Bath College Animal Care students are looking after cats that need rehoming in brand new cat pens opened this week at the Somer Valley Campus.   The Frome and District Branch of Cats Protection will be running the pens by making appointments for potential new owners to adopt them into their homes whilst the students take care of the cats, giving them valuable industry experience.   120 cats get rehomed by the Frome and District Branch of Cats Protection each year, which may be able to increase now that the cat pens at Bath College have opened.   Volunteers are often hard to come by, so Emma Harrison at Cats Protection thought it would be a great opportunity to work with students.   She said: “Previous to my role at Cats Protection, I was Head of Animal Management at a Land-Based College in Berkshire and felt that my experience in education and my understanding of the Animal Care and Management curriculum would be really useful in exploring a possible collaboration with Bath College.   “After a lot of careful planning, we now have a 4 pen cattery unit situated at the college. The students and staff will provide the day to day care of the foster cats and our Cats Protection volunteer will manage admissions, vet visits and adoptions. This resource will allow the Frome and District Branch of Cats Protection to be able to help more cats but will also provide students with a fantastic opportunity to gain experience working with cats and with a National charity.”   Laurel Penrose, Principal and CEO of Bath College, opened the cat pens by cutting the ceremonial ribbon.   She said: “We are delighted to be working with the Cats Protection on this project, which offers invaluable experience for our learners. We would like to thank the Frome branch, who have carefully planned the logistics of holding the pens at the College with our Landbased staff.   “The pens are start-of-the-art, and it was great to see new residents, Pansy, Buddy, Monty and Poppy, settle in.”   Appointments to re-home cats will open soon. For more details, contact: fromecp@gmail.com