History Book
It’s said that every cat has a story. Now it’s the story of the Cat Centre itself that Ten Lives is looking to tell.
ARTICLE BY: Freya Langford-Sidebottom, Ten Lives.
We are excited to announce that Author Dr Caroline Evans has taken on the challenge to research and write our history here at the Ten Lives Cat Centre. She has reached out to volunteers, staff, and friends from the past to help us fill in the blanks with great stories and anecdotes about people and cats.
Ten Lives has a proud history of more than 70 years of caring for the unwanted cats and kittens of Southern Tasmania. We started life in 1949 as the Tasmanian Animal Protection Society, founded by Joan Allport, and became a dedicated cat centre in 1974 under the leadership of Florence Robson, who had a vision to provide a shelter for all unwanted cats and kittens in Hobart.
And while much has changed over the past 70 years, some things remain the same. “I think the contribution of volunteers is really striking and quite moving”, says Dr Evans, “they put in an enormous amount of time, and an enormous amount of emotional energy I guess, as well as other kinds of energy, and also money. Quite a bit of money from volunteers went into setting the original Cat Centre up.”
Ten Lives Manager Noel Hunt agrees, “Volunteers are really the backbone of the organisation and have been part of what we do from the very beginning. We have 100 volunteers that work at the Centre, we have up to 20 volunteers that work at our op shop, and amazingly we have nearly 250 volunteer foster carers that help us look after the vast number of kittens and cats that are in our care.”
As part of this project, we would really love to hear from all the people who have been involved in the long and rich history of Ten Lives. As Noel states “the history of Ten Lives is also an important part of the history of Hobart, and it’s just important to get that down on paper while we can.”
PHOTO: Joel Diprose, Ten Lives.
If you or anybody you know can help provide information, stories, articles or photos involving our past (especially from our Strickland Avenue days), you can visit our web site tenlives.com.au and hit the big red button marked HISTORY BOOK MEDIA UPLOAD, email us with your information at [email protected], give us a call on 6278 2111 or even drop in to visit the Centre at 12 Selfs Point Road, New Town – we’d love to show you around so you can see what Ten Lives is doing today!