A mum who took in 18 cats during lockdown converted the family home into a rescue centre. Tina Lewis has now adopted 132 felines, and even sold her Audi and wedding ring for their care.
Tina, 54, runs Filey Cat Rescue from her farmhouse in the North Yorkshire coastal town with her husband Mark, 68, and daughter Kate, 23. Their entire home has been taken over by cats - a litter of kittens live in the bathroom and the attic has been turned into a mini vets where one cat had a blood transfusion.
Tina has even moved out of her bedroom and into her dining room so she can look after more cats. She has said that she only expected to have "eight or nine cats in at a time" but now it's "absolutely mad and mental".
"It really has gone massive," she said. "Obviously it is a complete full time job for me and a change of everything for everyone who lives here - it's all cats.
"When we became a charity, I thought we might have eight or nine cats in at a time but it went absolutely mad and mental. There are just so many cats out there that are desperate."
Tina also spends around £7,000 a month on looking after the cats which led her to make money-saving decisions. "I had a really nice Audi but that's gone, which doesn't bother me," she said.
"With the wedding ring, I looked at my husband and said, 'what do we have to sell', and looked at my hand and just thought 'I don't need this.' I'm still married, it doesn't make a difference at all.
"We are lucky to have a bed and breakfast so all that money goes into the charity but in winter, it's a different story as the bed and breakfast is quiet then. It was really, really worrying but now we can see light at the end of the tunnel for us to do this.
"We want to do this forever and leave it so that after our days, it's here forever. I'm also going to sell my dad's old Mercedes that he had before he passed away.
"I've had it in a little barn for 30 years, but that will be leaving as well. I've run out of things to sell now and obviously we don't have any ornaments with the cats anyway so the house is pretty bland now."
Despite the fact that the cats have completely taken over her house, Tina never wants to move the rescue centre and always wants it running out of her home. She said: "We've got about an acre of land, and it's perfect for them, it's just beautiful.
"We've got a wall going down one side and lots of trees. There are also 31 units where the cats live that are in there, so we've gradually got it exactly right.
"We can accommodate more cats, we have a barn and the dream would be to make another floor from that which could potentially have another 20 beautiful units in there. But that's probably a dream but you never know."
