This is my article published in the Euro Weekly News Day, talking about Feline Immune Deficiency, and how it DOES NOT mean a cat cannot have a long and happy life.

I quickly had to learn about FiV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus) last spring when big black Tommy (pictured), tested positive, and I had to make the decision whether to put him to sleep. Until this point, I had believed that it was a given, but thankfully Jos at the protectora explained otherwise. Tommy could have a perfectly good life if given good food and attentive care. Yes his immune system would be a little compromised, but not to the extent of an HiV positive human. I then read that FiV cats can live up to 20 years, and are little danger to other cats.

The girls in Germany said they could find him a home, but it may take a little while, and of course Tommy should be kept away from non-FiV cats, so needed a special foster home. It was at this point, desperate to save this beautiful old bruiser (he was crying all day and night in a big cage at a local cat rescue), that I introduced myself to my new neighbour Erika, who was to become our star foster Mum here in Almerimar. I had never met Erika or her daughter Nicola, but did know they loved cats, so I had to ask if they would take Tommy. I had researched that he was no danger to their little Yorkie Joye, and the 2 became firm friends.

Tommy stayed with Erika for almost 6 months before the right home could be found in Germany, and during that time he acted as a friend and father figure to countless foster kittens. FiV is not contagious and can only really be transmitted via a deep penetrating bite. It is most common among adult, wandering, un-neutered males. Tommy was desperate for company, and we soon realised was not going to bite anyone. He loved the kittens and played gently with them all. The risk was virtually non-existent.

Tommy is now 10+ years old and has found his forever home with Socks another big FiV cat. Since Tommy we have homed his fighting mate from the rocks, big Chivers, also FiV positive. He now lives with a little FiV positive girlfriend from Hungary. This is the safest way but I do know of people who have had FiV cats mixed with healthy cats, and now that I know about FiV, I believe this is also safe, with the right cats. FiV cats are not the untouchables a lot of people think them to be. They are beautiful and loving, and deserve their chance of a happy life. It is time for more people to be enlightened. Thankfully for Tommy and Chivers, a lot of people already are.

Tommy With Socks

Eddy has now been in his forever home in Germany for 18 months, and from the snuggle photo seems to have a new cat friend.

There were already 2 cats in the house when Eddy arrived but if you look at previous photos you will see this rather pretty friend was not there at the time. I am also wondering if the sweet little dog is another housemate or his next door neighbour!

Anyway Eddy looks VERY happy and it is great that his family continue to send us lovely photos.

Eddy & Friend

Eddy & Friend

Eddy & Friend

Dino is a gorgeous little boy, and I am particularly fond of him, because he is MY rescue. Of course I help cats all the time, but Dino I specifically went to rescue, and I caught him from the street.

Chris and I had gone to Bricomart to buy stuff for our apartment, and I saw Dino with another kitten outside the cafe a little further up. There is no way a retail park is where cats, even stray ones, should be, and I couldn’t stop thinking about them. One week later, with a friend, I went back for a look and this time saw Dino with his mother. We almost caught both, as they were hungry, and Dino followed his more tame mother into a cat box, after some VERY nice meat I had put inside. She managed to push out as I was shutting the door, and this was maybe a good thing, as a chat with a very nice Spanish guy from the cafe confirmed that there were 2 kittens. Having established that he was giving them some food, we left with just Dino. When I went back with good food a week later, the same man told me he hadn’t seen Muma or the remaining kitten for several days, and believed that another woman had caught them. I only hope they are well.

He also told me that the mother cat was abandoned, and had had 5 kittens, 3 of whom had been killed by the cars as babies. This explained why Muma was skittish but touchable. Dino at the beginning did not want to be touched, but he was not aggressive at all and has never tried to bite us. In fact he is the sweetest little chap.

After some days Erika could touch his paws and he started to sit near her. Next he would take treats from her hand. A week later I could also stroke him, and now after a few weeks in his foster home, he loves to be stroked, and rolls over to have his tummy tickled. Today when I visited he jumped onto my lap and started to purr and chew my hands in play.

He also loves all the other cats in his foster home, cleans and cuddles the baby kittens there, and has accepted the newly arrived female kitten without any fuss. He really is one of the most gentle, friendly kittens, and I am so pleased that I went to rescue him. At the beginning he was very afraid and it is always a risk with semi-feral kittens how things will turn out, but in Dino’s case catching him was definitely the right thing to have done. I am sure he will find a great, loving home and I look forward to updating you on his happy life.

All the strays are lovely but some are a little more special, and for me Dino is one of those. If I had room for another cat myself he would be mine tomorrow! I love this little boy, and hope from these photos and video, someone in Germany will too. enjoy them!

Sweet Little Dino

Sweet Little Dino

Sweet Little Dino

Video

Background

Fonsi is not a stray or abandoned cat. He is from a loving Spanish home, and only needs a new one because his owner must move herself and cannot take him with her. She and Fonsi are both sad.

I first met him when I picked him up last Monday and for the first night he was very stressed. The latest news is that, after a quick visit to the vet for booster jabs and blood test, he has settled well into his foster home, and is getting plenty of cuddles.

Fonsi is a 3 year old castrated male, and is used to being an only cat in an apartment, but I am wondering if maybe he would like a cat girl friend. I have been told that he loves all people, including children, and he certainly seems a soft, sweet boy, if a little too fat! He is on a diet for a few weeks, but Martina tells me that cats in Germany are normally not slim, so nobody will mind his padding!

Fonsi has his passport and is ready to travel on the next transport to Germany. Let’s hope he finds his forever home soon, YES he is named after The Fonz!

Character Cat Fonsi

Character Cat Fonsi

Character Cat Fonsi

This is my article published in the Euro Weekly News today. We have achieved a lot this summer, but there is still much to be done to rescue and re-home all the kittens.

I have been writing in recent weeks about how badly we need more people to join us in helping the strays, particularly with regards to fostering and population control. Even with our limited resources, the dedicated people I work with here and in the Mojacar area have achieved so much this summer, and thankfully we do have a few great new helpers who have recently joined the ‘team’.

Last Friday 24 animals travelled on the transport to Germany, 23 cats and kittens, and one small dog! This was my biggest transport ever, and took a lot of organising, but for the animals this was the start of a much better life, particularly for the 12 who have gone straight to their adoptants. I would like to thank all the people who have supported this effort by fund-raising, fostering, driving, and donating, and the vets who work at virtual cost to help us.

Looking forward, I have close to 30 cats in foster homes in Almerimar, Berja and Albox, or still being fed outside that I am in the process of helping, and getting ready for re-homing, and there are a similar number either in the PAWs Mojacar cattery or on the list in the immediate area. We have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks to get all these animals sorted. The girls in Germany are continuing to do a fantastic job finding homes for all our cats, but funds and logistics are always stretched.

AlStrays itself is totally self funding, without any outside help or large sponsorship. I am constantly looking for ways to make the money go further, and we will be starting some new local fund-raising initiatives at the end of the summer. In addition, now that I am helping to re-home cats from the Mojacar area, transport to Germany is becoming a problem with the increasing number of cats needing to travel. We are urgently looking for more flight partners from local airports, and in the future volunteers to drive cats up through Spain to meet the German girls halfway. I will write more about this in the coming weeks, but for now I have at the last count 25 kittens to focus on. All must be ready to travel to Germany by early October!

Beautiful Zita

This is my article published in the Euro Weekly News on August 26th. It makes the case for population control among the stray cat populations.

I have now been working for close to 3 years to help the stray and abandoned cats in the region. At the beginning I knew very little about cats, having never owned one, but starting with our beautiful black male Mori, whom Chris and I adopted as a starving 6 month old kitten, I have come to love and respect these gorgeous creatures, and have learnt so much about them.

I have met and several hundred cat characters, and many cat people, who like me try to help the stray animals. All are kind, but continuing on from last week, kindness needs to go with responsibility. I remember a conversation I had with the Belgian man who used to run our local protectora. He believed that nobody should feed the stray cats, as there was enough food for them to forage in this region, and feeding led to a population explosion. Natural selection and controls should be allowed to take effect as with any semi wild species.

I found that a tough approach, but did understand where he was coming from. My view is that feeding IS a good thing, particularly where tame cats have been abandoned, but that sterilisation MUST go hand in hand with it. When I started Almerimar strays, in early 2008, it was as a sterilisation program, focused only on the stray female cats. We didn’t want any more feral kittens born in the port, and I wanted to spare the young females the unhealthy cycle of continual litters.

At that time I was having to pay 100 euros for each cat and that was at some discount, so I understand how hard it is for people to afford this. My Belgian advisor strongly believed that more vets should offer much cheaper prices for sterilisations, but we have a way to go there. There are however enlightened vets who are now working with us and want to make a difference. We still need some contribution, but I would much rather help somebody get their semi-feral garden cat sterilised, than be presented with another litter to be re-homed months later.

So I have a challenge for all you kind cat-lovers out there who feed the strays. I want us to work together to avoid another kitten explosion next summer. There should be no litters born to young females who are regularly being fed, and can easily be caught for sterilisation. I promise that this is my last article on this subject for a while, but please understand why I feel so strongly about it. We are currently overloaded with kittens and cats needing our help, and many of them would not even have been born, if together we had taken the right action earlier. It really isn’t enough to be kind. We must also be responsible!

Little Zoe

Yesterday’s transport was a huge achievement for all concerned, and was the end of an extremely busy week of organising for me.

Milly, Mia, Calypso, Choccy, Petra, Mica, Zita & Vivi from Almerimar Strays, along with, Poppy, Jemima, Cleo, Maria, Pedro, Monty, Bobby & Tina from Mojacar PAWS cats, AND Marlene, Paul, Marlon, Tony & Duna from a small cat rescue (Alondra Du Pont) in Almeria, all travelled to new lives in Germany.

This was our biggest transport ever with 21 cats and kittens travelling, AND one small dog pictured. Django was found by one of the friend’s of our German partners, whilst she was on holiday near Alicante. He was alone, afraid and hungry and obviously abandoned. A frantic 24 hours followed while I searched for a foster home within reach, before Michi had to fly back to Germany and leave him.

News from Germany so far is that all our travellers are well, and settling into their new homes, and I have the first photos of happy cats. 11 of the cats already have adoptants and the other 10 will be well looked after in foster homes for the time being. I am hoping that they all find forever homes soon, not least because in the next 6 weeks we hope for another large transport of Spanish kittens to Germany, and need those foster homes to be free.

Once again I have to thank the lovely German girls who work so hard for our strays, and on transport arrival day drive hundreds of kilometers to deliver cats, AND the kind adoptants and foster parents who take them into their homes, and often drive to meet the transport themselves.

Also a big thank you to all the foster Mums here in Almerimar, and particularly to Erika, who not only fosters so many of out kittens, but this time, stepped up at the last minute when one of the drivers was unable to travel, and without whom none of the animals would have been able to travel.

It HAS been a very busy week for me but all the cats are beautiful in different ways and they are so worth all the time I for one spend on this.

Django

The last 2 days have been incredibly busy for me, and pretty frantic. I have been sorting all the final arrangements for the transport to Germany tomorrow.

We are sending between AlStrays, Mojacar PAWs cats and a cat rescue in Almerimar, 22 cats and 1 small dog, and it will be my biggest transport to date.

Today has been a little OTT, as at one point the transport looked like not going, and it all led me to jokingly email Martina in Germany to say ‘why do we do this to ourselves?’ Of course I know why I spend so much time helping the strays and cajoling other people to help me, at times against their wishes. It is because of all the beautiful animals that are saved, and given better lives because of what we all do.

Eddy, the ginger cat pictured, has been in his new home over 18 months now, and his family continue to send updates and great photos of one incredibly happy boy. Today I have also heard that Cleo, a beautiful siamese girl from Mojacar, no longer needs her foster home in Germany, as somebody has adopted her. She will now travel tomorrow straight to her new family, and get all the love and attention this beautiful, gentle girl has been craving, since she was abandoned.

This is why I do what I do, and will continue to try and make AlStrays even more efficient so that we can help more cats, and occasionally small dogs.

Happy Eddy & Friend

Amazingly I still get asked if the stray cats I send to Germany are REALLY going to great homes. It seems that certain people just can’t understand why these lovely people want our Spanish street cats.

Firstly as a cat lover myself, I can totally understand why anyone would want to help them, and secondly our Spanish cats are beautiful and quite special. Most of them are thinner and more feline than the cats I used to meet in England, and street cats often have so much more character, and so much more to say than cosseted pedigrees!

Julio has found himself in a fantastic forever home with his new best mate Elvis. He is one lucky boy, but quite honestly who wouldn’t want Julio? He is the most gorgeous boy and loved by all who met him.

I have complete trust in the girls I work with in Germany and in the adoptants they find for out cats, and Julio sends greetings and is saying to all those doubters out there “Look at Me! Life is Good! I am happy, happy, happy!!!”

Julio & Elvis

This is my article published in the Euro Weekly News this week. It talks about how important it is to ensure that any stray cats that are being fed are also where possible neutered.

I am wondering this summer when kitten season will ever end, as we are still getting calls about litters, the most recent one pictured. I am consoling myself with the hope that they are not still being born, as the latest ones are some 4 weeks old. One of our young mothers, rescued with her 4 month old kittens, does however look suspiciously pregnant, and is on my urgent list for a vet visit! Once again this highlights the need to try and expand our sterilisation programs.

Here in Almerimar our female port cats are all neutered, but I know there are many stray females out there having litter after litter. I think, because there are less English people here, I am hearing about my local ones less, as most of my phone calls in response to these articles are about cats and kittens in the Mojacar area, where the English population is much bigger. Apart from the nuisance problem of large tribes of stray cats, life for an un-neutered female is extremely hard out on the streets, which is why population control must go hand in hand with feeding.

Yesterday I met up with a number of people to talk about cats that need help, and my overall theme again was that cat lovers need to work with us. The ladies who help me here, like at PAWs Mojacar, are volunteers, and we have limited time and resources. We will always try to help at least with advice, and I do have a great process for re-homing some of the cats, but I think we need to be seen more as facilitators and not the whole answer.

Where there are tribes of stray cats, we need communities to step up and solve this problem with us. A joint plan is needed to catch the cats for neutering, and even with discounts offered by local vets, 40-60 euros is still needed to neuter each cat. We need more contributions from residents in these situations, and more people to actually get involved, including as I am always writing, more people willing to foster the ones that could be re-homed. Then we could make so much more of a difference to the cats and to the communities.

We are overrun with kittens, and one way to avoid this situation next Summer is to neuter more of the stray females over the coming months. So once again I am asking people to not just present us with problems but to please be willing to help us solve them, even if it is just by giving a small donation. Thank you to the kind people who have recently stepped forward, in one case just in time! We need more of you, in particular to save the beautiful family in the photo.

Beautiful Mum and Kids

Since I wrote this article, Liz Ursamarine has stepped forward, and this lovely cat and tiny kittens are safe and well.