Adorable Luca & MaryNury

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.