More than half of the animals face being put down if they can't be re-homed by the end of the summer.

At the beginning of this year, the Town Crier reported on a £5,000 rescue operation after St Neots and district Cat Protection found the animals living in an 83-year-old man's home in a rural village just outside the town.

A mamouth rescue operation was launched to neuter, spay, blood test and medically treat all the pets, which included a number of black and white cats, several ginger boys, quite a few tortoishell girls, two huge black toms, six unusual blue cats with white faces and lots of tabbies.

The charity managed to re-home more than half the moggies, but with new litters since arriving, the elderly gentleman's death has left more than 35 of the cats, including 16 kittens, without a home.

Volunteer for St Neots and District Cat Protection Dawn Cooke explained the charity have just two months to re-house the animals before the mans home is demolished for safety reasons.

The task of finding homes for the animals is so large it represents two thirds of the animals the charity would normally re-home in a year.

Mrs Cooke explained both the cat protection homes and Wood Green Animal Shelter are full, so she is making a desperate plea to the public to come forward and take some of the moggies in.

She added: "It is a desperate search for homes because we don't put cats down as a rule. But if we can't find enough homes the vet may have to make that decision with some of the older cats."

About half of the cats range from one to 12 years old and about half of the cats are garden cats, semi-feral cats which live in a provided out-door shelter in colonies of up to four.

All the cats have been health checked and if residents are able to home garden cats a feeding programme can be set up by cat protection.
For more information call Dawn Cooke on 07966 282005.