I got involved with feeding some of the stray cats about 18 months ago, when Pam hurt her knee and needed a stand-in for a couple of weeks. That was when I fell for Saidi our little female cat, and began a 6 month campaign to persuade Chris to let me give her a home, interrupted by her having a litter of kittens! I then carried on helping to feed those kittens, particularly after I took their mother away.

At the beginning of 2008 we had 4 healthy kittens (3 males) and Monty the beautiful Siamese who was being a great uncle to them. We also had the occasional visit from Big Daddy the father of many. Now at the end of the year we only have 1 kitten left. SO where did they go?

I have to admit to finding it very tough that I can’t protect the strays more, but it is difficult when they are too wild to be caught, and when nature has a habit of being at times tough. The first 2 boys left early in the year, and as we had managed to catch one and castrate him, I can comfort myself that we had tried and it had made no difference to him disappearing like his brother. We still had the little female, and her beautiful black brother AND Monty until about 6 weeks ago, when a new male appeared on the scene in Calle Alcor.

This big tabby cat we have named the ´monster moggie´as, although friendly to humans, he has chased Monty for one all down the street. I can’t work out if he is protecting the food we put down or is after the women. Little female (Mimi) has already had one litter (Carmen, Ferdi and Coreena … all now in Germany), and recently a large tabby female (we think abandoned) has also turned up.

The sad thing is that monster moggie has a new collar and so a home, and looks incredibly well fed. I have only seen Monty 2 times in the last few weeks, and although he seemed fine last week, I worry about him, and about what has happened to beautiful black Raffa. However I know that we do our best to feed and protect them, and I do know that there isn’t much we can do about natural territorial instincts and in-fighting.

My aim in the next few weeks is to catch little Mimi cat and the new tabby female with a view to getting them both off the street, along with Monty if he puts in another appearance. Here’s hoping our boys all manage to stay healthy and find food elsewhere if they have been scared off. I’m still putting down loads of dry food so maybe they are coming back at other times in the day to eat. I’d love to have a web-cam in Calle Alcor to check out all the diners!

It IS tough, but I’m hoping in 2009 with help from Germany we can get some more of these lovely creatures off the street to a better life. They just need to let us catch them first!