I starve to feed my five cats – I'll use a food bank than give them up

I often starve so I can feed my five cats – I’d rather use a food bank than ever give them up, they mean everything to me

• Miari Workman, 50, from Cardiff, spends £35-a-week on food for her cats
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A single mother has revealed how she would rather starve than give her five cats up for adoption amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

Miari Workman, 50, lives in Cardiff with her nine-year-old daughter, grown-up son and their beloved pets.

The cat-lover has owned her rescue Bootsie since before the pandemic but siblings Lucy, Lace, Wolfie and Lunar are all recent additions to the household. 

The mother-of-two – who claims Personal Independence Payment due to her depression struggles – says her cats easily get through a box of dry food every day.

As such, Miari pays £35-a-week on their food alone and can’t afford to insure them. However, all of her pets have been neutered and microchipped.

Miari Workman, 50, pictured with one of her five cats at her Cardiff home. The single mother lives with her two children

Since the cost-of-living crisis began, Miari says there have been occasions when she has had to go without food in order to feed her pets.

She explained: ‘I sometimes go without food to be able to feed my cats.

‘I’m not ever going to get rid of my cats, they are my family.

‘If I have to use food banks to support them that’s what I will do.

“I’m not ashamed, these things are there to be used. People need to stop feeling shame and just go.’

In the past few months, Miari says that she has had ‘skint weeks’ where she has had to rely on help from loved ones to get by.

She said: ‘Friends took my daughter in and she had a wonderful time.

‘They put their hand in their pocket so she could go on the rides. If I’ve got money and somebody hasn’t then I will help them out.’

Miari already her rescue cat Bootsie before the cost-of-living crisis and now has four more young ones at home too

Miari (pictured) with one of her five cats says she would never dream of giving her cats up for adoption 

Despite her recent financial struggles, Miari says that she ‘tries not to worry’ so her children don’t pick up on it.

She added: ‘I try not to worry about it so my daughter doesn’t get stressed.

‘Children can sense these things.’

Although she doesn’t pay for pet insurance for her cats, Miari says she wouldn’t think twice about taking them to the vet if they needed to go.

 She said: ‘It’s a pet which means part of the family. Family means everything to me.”

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