A Little About Us and How Kitty Comforts came about

 

 

My name is Amanda, and I am married to Pete. We have 2 beautiful children, Bailey and Skye, and we live at Four Ashes Farm. Pete works assorted hours on the farm growing arable crops, the children are at school, and I was juggling working as a registered nurse and developing Kitty Comforts. Our aim is to run Kitty Comforts as a family business, and although Pete will still be on the farm, he will be helping me out when necessary.

 

I started my working life at 16 at a local veterinary surgery as a veterinary nurse. I worked there for 8 years and then decided to spread my wings and travel. I lived in Australia for a year and whilst there, I worked in the local veterinary surgery and local Koala Hospital. On my return to England, I joined a veterinary locum agency and worked at various surgeries around the country. From here I decided to take a different career path and started working as a healthcare worker at the local hospital. I found that I enjoyed the nursing profession so I went to university and became a qualified registered adult nurse and secured a job with the regional Plastics and Burns team. I worked in this department for 8 years and during this time, I had the children, working shift patterns was hard on family life and I found myself missing important events in the children's lives, first sports day, assembly, parents' evenings, so I decided to leave my permanent job and become a bank nurse meaning I could choose my shift patterns, this way I could be there more for the children or I didn't miss school events.

 

In April 2016, I celebrated a special birthday and whilst sitting around a dinner table with some lovely friends, I was asked a question — what am I going to do for the next 40 years? This I couldn't answer, so I asked myself another question — what had I done in the first 40 years? This was easy; I had 2 careers, got married, had children, moved house, travelled, just to name a few. So, what was next? We knew we didn't want more children or move house, traveling was out with the children so young and nursing isn't what it was. The nursing profession is becoming more and more political every day, less care and compassion and I worked nights, had little sleep and missed my family.

 

So whilst the discussion was going on, there were many suggestions of what I could do with my future, mostly to do with animals, a boarding cattery was suggested and the more I thought about it the more excited I became. So we researched the idea, asked the local dog warden and local council what they thought, and with their support and advice, we made a planning application and submitted it to the council.

 

Permission granted, we then had to start the process of what the cattery is going to be called; we had many suggestions some of which we felt were inappropriate and would attract the wrong kind of attention especially online! With due thought and consideration, we decided on the name "Kitty Comforts".

 

Whilst the building work commenced, I decided to brush up on my animal care knowledge so I have now completed a variety of courses:

Diploma in Veterinary Support Assistant

Diploma in Animal Psychology

Certificate in Dog and Cat Nutrition & Homemade Recipes

Ofqual Level 3 Award for Animal Licensing Inspectors.

 

We look forward to welcoming you and your furry feline to Kitty Comforts where we can offer a purr-fect stay!