Ellie – An Abandoned Sweetheart

This is my article first published in the Reader Newspaper on April 2nd, talking more about fostering, and how much cat lovers can actually get out of helping in this way. Every week now I am hearing about more cats that need our help!

In my article at the beginning of March, I wrote about what I thought Almerimar Strays was doing for Almerimar’s people as well as its stray animals. As well as helping to reduce the numbers of particularly stray cats, our regular book-sales are genuinely providing a service, by giving people the opportunity to mingle and buy great new reads for as little as 1€, AND our other fund-raising events are good fun.

In my article last week (the last one in March), I made a strong plea for more people to get involved in helping our work here, and particularly for more people to foster cats and kittens for 4-6 weeks while we sort all the vaccinations, sterilisations, passports, chips, tests etc. needed for them to travel to Germany for re-homing.

This week it has occurred to me that there is a strong link between my 2 previous articles. It is not just our fund-raising and our work in general that are both indirectly providing a service; all the people who have got more actively involved in helping us, do genuinely get a huge amount out of it. We have developed a small community of people who love animals and enjoy the things we do together to help them.

Fostering in particular, gives animal lovers, who for whatever reasons, no longer want to or are not able to commit to having their own pets, the chance to enjoy and help a lovely little animal for a few weeks. Our abandoned baby kittens are a joy, and the bigger tame cats are so desperate for affection after the stress of being deserted, that they are the most loving of creatures. For fosterers willing to take on a semi-feral cat, there is the satisfaction of watching them learn to respond to human kindness.

The photo this week is of little tabby Elsa, our current star of the book-sale posters. She is pictured with her new little friend in her new home in Germany. Everybody who met Elsa thought she was adorable, and everybody who helped her in any way has the satisfaction of being a part of her happy ending. I personally get so much from all the time I spend on Almerimar Strays, so please join us in any way, and become part of something that for every animal we help, makes a huge difference to them and us.