The Beginning Of The Bythams Cattery

Having moved into the premises in October 2007 with exciting plans of building and running our own business in this wonderful area, it was December before planning permission was granted for us to build our cattery. Unfortunately, with Christmas on the way, we were not able to commence work on the project of converting a stable block area into a high quality cattery until early 2008.

Our dream was being built by the family during evenings and weekends with endless supplies of cups of tea and sandwiches being provided to allow them to keep going. The time of year meant we had a short amount of daylight hours with much work being completed under floodlights.

By now we had decided that our opening day would be St Patrick’s Day, 17th March and to achieve this we soon realised that the extent of our task would require hours of dedication from us all. The aggravation of trying to put roofing sheets on together with tying tarpaulins down to allow the new concrete floor to be laid, always in the highest of winds, led to jubilation as we saw the space being created for our new pens.

Whilst the floors were being laid Adam and Noel our fantastic gardeners were moving earth (and sometimes we think heaven) as our three tiered garden spread out in front of the cattery.

A production line of sorts began, with all the pieces of the pens and penthouses being cut to exact measurements, ready to fit under the remaining stable block shell. Steadily the pens started taking shape giving us an idea of where things would be positioned and then as the first ‘penthouses’ slotted together we could see the reality of our dream appearing before our eyes. As the doors and penthouse ramps were attached to each pen we realised our careful planning had paid off and by allowing extra space our residents would have room to move about and exercise by using the ramps and the well positioned sun shelves.

As the final touches of chairs, beds and little ‘cat’ messages were added we knew we had something special, a place that is tranquil for our guests and a pleasure for us to work in. Yes, we are proud of our achievement and whilst it will continue to evolve, we intend to keep our standards high and maintain our commitment to you and your pets to be the complete ‘Cat
Comfort Specialists’.

We hope you enjoy viewing a few snaps of our beginning in our Picture Gallery, enabling those of you who have already visited the chance to share with us what was here in the beginning and for those of you who may wish to visit us as new friends what awaits you and your treasured pet.