The Story of little Luna

Luna and her 3 brothers and sisters were born in my cactus patch to a feral cat I had thought was a male. Silly me! 2 were black, one was a white siamese like mum and the 3rd was calico (or tri-colour as they say here)

Only 3 survived because 'mum' insisted on moving them to the garden next door where there was a pond. We tried twice to move them back to our garden but to no avail. The innevitable happened - one of the kittens drowned. That probably saved the others as she moved them to our neighbours house across the road where his children started to feed and play with them.
All was well.
Children being children they got bored and the kittens were abandoned. So in August I had to start feeding kittens that had never been feral and had no idea how to get food.
The siamese kitten was always the bravest...he was first to the food and very easy to love. The calico (who we named tiny tilly after one of our own cats who was also calico) was quite sweet, but very shy. The little black one always nipped me! So with her it was a love/hate relationship!

Eventually they were old enough to have them neutered - phew, no more kittens! Over the weeks I also noticed the little black one was only nipping me because she wanted me to give her a stroke. Once she was being stroked she was in heaven. Even when I fed them she wanted love first and food second. She used to chase me down the street and only stop once I'd picked her up for a cuddle.
I named her Luna Meaning 'moon' in Spanish.

Her brother (siamese) had managed to be taken in by the neighbours across the road. Well he was the prettiest of them all. Little Luna and Tiny Tilly continued to be fed by me and I was desperate to re-home them both in Ibiza as I have too many cats already. Of course I failed.
Then Angela rang me from care4cats to say there was availability on a flight to Germany for the kittens. I couldn't believe it...they could both go together! Unfortunately it turned out only to be one place and I had the decision to make. I choose Luna because I knew she was deperate for love and attention and life on the street wouldn't suit her personality. So that was it. She was off - thanks to care4cats.

I took her to the vets to get her chipped and her passport arranged and then a month later I took her to the airport to meet her flight partner Monika. I was heartbroken at having to take her as I felt so disloyal, especially when she was sat in her basket en-route looking out at me with her paw on my hand. I nearly turned back from the aiport twice.
However I knew I couldn't give her a home and that this was her only chance.

Fast forward 3 days and she arrived in Germany to the wonderful Michael and Carmen who settled her in to their house and quickly found her a 'forever home'! FANTASTIC! 
So little Luna now has a life full of love and affection in Hamburg thanks to care4cats and their contacts in Hamburg Michael and Carmen.
Her sister, tiny Tilly is sits in my garden waiting and alone - but thanks to care4cats she is due to go in February.
Don't you just love a happy ending?

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!