ALStrays This Week

Thursday Evening!

Mica’s Mum has been to collect him, and she seems a lovely lady so we are all happy. We have told Paula, the young Spanish girl who rang me about him originally, and she is very happy too. Mica after a few minutes was purring in his Mum’s arms so he seemed happy TOO. This is a HAPPY ending! AND it is one less cat for us to have to worry about which is also good news!!!

Thursday 10th December

Fantastic news this morning is that Keba is slightly better, so appears to be responding to the antibiotics. She had had another injection today, and I will take her back to Miguel (along with Emily) tomorrow for more antibiotics. I am much more hopeful now that she will be fine and SO relieved that we have some progress. Emily meanwhile continues to chew her infected operation wound so is really NOT helping herself!

Pam, Mary and I also took 9 kittens for blood tests and final vaccinations, Mira for her last jab and to have her stitches removed, and our new rescue Nicki for his initial check over. Nicki it turns out has a chip, was reported lost at the beginning of September and is actually called Mica. We are now trying to contact his family. He is our first chipped rescue cat.

Wednesday 9th December

Mary and I are just back from vet Miguel. Keba our beautiful but rather wild siamese is very ill and has not eaten for 3 days. She has a problem with her kidneys which we HOPE is just an infection, but we need to see improvement from the antibiotics in the next couple of days. She needs our positive thoughts. Once again I was SO impressed with the way Miguel manages to calm and handle these rather feral cats, with the help of some gauntlet gloves.

Emily also came with us and she has an infection in her operation wound poor girl, so she also has antibiotics and must got back again on Friday. This is turning into another very busy week. Fortunately neither of these girls is due to travel next week, and all the other cats seem well.

Tuesday 8th December

We do now have another rescue cat. I met a lovely young Spanish girl yesterday who was feeding Nicki outside her apartment. She and her friend had already adopted one abandoned cat each but she said her father wouldn’t let her take Nicki in as well.

He is a lovely little boy of we think 10-12 months, completely tame and very thin and vulnerable looking. He has short patches of fur on his coat, possibly the result of a too-tight harness, and also from the very tatty collar I removed. I think when his fur is completely back and he is a little fatter, he will be a pretty boy, being predominantly white with longish soft fur. For now he is pleased to be safe, have good food and be inside. On Thursday I will take him to vet Miguel to be checked and to start his vaccinations. Photos to follow.

Week Starting – Monday 7th December

I am hoping for a slightly quieter week, but things don’t usually turn out that way! Pam reports that Molly, Farley and Elsa have settled well with her, apart from Farley’s initial terror of Rufus dog. I am off to worm the Rock Kittens and Domino later, and then to meet our latest rescuer about another abandoned little boy cat. Thursday will then be our busy day, up at the protectora with 12 cats.

My other hot action item is sorting out sterilisations for the 2 Nautico kittens that at 6-7 months, are definitely now old enough to get pregnant, and another similarly aged Adra kitten I want to help with.

Meanwhile the great German girls continue to update me daily on progress with foster homes and adoptants. We are hoping Emily too will be able to travel on December 18th transport, and that Mira will be able to fly with Roya to Munich on the 21st, but homes are still needed. Mira’s great new photos are now on the German web site, which we are confident will generate more interest in theis gorgeous girl.

Other news is that Greta and Harvey may be about to move to a new ‘trial’ home, Tommy is about to be officially adopted (fantastic!), and we have a woman who is VERY interested in Big Chivers, one of our remaining rock cats, which will make a foster home for him here urgent.

Week Ending – Sunday 6th December

This has been another very busy week for me, but a lot has been achieved so I am happy. The biggest success of the week was getting Keba, our VERY nervous siamese, and her 2, if anything, more wild boys ready to travel to Germany. Keba will stay with us until at least January, but with our vet Begona’s help, she has had enough vaccinations and needs no more traumatic visits to the vet before she travels. This is a huge relief as she is VERY hard to get into a box.

Her 2 sons Moushu and Balu WILL travel next week; Moushu has an adoptant and will live with our rather more friendly siamese kitten Micki, whilst Balu is off to an understanding foster home. I wish all the best for these 2 but do hope their new homes are prepared to be hissed at, certainly until our boys settle. I actually can’t quite believe that I will have got Keba’s 4 kids on their way. Daughter Lucie travelled on the last transport and is in a foster home with lovable Luc, whilst the wildest boy, Gizmo, has been in his adoptive home for about 2 months now, and is his new Mum’s ‘lovely little black devil’!

Balu did manage to escape yesterday whilst we were at the protectora for his injections. We remained very calm while he shot around the room and 4 people, 2 brooms, 2 gauntlet gloves and 10 minutes later he was back in his box! Then with a mere 3 people, said gloves and a blanket, we managed to finish his vaccinations. Having perfected our technique, Moushu was injected without escape! What lovely little charmers they are!!!

Much easier to deal with were the 3 beautiful, tame little kittens, and beautiful BIG Beau who sat calmly in his box while Elke gave him 2 injections, with no fight and not a sound. He really is adorable.

I also managed to finalise boxes for the next transport, and all the remaining cats are booked in for next Thursday 10th for injections and blood tests. I think I may have 12 cats to take up, which will be a busy welcome back for vet Miguel who has been on holiday. It HAS been a busy week, as lots of emails are ongoing between myself and Germany, photos have been taken and kittens have been wormed, but I am confident that I will have 12 cats ready to travel on December 18th and that they will all have good homes or foster homes to go to.

This week I have also had to find an emergency vet for Emily, featured in my previous post. She came on heat about 2 days after we brought her back from the protectora, and became a manic feral woman. All of the boy cats at Nicola’s, apart from too-small Felix, are castrated so were not interested in her, but she was very persistent and loud, to the extent of fighting with all the females and even pushing little Chibi down the stairs.

This saga all ended in a rather bad week for Emily, who was taken off to a clinic in Roquetas, and finally got back home to us 3 days later! She is however fine, if a little thiner and I’m sure will recover quickly from this less than satisfactory experience!!!

My Alstrays week almost finished today with the flea market at Leo’s. We would have liked to have seen more people there, but we still managed to take 80€ which was well worth turning up for. Tomorrow I have 4 more kittens to worm, and 3 kittens to move foster home, and on Monday I am meeting a Spanish lady who has picked up another abandoned tame cat.

So the work continues. AlStrays is always looking for donations, helpers and foster homes, so please do get in touch if you would like to join us.

AND finally, whilst up at the protectora yesterday, I was pleased to see that little Blackie dog, from the Square and Darsena 3, seemed settled and happy for now. I will keep a check on him and hope that he soon finds an adoptant too.