EWN 06/05: The Network Grows
This is my article in the Euro Weekly News today. As a result my recent newspaper articles, I have been contacted by other people working with stray animals in the region.
I have realised recently that trying to help the stray animals in Almerimar and the surrounding area is an ever changing challenge. Every time I think I have the system sorted, with all the pieces in place, something changes which presents a new problem, or if I am lucky a new opportunity. The important thing for me is to try and keep the process moving and find new ways of continuing to achieve, or to achieve more efficiently, our aims.
Of course we will continue to sterilise street cats, particularly females, to keep the populations under control. This is largely achieved in Almerimar port, and we are slowly widening the scope of this work. A big part of AlStrays’s work however is the rescuing and re-homing of abandoned pet cats and vulnerable kittens.
The process works. I work with a fantastic charity organisation in Germany that finds homes via the internet, backed up by local inspections, for our cats. That part of the process actually has spare capacity, and even has waiting lists for certain cats, particularly siamese. Our biggest blockers right now are, as I have written before, a lack of foster parents for the 4-6 weeks needed to get cats ready to go, and a lack of travel places to then get our cats to Germany.
So with these blockers people are probably wondering why I am trying to respond to requests for help from outside Almerimar. The reason is that I want to build more contacts among other people working with stray animals. We all have different strengths and weaknesses in our processes, and I am hoping to develop some symbiotic relationships where both parties gain, and together we can help more animals.
Also, if I have no foster homes free to take in more Almerimar street cats here right now, but my contacts in Germany have a waiting list for siamese cats, why wouldn’t I want to help the beautiful siamese male cat pictured? Almerimar strays IS primarily focused on helping local animals, and the money from our regular book sales is specifically for these animals. I am however happy to share knowledge, contacts and even a part of my process for the greater good. This seems to me to be the right approach.
Beautiful Kalem
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