Ellie – An Abandoned Sweetheart

Since my last update I have had an eventful week. 3 Persian cats will now NOT be going to Germany, I have been replaced on Spectrum FM by a ‘paying customer’, bitten twice by a small feral kitten, and met Boots.

More of all of that later!

News from Germany continues to be good. The home checks in the last week have all been positive, so we are still planning towards our transport on January 21st, with a view to sending around 30 cats. This will now likely also include a pickup of cats in Murcia from another rescue, that works with Germany, AND will definitely include 3 of the Subway cats, Purdey, Salma and Levi, the last 2 of which are off to experienced foster homes for nervous cats.

I am also continuing to receive fantastic photos of our lovers Lilly (pictured) and TJ, and I hope you are enjoying them and also the new ones of little Boots.

Re. my radio slot, whilst I understand why Spectrum FM have decided to replace my Tuesday segment with a sponsored one from a paying customer, I am disappointed that they haven’t found another 5 min slot in their 10 hours of weekly live broadcasting. I feel strongly that a local radio station should be giving some air-time to support community projects, and will miss the opportunity to promote our work. However I am hopeful that I will soon be back on air!

Re. the 3 Persians, I have learnt another lesson. I was trying to help too many cats at once, and without enough foster homes. I knew these cats would be easily re-homed, and the Spanish lady who was feeding them, assured me they had been abandoned by their owner. I therefore went ahead and found adoptants for them, before getting them off the street and under my control.

It now turns out that their Spanish owner has been in the process of building a new house in the hills, had been herself also returning to feed them daily, and very much wants to keep them. Moving out and leaving your cats in the street for months is not my way, but it also appears that these 3 have always mainly lived outside and they were left in a pretty safe environment. There has definitely been a mis-communication somewhere, and I will not attempt anything like this in the future, but will go more slowly.

Not only have these 3 cats wasted a lot of my and other people’s time, Kerstin in Germany has also had the embarassment of telling their adoptants, after all the homechecks, that these cats will not be coming after all!

As for the cats, I actually think they will be fine. Their owner has been spurred on to take them up to her new home sooner, now that she knows we were about to ‘steal’ them, and their new environment actually sounds ideal for them. I wish them a happy life.

Meanwhile we are trying to track down another stray Persian cat in Mojacar, to see if we can make one of the disappointed adoptants happy.

This week will also bring another Mojacar cat to Almerimar. An injured, very tame ginger male was rescued on Monday. The PAWs cattery is full, but I decided he was an urgent case as he had a suspected broken leg. Fortunately it is only badly bruised, and, as the vet has given him a clean bill of health, following his blood test and de-fleeing yesterday, he will be coming down here tomorrow.

Now I just need to work where I am going to put him! I do however feel really strongly that he is a good example of the cats we should be trying to help. He is tame, very re-homable, and was also injured and vulnerable outside.

Less tame are our latest litter of siam-mix kittens. Their tame mother has failed to teach them good manners. Kevin and I were both well bitten by one of them at the vets on Friday! and had the delight of chasing her around the surgery when she escaped us. She is already forgiven.

The latest news is that they are starting to settle down, and Tracey and Kevin are now managing to stroke them. We have 4-6 weeks before they will travel to Germany to their adoptants, who ARE expecting ‘nervous’ kittens but not scratching, biting ones. Unsurprisingly these little charmers founds homes VERY fast, not because of their sweet natures, but because they are siam-mix kittens.
They of course are welcome to our help, and are young enough to become lovely cats.

They do however raise the debate again, about feral cats and kittens. On the whole I do not want to try and re-home ferals, unless they are part of a special project, like the Subway cats. People will take siam-mix and more pure breed looking ones, but it is very hard to find homes for the more normal European ferals. Sterilisation, and if necessary re-location, has to be the way forward in these cases.

Over 2010 many more lessons have been learnt, and I am going to stick to my convictions even more strongly in 2011. I know what I can find homes for, so please … no more terrified, biting kittens, unless of course they are siam-mix!!!