Sunny Days Rescue & Rehab is a registered charity with a network of foster homes across Melbourne and Geelong, and a No Kill, volunteer run shelter in Lara, Victoria.  

We focus predominantly on the rescue, rehab and rehoming of street-born cats, as well as dogs not being picked up by other rescue organisations, arranged for euthanasia by owners and vets have intervened, and greyhounds exited from the racing industry.

We are 100% volunteer run and self/community funded, please read on to find out more about our important work and how you can help.

OUR WORK WITH CATS:

Our Stray Cat Rehabilitation Centre, was purpose-built by previous owners to house the breeding of German Shepherds. In 2017 we gained ownership of the property and developed this building into 'The Cat Cottage’, which provides long term housing in bright, colourful, fully enclosed group pens capable of housing 8 cats each, in a tranquil setting surrounded by nature. We take in full stray cat colonies, pregnant and nursing mothers, orphaned kittens, FIV positive cats, and sick or injured cats who are humanely trapped after being identified as un-owned - we don't take in domesticated cats and have extensive processes to ensure cats are true strays, as opposed to owned cats who have ended up in traps.

Being wild-born, the cats have not been separated from mothers and siblings at a young age as happens to most domestic cats when they join human homes. Most stray cats have lived with other cats their whole lives so adjust well to living in group pens, they often develop deeply bonded friendships and can be seen playing chasey or play-wrestling with their current bestie. All cats receive initial and on-going vet care, one-on-one focus from volunteers trained in working with fearful cats, and specialised handling from our rehab team. They aren't kept to deadlines of when they should be socialised or they risk of euthanasia - to us, each cat is a unique individual with different needs so we provide sanctuary for them for as long as it takes.

We strive to be as environmentally conscious as we can so use predominantly cruelty free cleaning products and our rehab pens feature housing and enrichment options re-purposed from discarded items and the natural environment. There's ladders to climb, baskets to snooze in, logs to scratch, and sun-baking platforms made from old steel ironing boards, and hidey holes with soft blankies for comfort and toys to bop around when they feel ready for that; we want them to explore and develop as many natural behaviours as possible. 

OUR WORK WITH DOGS:

Given we take in dogs who most often have ended up homeless due to behaviour issues, some minor, some serious, most of our dogs are with us for extended periods to ensure we know them really well before putting them up for adoption. We have all our dogs assessed by professional dog trainers, with some going on to have extensive behaviour work whilst in our care. We provide full discretion with adopters about dogs' health and behaviour as well as ongoing support to integrate adopted dogs into new homes, families and lifestyles. The success and longevity of our dog adoptions is very important to us because we refuse to see our dogs end up back in the system. Because of this we rarely have dogs returned, but to ensure we can help our dogs for the entirety of their life if for some reason their adopter is no longer able to love and care for them, we offer a lifetime guarantee to accept them back no matter what the reason, age of the dog at this stage, or health status. The few dogs we've had returned in our 5 years (as of 2022) have been due to no fault of their own and have been easily re-adopted into new homes where they have stayed. 

* Note we provide this guarantee for cats also and again have had very few returned over the years, we're very proud of the level of care we place in matching animals with adoptive homes, it's time consuming but the lives of our animals are so very worth it and more :)

OUR OBJECTIVES:

• to remove complete stray cat colonies from the community and ensure they never breed return to the street again,
• to demonstrate the potential to rehab unsocialised cats to other organisations who may not have understood or attempted to achieve that potential before,
• to educate the community on the stray cat problem in Australia and that desexing is the only way to lessen these numbers and the resulting suffering,
• to physically and psychologically rehabilitate dogs and cats and find them homes which understand their needs and are compassionate to their history,
• to provide an opportunity for volunteers to learn high level animal husbandry and handling which may assist their future work in animal welfare and as pet owners,
• to provide an opportunity for compassionate people to come together and pool skills for the betterment of animals who may otherwise be stuck in the system or lose their life.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

As a small organisation with no government or corporate funding, just funds from our own pockets and donations from our wonderful supporters, our services are in constant demand and our resources forever stretched. If you can help we would be so incredibly grateful! To donate please follow the prompts here; you can donate as a once off, regular monthly gift, or contact us about our Sponsor a Stray program to choose one of our very deserving street cats currently in rehabilitation to sponsor and receive regular updates.  

Thankyou for your support, we can't do this without you and our wonderful community!