A FORMER call girl has revealed how she used sex work to fund the care of her 45 stray cats.
Cat English claims she currently puts £3,000 to £5,000 a month towards the care of her eclectic mix of feline friends after working in the industry for the past decade.
The 37-year-old, who now lives in East Lancashire, began life as a lap dancer at the age of 18 while studying for a qualification in health and social care.
But she says she was always trying to find the means to pay for many of the feral cats she found living on the street.
Recalling the first time she was interviewed at a lap dancing bar she told Hull Live: “I needed money to feed some of the feral and stray cats I’d noticed were struggling for food.
“I would dance one or two nights at the weekend and with £20 for a three-minute dance, plus tips for pole dancing naked, I could bring home up to £1,000 a night.”
Cat stopped dancing after a few months, once she had repaid her dad a £5,000 car loan and started to helped as many cats as she could in her neighbourhood.
But after starting a job in retail, she agreed to turn her hand to escort work alongside a close friend.
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She said: “I remember one lacklustre day at work where my boss was a bully and where I was paid a pittance.
“I was talking to a friend and colleague about how much money we could make doing escort work.
“I knew we could make the same amount of money in a day that we made in a month working at the store, so we looked together through some ads for Manchester escort agencies and decided to sign up.”
She added: “It felt daunting at first, but we were doing this together and, after being interviewed, we were both given our first booking on the same day."
Aged just 23, she kept her new profession hidden from her family before deciding to jet off to Australia to continue her sex work abroad.
She soon began making enough money to simultaneously fund her cat rescue work and her sister's degree and is now living with her boyfriend of 11 years.
She said: “I’m a good person and I like helping people and animals.”
“I can’t just turn away when I see a hungry and cold cat trying to survive the winter on an industrial estate. I have to help.”
The first feline to capture her heart was Petal, who lived on a nearby farm amid a wild cat colony desperate for food.
And within days of feeding her, other cats started to turning up in the hope of getting a slice of the action.
Despite facing an allergy to her new found feline friends, Cat was so moved that she decided to start taking on as many feral felines as she could find.
Now with 45 cats, she says she hopes to one day open a sanctuary for feral cats.
She added: “I’m hoping to show people that by even doing just the smallest thing like making sure a feral cat colony has clean bowls for water and a regular food supply, it can make all the difference.”
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