Here is my article published in the Euro Weekly News on August 11th, asking for more special people to come forward to help us.
I have been writing over the past 3 weeks about some of our ‘special’ cats and kittens, and last week about our ‘moment in time’ rescues. In the last few days we have had another of those. A tiny siam-mix kitten was heard crying, and was rescued from a tied bag in a rubbish bin! The rescuer this time was a caring Spanish man, and he and his wife are going to cope with the 2-hourly milk feeds and adopt the kitten, which is thankfully one less for me to worry about. It does also prove to English animal lovers who are always moaning about the Spanish, that a lot of Spanish people DO care about animals and want to help them.
I know I need to find more caring Spanish AND English people, as we are really struggling to find desperately needed foster homes, even for a couple of weeks. As I wrote last week, when I was talking about the cats and kittens rescued from drowning or from the jaws of a dog, it is not enough for people to simply care, or to think that a phone call will fix the problem. We need more people who are willing to get involved and actively help in any way.
Fortunately in the last couple of months, whilst most of the people contacting me have been asking for help, some of them have been happy to be part of the process, and foster their kittens whilst we get them ready to be re-homed. This however does only work if the kittens are inside. I have written before that the most important aspect of fostering, apart from food, is that the cats are safe and secure. We cannot start spending time and money on vaccinations and re-homing, only for the cats to disappear before we have a chance to send them off to a happier life.
So once against I am appealing for help. There are cats and beautiful kittens out there that we know right now are at risk, but are unable to help, because we cannot currently bring them in. In the last few weeks 8 kittens have disappeared, because we couldn’t get to them soon enough. It is very hard for those of us who care so much, to have come so close, but not actually have been able to make a difference. Our resources are completely stretched, so if anyone has cats that they want to help, please do get in touch, but please also be wiling to be part of the process. We need help, now more than ever.