Bobby and Monty are 2 of a litter of 3 kittens handed into the PAWs cats ladies over the summer. They travelled to Germany at the end of August, to a forever home together.

This week I received new photos of 2 VERY happy boys, who are growing fast (they are now 5 months), and loving their new life, with a lovely family and children for friends.

This lucky pair even have a garden to play in. Good for them!

Bobby & Monty In Their New Home

Bobby & Monty In Their New Home

Bobby & Monty In Their New Home

Bobby & Monty In Their New Home

Bobby & Monty In Their New Home

Bobby & Monty In Their New Home

These are earlier photos, Taken just after they arrived in Germany:

Bobby In Their New Home

Bobby In Their New Home

Bobby & Monty In Their New Home

Monty In Their New Home

Bobby & Monty In Their New Home

Monty In Their New Home

Bobby In Their New Home

And finally these are my photos of them as babies. SO cute! I’m not surprised their adoptants fell in love with them!

Baby Bobby

Babies Together

This is my article published on Thursday in the Euro Weekly News. It follows on from my article last month about feral kittens.

I wrote last month about my dilema regarding feral kittens, and whether we should even attempt to re-home them. So far they have actually not been that hard to find adoptants for once we have managed to get them to Germany, but fostering them here is difficult and vet visits are stressful for everyone involved. We have to date only re-homed vulnerable feral kittens, and whilst I would like to say never again, I have mixed views on this one, since our 6 ‘devil’ kittens have all found great homes and, being young, have responded very well to human kindness.

Where I have become far more certain however is in my views regarding feral cats. I will no longer try to re-home an adult feral as I now know from direct experience that this does not work well for the adoptants, and more importantly for the cat. For me to even try this again the cat would need to have progressed to accepting stroking from several humans, not to be terrified of strangers, and appear very comfortable living inside.

When I first started working with the stray cats here, I believed that I could create a happy ending for all cats, but after some decisions that I now believe were wrong, I have come to that for a really feral cat, to be fending for itself outside in the sunshine, IS a much a happier ending than to be trapped in an apartment with humans it does not like, or to have ended up as a runaway in a much colder country.

I thought I had found a perfect home in Germany for 2 beautiful strays that we had fed here and loved for 2 years. It was in a lovely village, with a lady who had experience of wilder cats. They would be safe and looked after but free to roam the fields at will. One of these cats, Monty the siamese, would roll onto his back for me to stroke him, leading me to think he had become tame. This however proved to be very much not the case. Monty over 2 years had learned to trust me and Pam. We were his people. He did not like his new owner in Germany, and chose to run away from his ‘perfect home’ with his little lady friend Mimi.realise

I have read before that a feral cat will chose a person to trust, but will often only ever trust that one person. We must never believe that they have become tame, and the person they have learned to trust is the person that I now know needs to adopt them. Monty I believed needed to live outside and not in my apartment, so I really thought I had found the perfect solution, but I now think that Monty and Mimi needed to stay here with us.

There is one feral cat who may eventually get re-homed. She has recently moved (age 3) from a friend’s garden, where she has been fed from a kitten, into her house. She has wanted to come inside for several months and appears to want to be a family cat. There remains the risk however that she has chosen her family, and no other will do! If she continues to respond to more humans, and likes to live inside, then I may later make an exception of her, or maybe she will be lucky, and my friend’s own cat will accept her.

The beautiful pedigree-looking grey male however, who frequents another friend’s kitchen for food most days, will stay where he is, and fend for himself after she moves out. He is wild and appears to have been looking after himself quite well up to now. I will keep an eye out for him when I walk down the beach, but I really believe catching him for re-homing would not be doing him a favour.

The girls and the vet at the animal protectora that helps us are clear on this issue. Spain is a warm country, and locally there is plenty of food for wild cats to catch or scrounge. Just as we expats mustn’t feed lots of strays, without putting in place a sterilisation programme, we must also be wary of assuming we know what is best for the wild free-spirited cats.

I have definitely learned a tough lesson via Monty and Mimi, and I only hope they are well in their chosen life of freedom, enjoying the German countryside which looked much greener and prettier than here, and not too cold! I think of them a lot and I wish them their happy ending! Bruno and Jack pictured definitely have theirs. This is their one year anniversary in their new home.

Great pictures of Monty and Mimi from their new Mum who sounds lovely and already completely besotted as she should be. Monty does sound a little stir-crazy but I am sure once he is settled he will be able to explore his lovely new garden and the countryside around.

This is the email I received along with the photos:

“Now, the two sweeties are for 5 days with me and so gaaaaanz slow thaw them. They no longer hide themselves so often and this morning, we succeeded with photos of them.

Both make me much joy and I have no regret in any way that they have been brought to me.”

Kerstin also commented that they appeared to be “romping through the house”!!!

All sounds great and just the start of a lovely new life for these 2. To read more of their story and see pictures of their new home, please click on their names in the Tag Cloud.

It was a huge relief to hear that these 2 had arrived safely in their new home. I still can’t quite believe that we have achieved this. Or course they are tired and stressed and will take time to adjust, but their new owner sounds a lovely understanding lady. Kerstin has translated this email from her. We await more news and photos!

“News from Monty and Mimi… I translate…

lovely rgds. from Hedwig”

Click To Play

As you can see here, Monty now likes to be stroked!

I have posted a lot recently about our ‘special ones’, Monty and Mimi. These 2 really do need to be able to live together, and spend as much time as they like outside, as they have lived wild all of their lives. You can see from the photos in this post that Martina and Kerstin have found them the perfect home in Germany. I looks amazing!

They will be sharing their lovely home with 3 other cats and Mrs Bramsiepe (Hedwig), who seems a lovely lady, and whom we will be able to keep in touch with directly via email.

I must find out if they are all girls. Beautiful Monty could be about to have his own harem, which could make our little stroppy one jealous. However I am convinced that his heart is truely taken and belongs only to Mimi.

The next photos are of the cats’ sitting room. Yep this room is for their use only, although from the photo of Silvana on the bed, they appear to also get the use of other parts of the house.

AND then we have the garden, village and surrounding countryside!

Fantastic is all that I can say, and I really look forward to receiving photos of Monty and Mimi enjoying their new garden. Of course they will take a while to settle, and they won’t be allowed outside for a few weeks, but it is hard to imagine them not being happy in this lovely home. We are all so pleased for them, and relieved to have found them such a perfect life.

Monty and Mimi are doing SO well it is hard to believe. Well done to Nicola and Erika for being such brilliant foster parents. Yesterday evening they were both at my vet’s, Mimi just for a chip and Monty for his blood test, vaccinations, and chip. All went well, but as Begona was more comfortable with Monty tranquilised, he was understandably a little woosy last night. Nicola reports that it was therefore Mimi’s turn to be protective of her best buddy. She stayed very close and was cross if Nicola tried to touch him.

This morning I went to see them and took them some white fish as a treat. Monty was already back being the protector! Mimi is amazingly getting used to being stroked. She remains very nervous but is not biting, and seems to be learning from Monty that human touch is ok. Last night she was even on Nicola’s lap for a while.

Monty meanwhile is becoming very cuddly, with lots of purring and snuggling! He ate all the fish as Mimi had apparently just stuffed herself with Whiskers.

They are free together in Nicola’s study, and although Monty has been trying again to escape via the window, everything is under control, and both seem happy enough. Last night they slept on the sofa with their arms around one another.

Meanwhile big Tommy is also doing well. As he has been evicted from his study sofa to keep everyone apart, he has been allowed the use of the real beds, not a shabby alternative! Although Tommy is a very gentle, friendly cat, he does has FIV, so we cannot risk him mixing with the others just in case he bites.

He enjoyed his fish too, but insisted on having a good old stroke before he settled down to eat his treat. This is a very charming, well-mannered old boy!!!

Listen to my new Phlog below:

Wow we have had a very stressful weekend. BAD decision of mine to put Monty in a different place to Mimi. I knew that Mimi needed to be in a cage to start off with, but as Monty is more tame, I didn’t want to put him through that, SO we decided that Pam could have him in her computer room. What I didn’t take into account enough was that he is NOT an abandoned tame cat; he is a semi-feral and he was quite distressed at being inside. I also didn’t take into account quite how in love he is with little Mimi.

In the night on Friday he escaped from the window of Pam’s study! Whether this was just a bid for freedom or a search for Mimi we are not sure. PAM is on the third floor so he didn’t jump but went sideways across 2 balconies. Whether by design or luck he ended up immediately below Mimi.

I spent Saturday completely stressed as I felt responsible for his safety and at this stage we didn’t actually know where he was. The 2 apartments to the left below Mimi are currently empty, so Mary set about trying to track down owners and keys so that we could get access.

It wasn’t until the middle of Saturday night that we knew he was Ok when he woke Pam up by coming back to her balcony in search of food, and to dig up John’s plants for his toilet! Then at least we knew where he was. Nicola also reported that him and Mimi had spent most of the night calling to one another! Basically nobody got much sleep. I couldn’t actually hear them from my end of the building, but kept waking up worrying, and checking my email for updates from Pam.

Yesterday we did managed to get the key to one of the apartments, but Monty then decided to settle down on the one in between that we didn’t have access to! He was so distressed and kept yelling at us whenever we called to him. I tried setting the cat trap but he had no interest in food. We also put Mimi into a carrying case and brought her down to attract him. He did come over to her, calling even louder, but didn’t seem to be able to work out where she was, inside the box.

In the end my husband braved the climb round the wall onto the balcony where Monty was and chased him back to where I was. He was SOooo afraid and angry but when I touched him he calmed right down and let me stroke him and pick him up.

He is now in the big cage with Mimi and both are calm and ok. BIG relief!!! They really are husband and wife. Big Beau was only for kittens because Monty was castrated last year!!! When we put Monty in the cage with Mimi after a few minutes he licked her head, and then she cuddled right up to him and started purring! Now she is eating well and cleaning and everybody is happy. Monty is SOooo sweet! He lies at the front of the cage to protect her. Basically he has been looking after her all her life, as he was with Saidi, her mother, when the kittens were born.

I’ve been to check on them again this morning and Monty wanted lots of strokes from me. He is still being very protective of Mimi and keeps putting his arms around her. Tomorrow we will take them to the vet for final injections etc. and then the plan is to let them out of the cage into one room to give them more space.

I am so happy that we have found them a home together in Germany where they can be happy and outside, even more so now that I have realised just how close they actually are.

This morning was busy but great for Almerimar Strays. Nicola and I took Mimi to Miguel, where she has been spayed, blood tested and injected ready to go to Germany. She is now back at Nicola’s in a big cage, and amazingly is letting us stroke her. She does look very nervous but I think over the next couple of weeks she may respond more to Nicola, and learn that it is ok for humans to touch her. She knows Pam and I because we have been feeding her for most of her life, but she has always hated touching. We will see.

Meanwhile Monty is still hiding at Pam’s but has let her stroke him and is eating well. He will go to our vet on Monday for his vaccinations.

Good news is that I was able to speak to Karyn and there is no problem with these 2 traveling with one lot of vaccinations instead of 2, as their new owner is happy with this. They will therefore definitely be able to travel on July 10th. I think I have also got agreement from Karyn that we can have enough box space so that 7 of our kittens can travel too. Last night I had more good news from Germany. They now have people interested in Xabi, Mausi & Mizi, Caesar & Tiger, Cassie and little ginger Chivers. Good marketing, videos and photos, although time consuming, definitely do work. This is the perfect scenario, in that all the cats that travel will be going direct to their new final homes and not to foster homes.

While we were waiting for Mimi, Nicola and I went to help clean litter trays at Gisela’s. We discussed Big Beau with her, our one remaining cat in Calle Alcor, and she will take him as a ‘holding’ strategy until I can find a foster home here.

We are keen to catch him quickly for a number of reasons: Firstly he seems a lovely, gentle cat, and I think he will scrub up well and be rather handsome. We also are trying to reduce the number of feeding areas as part of our overall plan, and this would enable us to close down the Calle Alcor buffet. More urgently Nicola spotted what looked very much like poison pellets in some meat put out for the cats SO it appears the Spaniards have finally lost patience with the cats and are trying to solve the Calle Alcor problem like the animal haters a lot of them are. I am hoping Beau is not stupid enough to eat this but I am very glad we have Monty and Mimi safe inside, and we DO need to try and rescue Beau urgently now.

More news soon.

I have just had a stressful hour out in Calle Alcor with Pam trying once again to catch Mimi cat. This little madam, as I have posted before now, has a fantastic ‘forever’ home waiting for her in Germany, with a lovely lady who will accept and love her just as she is, basically pretty wild. She will be able to run outside in a village environment, and her best buddy Monty is going with her. Perfect! But does she want to come willingly … no chance!!!

Over the past week I have got her used to eating out of our new feral cat trap, so this morning I slightly nervously set it, trusting in the design that she wouldn’t get hurt. Monty was complicating things by trying to go in himself, which would have been dangerous, as we could have had one cat in and one half in. We therefore decided to catch him first as we can pick him up.

We then continued with project Mimi catch, amid loud Monty howling from my car! Making things even harder was big Beau, Mimi’s boyfriend, who was also trying to eat out of the trap, and he would definitely need the larger size if he is to keep his tail undamaged.

Eventually things were under control, with tempting food inside the trap and Beau out of the way. Pam and I stood right back and watched Mimi go in, hoping that finally we would have success after months of trying to catch this wily little madam.

Well wily she is and also very dainty. She managed to eat all the food without knocking over the little wire fence that triggers the door mechanism. She merely put one paw each side, and having eaten, carefully backed out again! I then tried to lure her back in while I sat by it ready to help shut the door, but only with partial success as she had already by this time eaten a hearty breakfast.

SO we try again this afternoon. I am very nervous of trying to shut the door when she is not properly in, although a shove on her bottom is obviously an option. We are so close to sorting the Mimi problem, and if she gets scared of this trap by an abortive attempt, then we have really run out of options. Mimi will then lose her chance of a more secure future, and we will have more little Xabi’s to catch and re-home every 6 months.

Wish us luck. We have an appointment with vet Miguel for tomorrow am at 11am for Mimi that we are both determined to meet, even if it now means Mimi spending tonight in the trap.

I have to admit to finding this bit very tough as I hate distressing these lovely animals, but I know this is the right thing for her. She will have a tough few weeks, but then will hopefully be happy and safe and looked after for the rest of her life.

Monty meanwhile is hopefully calming down in Pam’s study. He is much more tame than Mimi and we are hoping will settle without the need of a cage for the 2 weeks we must wait for the next transport to Germany.

More news later! AND if you haven’t already, check my post earlier this week for video and great photos of this lovely pair.