this area. No one else from the team has seen him in an effort to reduce human contact as much as possible. 

As Finlay grows older, we need to start preparing for his release into the wild. We of course want to give him the best possible chance of his return home being a success. We want to build Finlay a large rehabilitation enclosure where he can learn to hunt, use den sites and gradually lose his reliance on humans. Without this it will be impossible for him to learn and develop the vital skills he will need to survive in the wild.

To be clear, this is NOT a zoo cage on public view. We want to build him a real habitat which is large, diverse and stimulating. The enclosure will contain multiple dens sites, different areas of natural vegetation, a fence that will allow mice and voles to move through it which will crucially enable Finlay to practice hunting wild prey. We also want to fit a CCTV system so that we can monitor his behaviour remotely and assess when he is ready for his release.  

We have the perfect spot where he will be away from people and can become wild again. The size of the enclosure built will depend purely on the funds raised - the more funds, the bigger the enclosure. Our team has considerable experience building rehabilitation enclosures for a range of species and will bring this knowledge to the design of Finlay’s facility. This enclosure will not just help Finlay, but also any future orphaned wildcat kittens that are found, so will be a crucial facility for future rescues.  

We are extremely grateful for all of the help and support we receive. Building a large scale enclosure is a major undertaking but after all that he has been through and the bravery he has shown, Finlay deserves to be given the best chance of returning to the wild.  

To achieve this, we have set up a Crowdfunder page for Finlay where you can see some recent pictures and a video compilation. If you want to help, please visit:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help-us-get-finlay-back-into-the-wild

Thank you.

The Wildcat Haven Team