In the heat of July Tracy, Debs, Angela and Jaki set about trapping and neutering as many cats in San Antonio as could be managed.This 'extra' visit was all down to Tracy and Debs who had already visited the island in May.
Feeling that there was so much work left to do and fearing for many of the cats, they decided to use up the week they had off work in July to travel to Ibiza and continue to help the cats around San An.
Putting together the information from various sources, including their own from wandering the streets and noting the cats, they reckoned there were a good 8-10 colonies of cats in the town...all of varying sizes.
There were two main areas to concentrate on in the town and both had at least 8 or more cats in number. Some cats spotted in May also still needed to be caught. Some of the females had given birth to many more kittens that were running inbetween cars, others were already pregnant. It was a situation that was quite dire.The other area was a derelict house were the cats had previously been homed by an old lady who had now died. They were being fed by someone...but had not been neutered. They were living in the garden of the house.
Finally the 'active' list also included cat colonies that Maria fed, a local contact. She had spotted new additions that needed to be trapped and spayed and at least one female had two small kittens one that had a bad infection of the eyes.
Overall it was hard work. Extremely hot weather, crowds of holidaymakers and 4am starts (when it was quieter and cooler) through to 10pm finishes.
However great work was done. All of the female cats caught and neutered were pregnant so more unwanted kittens were prevented from being born.
A number of kittens were rescued...some going to a new foster home; Kevin and his girlfriend had answered an advert in the Ibiza Sun and it was great to know we had somewhere to put 2 very poorly and scared kittens to be cared for before re-homing them.
Also a number of tom cats were spayed - one needed medical attention for a very bad case of mange.
Care4cats also got a call from Charlotte who had phoned on behalf of the lady that owned the stables where she stabled her horse. Maria had a number of cats abandoned on her property that all requiring neutering. Thankfully they were all caught and when they were released Maria donated €150 to the charity! Wonderful!
Charlotte also gave a home to a tiny kitten rescued from the derelict house and you can read about her story in the article below.
So a successful trip...but there's still so much more to do and a huge list of cats to work through. Care4cats are back outon the island in November when they'll pick up where they had to leave off.
None of this would have happened though without the drive and hardwork of Debs and Tracy.
Remember - if you think you could act as a fosterer or want to help the charity in some way then do get in touch!
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