THE first of the Christmas strays has arrived at Devizes Kats and Kits in Care, the animal sanctuary set up and run by veterinary nurse Lorraine Spencer.

The shelter gets no grant aid and its running costs, amounting to several thousand pounds a year, are funded by donations and fund-raising.

All the people who work there are volunteers and Mrs Spencer says she could not manage without them.

She said: "At the moment we are absolutely full to bursting and that is before the usual influx of stray and abandoned animals who come in after Christmas.

"It means so much work and my volunteers do a tremendous job. I spend so much time taking cats to and from the vets they have to do the cleaning and feeding."

Hamish, a large white cat, named because he was picked up at the Ham in Market Lavington, is typical of the kind of animal which comes in at this time of the year.

Mrs Spencer thinks that people notice stray cats at this time of the year because it is Christmas and it is cold.

She said: "Hamish was noticed because he had an injured leg but he must have been living rough for quite a while."

In addition to a huge swelling on his leg, one of his eyes was in a serious condition, requiring an operation at the vets.

Vets' bills are an enormous strain on the resources of Kats and Kits.

Mrs Spencer rehomed 230 cats this year, most of which needed blood-testing for FIV, feline immunodeficiency virus, and 96 of which needed neutering.

Even with a healthy discount from an understanding vet, the bill for this year came to more than £4,000.

The statistics of looking after so many cats are astronomical.

The shelter goes through eight tonnes of cat litter a year, at a cost of £500 a tonne.

Mrs Spencer buys cat food in batches of 500 tins, which soon disappear.

On top of that there are the specialist foods for those on special diets to either lose or gain weight.

Kittens, some of them only a few days old, need special formula milk and kitten food.

Hayden, so-called because he was trapped at a local bakery in Devizes, is another typical Christmas stray.

When he was found he was wearing a cheap blue collar but Mrs Spencer thinks that this was just a ruse by whoever abandoned him to make people think he had a home.

Mrs Spencer said: "One of the reasons people abandon their animals is because they are going away and don't want to pay for kennelling."

Another reason for there being so many cats in the shelter at the moment is Mrs Spencer's keenness to clear colonies of feral cats, many of them on industrial estates, which breed out of control.

Cats are neutered, wormed and deflea-d before hours of patient rehabilitation turn them into well-mannered house cats which can be found a good home.

When she was called to the premises of food processing firm Apetito's in Trowbridge she was told there was a family of five cats living wild.

She discovered a colony of several families of cats living at two sites. So far, she has trapped five kittens, two females and one male and is having to go back repeatedly, sometimes twice a night, to collect others caught in the humane traps.

The traps have been working overtime this year. Mrs Spencer invested in five traps, at £80 each, and they are rarely idle.

Mrs Spencer has issued a plea for more volunteers. They should be fairly fit and healthy and not mind bending.

To volunteer or make a donation contact Daphne Crisp on (01672) 851234.