Nearly there!

Coming towards the end of a very hard week now as the team start to wind up operations on their work trapping and neutering feral cats.

As usual a large amount of calls were received from people who were caring for feral cats and worried about more being born. Added to that are the large number of cat colonies the charity know of around the island and which they try and keep on top of, as sadly, there are often new cats that are dumped.

Amongst incidents already being reported from the team are the rescue of a rabbit (which unfortunately didn't make it due to Myxomatosis) and a small kitten that was lying in a gutter having been hit by a car that thankfully did survive after intensive care by Toni, the vet in Puig d'en Vals.

As usual its been a story of scrapes, climbing hills, scaling walls, trekking through woods and trying to outwit canny cats who just know you're there to trap them! The experienced team of volunteer trappers (Angela, Sue and Jill) were this year joined by Luke (a veterinary nurse) and Simon (who traps cats for the Celia Hammond Trust) who all travelled from the UK. From Ibiza were some new volunteers which was great! The more we have the better! Kerry lives in Es Cana, Jo from Portinatx, Jaki who's been helping since May living in San Jose and then Lara, Terri and Tess who have all recently moved to Ibiza. It's great to have people volunteer who live on the island as it helps the charity to continue the work throughout the year, funds permitting. There's so much to do like getting businesses to host collection boxes, raise the profile of the charity in the press and spread the word about the work we do through leaflets and cards.

If there's anyone out there who feels they'd like to get involved then do get in touch! Call Jaki on 971 801588 or email here.

Angela is back in the UK for a short time before heading over to Greece where she also heads up a cat charity. Once she returns I'll be back to provide more info on the numbers of cats helped during our November visit.

By the way - our photo at the top of the page is of Bertha a loving cat that patiently waits for her owners to return to the house were they left and abandoned her. She's a sweetie and although not a young cat has lots of love to give. If you know anyone who can give her a home do please let us know.

Getting Ready!

The bi-annual trip to Ibiza by care4cats needs a fair bit of organising and that's been taking up time over the last few weeks.
One of the important things we've managed to do is to produce leaflets printed in 3 languages (English, Spanish and German) so we can inform everyone on the island about the charitys work. Interestingly more and more Spanish residents are finding out about the charity which is good news as often they are feeding colonies of cats that keep on growing yet feel they have no where to turn for help.
care4cats are keen to work with anyone feeding cat colonies as we can be sure they're in a safe environment with regular food and someone looking out for them. Once these colonies are neutered we keep in touch with them so we can stay on top of any new cats that turn up, usually because they've been abandoned. This is a happy solution all round.

Ibiza is an island full of good hearted people who take the time to feed cat colonies out of their own pocket. It's a hard, and expensive job, and often they fall victim to other people who abandon their cats thinking 'ah someone is looking after them...so they're OK'.
One lady in San Antonio, Maria, has been feeding colonies of cats all around the town for 20 yrs or more and has never missed a day. Until a few years ago she had no way of controlling their numbers and has often suffered abuse by residents because they feel she encourages the cats to live in the town. Sadly people are totally ignorant and don't realise that cat colonies start by someone abandoning a domestic cat that is un-neutered.

So...we have lots of new cages to transport cats, plenty of newspapers to keep them comfy whilst in captivity, dried food, tins of meat and of course tuna...always a favourite for trapping difficult cats.

The team of regular volunteers from the UK and Es Cana are, this year, being helped by a small number of new residents which is great. And as they're all from the San Antonio side of the island then it means this area can really be concentrated on.
The announcement of the visit is in the newspaper and calls are coming in thick and fast...as always, it's going to be a busy time!