This morning I took Jasper to meet Roya, his flight partner to Munich. Both Jenny and I were very sorry to see him go.

He is probably the sweetest most loving of the litter of 5 that I rescued; even Begona our vet thought he was gorgeous as he required no tranquilisation, even for his blood test. He also needed a plaster for his poor broken little leg, when i first picked him up, and throughout it all, Begona described him as a ‘very good cat’!

Now he is a big strong 5 month old kitten; his leg is completely healed and he is growing fast. Although I am sure he will miss, particularly his little sister Bonny, Jenny says that in the last week he has become more independent and actually quite protective of his food! This is good as in his new home he will be an only cat. But you will see from Martina’s description that it sounds lovely, and he won’t be short of company.

“a home near Karlsruhe..as a single cat…but big house , small village…lots of cats ( all with owners! ) outside…cows, sheep etc.”

Here’s hoping for more news of him soon, and for a great life for this little chap. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures that I took of him yesterday and a BIG thank you to both Tracy and Jenny who have fostered him so brilliantly.

Time for another update, mainly on our current foster kids as it is getting close to the time when they will leave us, either for Germany or for new homes here in Almerimar.

I am hoping to see Jos tomorrow to find out the exact date of the next transport to Germany (we hope the 13th or 14th), and finally be told how many boxes we have on the van for our cats. Last time I heard from him about this was when he emailed all we protectoras to tell us that we could only have 2 boxes in March and April. As we weren’t able to send any cats in February, I am still hoping for a couple more this month, particularly as we have 3 cats with definite families who don’t want to wait any longer. Here’s hoping for some better news tomorrow. Charlie, Tabitha and Bonny all need to travel by van as their families are not near Munich, flights to which are our other current transport option.

Re. the Munich option I’d like to thank Roya who has kindly agreed to be a ‘flight partner’ again and take a cat box on board with her. We have one beautiful docile kitten who would be an ideal traveling companion! AND may even squeeze his little brother in too!

Other great news is that we have confirmed Bono’s new home. He is going to the first lady who showed an interest in him, a German doctor living in Switzerland. Bono in the last week has been able to lap liquids so all syringe feeding has finally stopped. He eats well, although messily and is now quite a handful. We do however remain unsure whether his mouth will ever open fully, so it is great to know he will have a good home, with someone who REALLY wants him in spite of potential problem sin the future. Well done to Martina in Germany for making this all so clear. Of the 5 interested families only 2 remained once his potential limitations were spelt out. We think we have picked the best home possible for him.

Sabine is SO keen to have him that she and her partner are flying to Malaga in 10 days to collect him. Fantastic for him and for us to know he will be loved and well cared for after all our time and effort to save him! AND when he gets to Switzerland he will have a new friend, Sabine’s beautiful 10 month old Russian Blue kitten, Desdemona. I wonder if Bono (our little rick star) is about to be given a new slightly grander name!

Of the Almerimar 5 kittens, Bonny has a home, although she is causing a few, I hope, short-term problems by coming on heat at 5 months! Little Felix missed out on a home with the sweet kitten ,who couldn’t wait for him and chose another little buddy, but the last we heard he may end up living on a farm in the country.

As for the other 3 boys I am hopeful we may actually find homes for at least 2 of them here. I am seeing a Spanish lady on Saturday who is looking for a kittens … maybe she would like 2! AND the other good news since my last update is that Bruno and Jack are FINALLY getting over their colds (after a minor relapse), thanks we think to some slightly stronger antibiotics (now that they are big enough) from our friends in Germany.

AND as beautiful Tabitha and Charlie also have homes to go to, that leaves only little Oscar, who is currently staying with me while Dawn is in the UK, and appears to be VERY much at home. Mori loves him already as a little buddy to play with, and Saidi is coming round to him, so watch this space!

AND FINALLY on the feral cat front, we completely failed to catch anyone for sterilisation on Monday (has word got around?!)but we will be trying again tomorrow morning when little Mimi cat remains our prime target.

Jasper is the most gentle and loving of our Almerimar 5 kittens. When I rescued him he had a broken leg poor little thing, so earlier photos show him in his plaster. Now Jenny tells me he is rushing around her basement, using his leg brilliantly.

He was the only one of the 5 who didn’t need to be tranquilised at the vet, and is SO sweet and loving with people. He is literally our ‘bootiful’ little boy. Thank you to Jenny for these recent pictures and for looking after him and Bonny so well.

Today I sent photos of our kittens to Cony in Germany to put up on their web-site, where people who are interested can look and get more details.

I’ve just checked their Katzenherzen site and looked under: “Wir suchen ein Zuhause”, And it was great to see Bonny, Felix, Jasper, Bono, Jack and Bruno right there on the front page, looking REALLY cute!

It has been over a week since my last “>kitten update, and today Bono and 3 of the Almerimar 5 were back at the vet’s.

Bono remains a problem. His mouth is definitely better but it is VERY slow progress. Begona has only seen a similar condition in dogs and keeps telling us to be patient as it can take up to 6 weeks, and we are only at 3.5 so far. As he is slowly putting on weight we know we are syringing enough food into him, and it also means we can slightly increase his cortisone dosage.

Soon we will have to make a decision about maybe a manipulation attempt under anesthetic, or an alternative but slightly riskier treatment. For the time being we continue to support him as we have been doing and we have agreed to review him again in another week. Mary and I are helping with feeds, but Pam is bearing the brunt of this one, so well done to her and for all of us here’s hoping we eventually get a good outcome. I for one am very fond of the little fellow.

Also at the vet’s this evening were Felix, Jasper and Bruno. Jasper has had his plaster removed after 2 weeks to reveal a rather withered little leg. The good news is it semed to have mended fine, and he straight away put a little weight on it. Begona said that he will do his own physiotherapy, as he will soon be running around on it.

Little Felix (the smallest) boy is still struggling with his chest and has had another anti-inflammatory injection and will continue his antibiotics for 3 more days. On Thursday Begona will assess whether he is ready to start his vaccinations in readiness for Germany. If not then this little fellow will probably be with us into March.

Bruno was also checked over as he has started to sneeze again. No temperature but slightly inflammed gums, so he now has antibiotics and we are keeping an eye on him too! Once again I felt very pleased that I decided to pick them all up as the cold weather certainly seemed to have got to them and both Jasper and Felix were definitely in trouble. Anyway they are still all being brilliantly looked after by Tracy (and Kev and Jack), and I’m sure all will be fine.

¨The Almerimar 5¨ is how I am referring to the litter I rescued last week. Bonny is the only little girl but she has 2 big healthy brothers (Bruno and Jack) and 2 slightly smaller but very sweet brothers (Felix and Jasper)

Jasper, pictured below, is sporting a rather large plaster, as when I picked him up he was limping and holding up one paw. Begona confirmed a broken leg, and although she believed it was already healing, we decided the plaster was a good idea to protect it and allow him to move around more confidently. He is managing well and will wear it for another week yet.

Little Felix is the smallest of the kittens but is now eating well. He had the worst cold, and quite a lot of inflammation, which may have been affecting his eating. Tracy is still a little concerned about his chest, as they have just finished their course of antibiotics and he is still struggling a bit. Begona will check him over tomorrow evening when we hope to chip them and start their tests, vaccinations etc. in preparation for sending them to Germany for re-homing.

The big boys are Bruno and Jack who seem very robust and energetic.

I have already sent photos of them all to Germany, where they are considered SOooo sweet. I am confident that these little ones will have no trouble finding good homes fast, and in the meantime Tracy is looking after them brilliantly. What we do need in the next month are more foster homes urgently, as they are growing fast and 5 is too many for one household!

22/01/09: I’ve just spoken to Tracy and she has now let the latest Almerimar 5 have the run of her basement. Little Jasper has adjusted brilliantly and is rushing around happily on his caste, so I’m really pleased that we put it on to stop him limping. Felix the smallest is still sneezing, but he is eating well, and they are all still on antibiotics. All the others are doing really well. Looking out of the window as I write this, I am again SO pleased that I picked them all up when i did and got them out of this tough weather.

Meanwhile we are still struggling with little Bono and his locked mouth. The Cortisone did seem to bring some improvement initially, but I haven’t really seen a change in the last 2 days. I’m still hopeful and we will continue to take the advice of our vet Begona, who hasn’t let us down yet. He is a lovely little fellow and certainly deserves his chance.

20/01/09: It has been a busy week so far. I am just back from the vet again with Bono. He has been on Cortisone for 5 days now and we are convinced it is helping his poor locked mouth. It is opening a lot more at the sides making him easier to feed, and this is giving us hope for a full recovery. We discussed X-rays and blood tests with Begona but she is still advising us to keep going with the treatment. Blood tests only confirm or rule out specific conditions, and we don’t really know what this could be.

Begona believes it is an inflammation of the muscles or nerves in his jaw, cause unknown. The good news is that we still have time. Bono has increased his weight during our feeding programme from 1.4 kg to 1.7 kg, so although constantly hungry he is doing ok and feels strong. The other good news is that Begona managed to cut his nails so less injuries for us while he clings to the syringes!

OK now to the litter of 5 that I rescued in the last week. We have one little girl (Bonny) and 2 little boys (Felix and Jasper) all of whom had anti-inflammatory injections last night at the vet for bad chests. Poor little Jasper also had to have a caste put on his broken leg, but Tracy tells me he is doing well, getting used to it, moving around and at least now is using that leg again.

The 2 bigger, stronger brothers, Bruno and Jack, are just sneezing so missed the trip to the vet. All 5 however are being given antibiotics for their colds, the result of 2 weeks out in the cold and wet, since they were abandoned.

Thank you to Tracy for taking them in for now and looking after them so well, and to Kev and Jack for the extra play and love they are getting. All are doing fine, playing and eating well, and I will be starting to get them ready to go to Germany next week.

I already have foster homes sorted for them for the end of February. I am just waiting for details of the next transport. Little Bono may go later as he needs to get over his current problems before we start his vaccinations, but overall kitten rescue has made a good start to the year, and they are all gorgeous!