This is my article published in the Euro Weekly News today. We have achieved a lot this summer, but there is still much to be done to rescue and re-home all the kittens.
I have been writing in recent weeks about how badly we need more people to join us in helping the strays, particularly with regards to fostering and population control. Even with our limited resources, the dedicated people I work with here and in the Mojacar area have achieved so much this summer, and thankfully we do have a few great new helpers who have recently joined the ‘team’.
Last Friday 24 animals travelled on the transport to Germany, 23 cats and kittens, and one small dog! This was my biggest transport ever, and took a lot of organising, but for the animals this was the start of a much better life, particularly for the 12 who have gone straight to their adoptants. I would like to thank all the people who have supported this effort by fund-raising, fostering, driving, and donating, and the vets who work at virtual cost to help us.
Looking forward, I have close to 30 cats in foster homes in Almerimar, Berja and Albox, or still being fed outside that I am in the process of helping, and getting ready for re-homing, and there are a similar number either in the PAWs Mojacar cattery or on the list in the immediate area. We have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks to get all these animals sorted. The girls in Germany are continuing to do a fantastic job finding homes for all our cats, but funds and logistics are always stretched.
AlStrays itself is totally self funding, without any outside help or large sponsorship. I am constantly looking for ways to make the money go further, and we will be starting some new local fund-raising initiatives at the end of the summer. In addition, now that I am helping to re-home cats from the Mojacar area, transport to Germany is becoming a problem with the increasing number of cats needing to travel. We are urgently looking for more flight partners from local airports, and in the future volunteers to drive cats up through Spain to meet the German girls halfway. I will write more about this in the coming weeks, but for now I have at the last count 25 kittens to focus on. All must be ready to travel to Germany by early October!