North East rescue cat could be named national social star at upcoming awards

Eric was adopted in 2020 after having a difficult start to life. Being born a stray, living on the streets and nearly dying from cat flu three times was Eric’s reality for the first year of his life.

After being rescued by a cat sanctuary and building up his strength, Eric was then adopted by his parents Helen and Paul.

Inspired by other cat parents, the couple decided to set Eric up on social media and overnight gained more than 500 followers.

Through following various cat protection organisations and charities on Eric’s page, social media manager Paul Richardson came across the national cat awards and decided to go for it.

Paul said: “It started out as just a bit of fun.

"When I looked at last years awards I knew this was something I wanted to be apart of. Reading their stories was just amazing and seeing a cat go from stray or mistreated and seeing them get their happy ending is what we wanted to show.”

Eric has been shortlisted as the nations social star, where he will be up against two other cats at the finals in July.

Speaking of the journey with Eric and his social media, Paul added: "It was funny we are both animal lovers so we thought we’ll have some fun.

"We had so many lovely pictures of Eric and wanted to share them to the animal community and share his story from where he’s come from to finding his forever home.

"There is so many cats and kittens out there who need homes. Having the outlook on life of giving the less fortunate a chance is so important. Just because they didn’t have the best start to life doesn’t mean they deserve any less of a home than cats born in different situations.

"We wanted to help a stray and give him a chance in life. its so rewarding seeing him now, hes gone through so much in his early stages but now hes doing great.”

To vote for Eric, visit: https://www.cats.org.uk/support-us/events/nca/social-star.