AN ANIMAL sanctuary, run on a shoestring by a Basingstoke woman, has been left £261,000 in a cat lover’s will.

Shirley King, who has been rescuing and rehoming animals for 25 years, has been bequeathed the money for her Basingstoke animal charity STARescue. It is by far the biggest legacy the charity has ever received and is specifically earmarked for a new purpose-built rescue centre.

Mrs King has housed cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds and many other homeless or abandoned pets since she started out as a volunteer fosterer and then set up her own animal charity.

Cages and litter trays fill almost every room of her home and she spends three hours feeding and cleaning the pets every morning and night.

The devoted 62-year-old animal lover, who spends summer weekends fundraising at fetes, often with kittens in need of hourly nursing in tow, has now got a new goal after she was left the generous sum by her Spanish friend Dolores Valentino Oszward.

Mrs King said: “She kept saying: ‘When I die, I will leave all my money to you’, and she did, and it is reserved specifically for a project to start up an animal home.”

Mrs Oszward was a nurse at the former Park Prewett psychiatric hospital in Basingstoke. It was there that she met her husband Anton, who was a male nurse, and the couple settled in Charles Street, South Ham, Basingstoke, after retiring.

The couple had no children and Mr Oszward passed away in 1984. Mrs Oszward died in April 2008, aged 85, and is buried next to her husband in Worting Road Cemetery.

Mrs King said the funds, which have only just been released, are reserved to help fulfil her dream of providing a purpose-built rescue sanctuary and low-cost clinic in Basingstoke.

STARescue is currently run from Mrs King’s home in Popley, a rabbit and guinea pig centre run by Doreen Chapman in South Ham, Basingstoke, and a ferret centre in Sonning, run by Claire Shuttleworth.

It costs about £25,000 per year to run and funds are primarily raised through tombolas, ferret-racing and some individual sponsors.

Mrs King, who first met Mrs Oszward in 1985, said: “She was a real cat person. She adored cats and had five of them.

“She had two sisters in Spain and used to go over there every six months. She read an article in The Gazette and found me, and then every time she went to Spain, she would leave her cats with me.”

She added: “The project will cost about £750,000 to £1million and I have been advised that as a limited company, I can get more money through grants, so I’m in the process of changing STARescue to a limited company.”

Mrs King is looking for a site with about three acres to buy or rent on a long-term lease. The centre would include a feral cat enclosure and another for older animals, which would be suitable for pet owners who leave legacies for their pets to be cared for, for the rest of their lives.

The remaining space would be for homeless animals and a low-cost clinic to carry out spaying and neutering.

Mrs King has started looking for a site and for additional funding to realise the project, but she is finding it difficult to get the right location.

Talking about her STARescue work, Mrs King said: “It’s hard work and you can’t cut off at 10pm and go to bed, especially when you are hand-rearing kittens that need syringe-feeding every two to three hours.”

Anyone able to help Mrs King find a plot of land, or secure funding, can call her on 01256 330532