Tabitha Cat
Today has been a fantastic day on the Almerimar Strays front. Firstly we caught Tabitha cat, our lovely tabby, who was we believe adandoned in Calle Alcor just before Christmas. We then took her, along with Charlie up to Jos’s dog rescue centre for his vet to sterilise.
This was our first time with Jos’s vet, and both he and Jos were brilliant. Because they have some funding and are set-up well to help the stray dogs, they kindly gave us a great price today, and in addition we have agreed a bulk price to sterilise the feral cats out in the port.
This means that I can get back to my original plan to try and limit the number of feral kittens born, and make life much better for the stray females.
We also had a good conversation about feral cats in general. Jos like us, believes that where a cat has been born wild, as long as there is a food source and they have been sterilised, it is better to leave well alone, as they are happy generally with their outdoor environment, and here in Spain it is never that cold to be a risk. Of course there will be exceptions, but overall it does make sense to sterilise them and then release them back into the wild, since even the tiny kittens, if they are born wild, are difficult to turn into tame animals, and only then if they get really good one-on-one attention. This is the debate I keep having with myself whilst trying to decide what is best for Monty and Mimi.
SO whilst we will continue to try and re-home the tame, abandoned strays like Tabitha and Charlie, and of course our Almerimar 5 kittens, my focus for the next couple of weeks is on sterilisations, particularly as it is definitely mating season, and we have 8+ young females out there that we think we can catch.
Next Tuesday we have 3 sisters booked in for their operations. They will then need 1-2 days inside courtesy of Jenny’s little bathroom, AND we will be well on our way to sorting our current cat breeding problem here in Almerimar.
Meanwhile Tabitha is settling into Dawn’s warm house where she will stay, I’m sure being thoroughly spoilt, until the middle of March, and Charlie is back home at Britta’s for another 2 weeks, before he heads off to his new home in Germany.
Both these lovely animals appear tame. Charlie is very friendly to everyone, and although Tabitha was understandably nervous after her tough day and headed off up the curtains, once retrieved she settled into my arms for a great cuddle.
Thank you again to Jos and Miguel, for today and for the offer of future help, and to Jenny and Dawn.
Tabitha Cat
Excellent progress, all very good news indeed, especially about being able to newter the local strays as per original plan!!!
Yes it was a fantastic Day for building up a relationship with Jos and his Vet and for Tabitha – but as for the start of the day not so fantastic – we set off in the pouring rain – nimble fingered Sandra caught Tabitha and into the cage no problem, then it was the rounds of feeding all the other colonies – in the pouring rain and the drive up to the Dog Sanctuary was a nightmare – torrential rain and spray all the way up there – then we couldnt get in right away but Jos came out eventually and in we went – coming out was the worst – remind mys elf to take biscuits in my pocket next time – as a large black dog took a shine to biting my bum all the way back to the exit!!!!!Just hope that next Tuesday is a fine day.I also think that one of the main ‘culprits’ in the pregnancy stakes – namely the huge Ginger Tom should be parted from his bits asap because this morning he was a long way from his usual patch on the rocks and was after a female Siamese in Darsena 2 and greeted me like a long lost friend and I took his mind off other ‘things’ by feeding him!!
I forgot to say a big thank you to Mary for offering to go back and collect the 2 cats with Sandra as I have a streaming cold and just didnt feel up to the journey back.
Yep I wasn’t at all sure about the dogs either. Put an extra layer of protection on for the afternoon trip! Re. the morning also forgot to mention the delight of sitting having coffee in the Milenio in my filthy cat clothes with my wet hair all around my face after feeding the strays with you.
No problem re. snipping the big ginger Tom. Next week is female cat week, but i think we’ll then switch to the boys!!! anybody volunteering to catch Big Daddy!
Further to Tabitha. She has settled in well and is enjoying being stroked. She is not eating yet but that may just be post-op, and the naughty girl so far does not appear litter trained, which is a surprise as we are pretty convinced that she has had a home before. Sorry Dawn. Hope this sorts itself out soon.
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