GREAT news! Having counted all the small change, I can now confirm that Pam’s Almerimar Strays (mainly) book sale raise 235€ on Saturday, which is fantastic, particularly as we have effectively already spent the money helping Korky and Phoebe. SO thank you to everyone who supported it, and i hope you will all come to the next one if you can, at the end of this month, when there will be more books and other goodies for sale, all for a very good cause.
This week has been another busy one so far! Monday we started Project Mimi Catch. I had borrowed a ‘catch cage’ the door of which can be snapped shut via a long piece of string. We duly put tempting prawns, chicken etc. in the cage to tempt Mimi in but to no avail on Monday or Tuesday. By Wednesday there was no sign of her at all, so it is highly likely that she has now had her kittens! Not great news, but I will be very relieved to see her either way and I hope soon, so that we know this wild but special little madam is ok.
I also had some good news on Tuesday from Gisela at the cat rescue: she has found a foster home in Germany for her baby kittens, and tells me this lovely lady will be flying over to collect them when they are ready to travel. In the meantime they are doing well and she is supplementing their mother’s milk with extra bottle feeds as 6 kittens are a lot. That’s great and good that she won’t need our help as I envisage we will have enough kittens of our own.
Today Pam and I have been moving kittens to new foster homes for the last 10 days they will be with us. Pam now has Jack and Bruno, and Lisa and Salvador have kindly taken in Cookie. I also had great news for Jack and Bruno this week as their new home TOGETHER in Germany is now confirmed! Thank you again to Tracy, Kev and Jack for looking after them 2 for so long, and Cookie for 3 weeks now.
I’m currently busy trying to order a feral cat trap to be sent from the UK. We are hoping this automatic trap will help us catch our more feral females for sterilisation. It works via a spring mechanism which shuts the door when the cat stands on a metal pad right inside the cage.
Tomorrow we are also hoping to catch at least 2 more of our semi-ferals for sterilisation, so overall another busy week … the work goes on!
Well done on the book sale!!!
And of course on the rest of it!!!
I noticed this week that someone was selling some homemade jam/marmalade. Is this part of the attempt to raise money for the strays?
Pam agreed that her friend could sell jams etc. in return for a donation to the strays.
A donation? When you did the Treasure Hunt you said that ALL proceeds would go to the fund.
A donation sounds like someone is taking a profit or at the every least costs out which seems totally against what you said in the first place.
I think you need to at the very least be very very clear about this as I KNOW people think that ALL the proceeds are gong to the stray fund. I don’t think they would be at all happy to know that isn’t the case. Personally if I was you I wouldn’t carry on selling anything that wasn’t 100% for the fund.
You are doing a GREAT job and a lot of people are very impressed with what you are doing and the way you are going about it. It would be a shame to lose that faith and goodwill just for the sake of a ‘donation’!!!!
I am with ‘Confused’ on this one, although I don’t like it when people hide behind a ‘name’ like that!!!
I am assuming that they know the people involved and don’t want to upset anyone which is OK, but if you believe in something just say it 🙂
There is no way you should be selling anything that isn’t 100% for the fund.
Yep I see your point and I agree it needs sorting out. I was talking to someone else who had bought marmalade thinking it was all going to the strays fund. Pam started this with the best intentions, to raise extra money, but we don’t want to confuse people. We have already said no to another person who wanted us to sell something for them.
As the main person who has organised the book sales over the past few months and collected many books from willing supporters I would just like to say to ‘confused’ – what a shame this person doesnt have a name – that at no time did I tell people that the ‘jam’ money was all going into the fund, I personally thought it was a good way of attracting more people to the Book Sale, Irene gave of her time making the marmalade and chutney and donated a large sum of money on both occasions at the end of the sale.She is definitely not into it for profit and has kindly fostered a cat for us when we were quite desperate.I wonder has ‘confused’ any intentions of helping us or does ‘confused’ just want to nitpick.The Cat Ladies work very hard to reduce the number of kittens in the port and regularly take cats from the port up to the Dog Sanctuary to be sterlised – some are lucky enough to go on to Germany and good homes but the rest are returned to the wild – unable to produce more kittens and this is what we are concentrating on for the next few weeks as we are very short of foster homes for cats.Perhaps ‘confused’ would like to help us on Sat. 11th when Sandra and I are rounding up cats in foster homes at 6.oo am and delivering them to the Dog Sanctuary for their journey to Germany and new homes.Please ring Sandra or myself with your offer of help.
Confused DID say that we are doing a great job though but it is a pity they don’t say who they are. Anyway I still think both confused and Anne have a point.
LMAO …. welcome to the world of blogging!!!
I get this all the time on my blog. The ‘trick’ in my view is to try and read beyond the emotion. Yes it would have been nice if ‘Confused’ had left a name, but maybe they didn’t want to offend? Maybe they are someone that you know and doesn’t want to cause a rift’ Maybe they are someone trying to make a point that they really believe in?
The fact is they have taken the time to congratulate you all, thank you for your efforts, and pass on a view that as far as you know could well be representative of a lot of people.
They didn’t name names, you did though. So although they seemed to be going out of their way to avoid any personal criticism you have done that for them.
I would also hazard a guess that having picked up the ‘courage’ to make a comment you probably wont hear from them again having beaten their comment to submission 🙂
The proceeds from the last two book sales, including donation from the jam, have enabled us to pay for 16 strays to be castrated which I personally think is brilliant. ALL money from the treasure hunt DID go to the strays and ALL money from the book sales also goes into the fund. We shouldn’t forget that the jam helped fund some of this. I don’t believe there was any intention to make money, merely to cover costs.
If the selling of the jams upsets our supporters then we will have to have a rethink but perhaps others could come up with some fund raising ideas?
Constructive criticism is very welcome.
I own a boat in the marina. Don’t get over as much as I would like these days. Read Almerimar Life blog all the time!
Have to say that it is noticeable the vast improvement you guys have made around the port so as a boat owner many thanks! I have also been very impressed with this blog and the excellent way you have communicated your progress.
In the past I have supported the Treasure Hunt and bought the odd book. I think I am qualified to make a comment 🙂
I do think that @mary and @pam are missing the point somewhat though. The point surely isn’t what good the donation from the preserves have done, but what harm may they be doing ….
1. I am not sure, but I doubt very much the port will look kindly on you selling food stuffs. They have tended to clamp down on that in the past in my experience as it is such an easy target for them. They only have to waive the Health & Safety card at you and you are gone.
2. However much you defend or justify the donation, the fact remains that you said all along that all proceeds would go to the fund. I recall being told as a ‘yachtie’ at the time of the Treasure Hunt that the ‘committee’ of Marshals had been most adamant in making that point to the organisers. I seem to recall that a couple of the names mentioned above were on that committee so they will correct me if I am wrong no doubt.
3. The donations may have helped in the short term, but in the long term at what cost? Will people now be put off buying the books as well? Will future fund raising events be shrouded in doubt?
It seems such a shame that Sandra and the blog are getting this criticism, but in my experience that is what happens when you start to be successful, and that is what you have become. People want to jump on the bandwagon of success and are always there to offer advise. Success had many fathers, failure is a B****** is the phrase that comes to mind!
If you want the advice of an old timer, forget the good intentions, and take the longer view. The books, DVD and CD’s will sell better over the long run if you ditch the preserves and any other items. You have an opportunity to cement a nice regular sale that I am sure Ray appreciates, and that genuinely gives people something that they want. More importantly it is within your control and non threatening i.e. everyone benefits from a book, DVD, CD. Once you let one person start selling produce, where do you stop and as I said I would be very cautious of the port authority.
IF you want a suggestion to extend the sale then I suggest you try and get some Spanish and German books, DVD’s and CD’s and try attracting a wider audience. Stick to what you are good at, and avoid confrontation.
Keep up the good work and I hope you don’t mind the comment and advice. One thing I have learned old as I am off Chris on his blog is not to fuel the fire in these circumstances. I have to say he handles this type of thing remarkably well, but then again he has had a lot of practice as he creates a fair amount as well …. just joking Chris will buy you a beer next time I am over!
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Beer sounds good, will be nice to eventually meet you!
And yes, the marshal’s were very adamant that 100% of the funds raised went to the strays. We took no costs out for the Treasure Hunt.
Just a few words to finalise this subject – I have obtained permission from the Port Authorities to have the book sale once a month and in future only Books, DVD’s and CD’s will be sold in aid of the stray cats, and ALL money collected pays for the cats to be steralised and perhaps treated if necessary.Today we took a pregnant cat up to be steralised and returned to the ‘wild’.The Cat Ladies pay for all their own fuel in taking the cats to Mojonera and also for the food to feed these cats – this does not come out of the Stray Cat Fund it is used solely for steralising and any extra medical attention they need.I hope this clarifies the situation once and for all.Many thanks to all our helpers and we could do with some more.