Busy, busy, busy

The island is now in full swing. All the tourism businesses are open and holidaymakers have arrived. In cat-world it is kitten time.
This is a difficult time for Care4cats because we get many calls asking for help with kittens that have been found half-starved or that have just turned up in gardens...alone and looking for food.
Care4cats isn't a re-homing charity as such, but we do our best and help when we can. Working with people like Sissy and Agnes who have been rescuing cats for years and re-homing them to Germany we can at least manage to help those most in need.
Only last week a call came in from someone who had climbed over a wall of a neighbouring house to rescue a tiny kitten that the children there had been throwing stones at. They were unable to give it a home and thankfully Agnes could take it. So the kitten is now in a safe environment and being cared for until a place can be found on a flight.
Neutering as many feral cats as we can afford is of course the answer to this kitten explosion and that is why we need donations to keep going. That still goes on and calls come in throughout the year for this support.
A month ago Simon from San Juan called us about 6 kittens born to a cat living on a colony on a farm in San Juan. Unfortunately the farmer doesn't care for the cats there already and they often go hungry. Plus none of the females are neutered. Naturally Simon was concerned that these kittens would not survive.
He re-homed 1 kitten and the remainder, with donations, he helped fund to be re-homed in Germany. Monika, who works with Care4cats in many areas, managed to find a flight partner and the kittens are now safely arrived in Germany at the charity we work with there. Once they get used to their new surroundings Michael and Carmen (who run the charity) will set about finding them loving homes. You can see them in the photo waiting for their passports at the vets!
Simon has also made an appointment at the vets to get all the 3 females neutered, with our help, so no more kittens!
So summer is here...and the ever-important work goes on!

Poor Rosie - an appeal

Poor Rosie hasn't had the best life so far. No doubt abandoned she turned up at an apartment complex hungry and pregnant and desperate for care and attention. Thankfully she found an animal lover who took pity on her and started to feed her regularly and build up her confidence with people again.
Now her 'carer' is heading back to the UK mid May and we're desperate to find little Rosie a home as the residents on the complex have made it plain that they do not want cats around.
If you can't re-home her could you help to foster her short-term? We can get her to Germany to a charity that helps re-home our stray cats but we have to wait for a flight partner to come along. It may be only be a matter of weeks but if we can get her off the complex in Cala de Bou where we fear she'll come to halm and into safe hands we'd all exhale a sigh of relief.
Contact me on 625997009 or by email
Thank you!

Happy Luna!

Anyone involved in re-homing cat or kittens to Germany will tell you how hard it is to see them go. Even though they're going to the wonderful Carmen and Michael in Hamburg who work hard to find them loving 'forever' homes you still miss them. This was most definitely the case with little 'Luna', as I'd built up such a bond with this lively black kitten whilst fostering her that it was hard to take her to the airport and leave her with Monika who was accompanying her to Hamburg. See the story here.
Michael and Carmen found her a home very quickly...though anyone seeing Luna would have had their heart captured immedietely, such was her personality. One of the reasons why this sweet kitten just couldn't live her life on the street...she needed someone to love.
It was fantastic to get Michaels email a couple of days after she'd gone telling me she'd found a home with a young couple and that the woman had always had black cats from being small...so knew them well. I was thrilled!

When you've fostered you love to find out how the cats or kittens are doing in their new home. Although it doesn't always happen that new owners send photos to Michael when it does it sort of helps complete the circle.
So imagine my surprise and delight when this morning Michael emailed me some photos of Luna happy in her new home!
I was over the moon to see her and especially loved the photo of her in bed with her owner! Isn't that where every cat should be? Snug and cosy warm?
I just had to share them with you - hope you like them as much as I did!

Kittens Looking for a Loving Home

UPDATE: Wonderful news! We received a phone call from Tricia who wanted to give these 2 lovely kittens a 'forever' home in Ibiza and it must have been fate as she also knew the 'fosterer'! So it was a happy ending all round and they're now settled in to their new home in San Jose and are running around exploring the garden and countryside.
Don't you just love a happy ending?

If you've hit the blog from the Ibiza Sun then you'll know all about our search for a loving home for two adorable kittens.
They were both rescued seperately; the little Black and White one was taken from the streets. He was all alone and in poor condition (but full of health now!). The other, Little Tommy, was rescued from the River in Sta Eularia where he had been dumped with his siblings. One we managed to re-home, the other, sadly, didn't make it and Tommy was taken in to a foster home where he thrived. He was the littlest of the litter and so we were thrilled that he managed to survive against the odds.

Now both are ready for adotption and we dearly want them to go together as they've become firm pals. Even better would be if we could find them a loving home together on the island.

Both are available to view and are living with their foster family in Benimussa. Please email Jaki to find out more or arrange to see them. Click here for email address.

Let's hope they melt someones heart.

Here they are playing with each other in the sun.

The Story of Tina

We were feeding our colony of cats by the river in Santa Eulalia when peeping from the bushes was a little ginger kitten, so very frightened. The next thing a young couple came to the river looking in the bushes, we wondered what they were doing?
Time went on and the kitten finally came out of the bushes to eat with the other cats. We named her Tina, she was so affectionate, going up to everybody for a cuddle and and a kiss.
We later learned from Erika a lady who feeds many cat in Santa Eulalia that the couple we had seen had left her by the river.

We contacted Angela (care4cats Ibiza) about her, who got in touch with Michael (care4cats) Hamburg, to see if we could re-home the lovely Tina. Michael and his wife Carmen came over to Ibiza for a holiday (well a bus mans holiday really as they were returning with cats). They took one look at Tina and said she must go home with us as she's in danger because she's so affectionate with everyone.
So Tina came to stay with us for three days, before her journey to Hamburg with Michael and Carmen.

In those three days I must say I did grow so very much attached to her, she would sit at the side of me whilst I was working on the computer with her little paw in my hand. But the day came when Tina had to go on her journey to Hamburg. Ana and Adrian (two volunteers with the charity) came to take her. I put her in the basket and her little eyes looked at me as if to say "what did I do wrong?"

But once again, thanks to the charity, it was a very happy ending as Tina was only in Michael and Carmens house for six days before being re-homed once Michael had made a home check with a family who wanted to give her a 'forever' home.
So a happy ending for my Tina who has settled very well into a very nice family home in Hamburg, they love her very much and she is still called "Tina". They told Michael that Tina now greets any visitors to the house as if to say "Are you going to take my lovely family away from me?" Then she hides behind a door until they decide to go home and leave them all in peace - "please"!

I feel so grateful to Michael and Carmen (care4cats hamburg) who do so much to help the cats from Greece and Spain find a happier life and my Tina is living proof of this. I wish there were more people in the world like Michael and Carmen and also Angela Collins (founder of care4cats in ibiza).

Susan Broomstead

February Visit

We're now in the final stages of the February visit. Only 2 more cats to collect and release on Monday then that's it! Kerry and myself (Jaki) have just finished washing the last cages and stacking them in the 2 storerooms we use and now Kerry is bravely tackling the donation of 'change' weve been given by two young people we helped with feral cats they're feeding (see photo below). It may take some time to count...and she's only got until Tuesday when she returns to the UK!?

So what happened this visit?
We decided to ask people to call us before the volunteers arrived on the island (you can see our happy crew in the photo!) as this meant they weren't having to deal with calls whilst trapping. For 3wks calls had come in and it enabled us to have an idea of numbers before we started.
A meeting was held, as usual, on the Sunday when new paperwork was discussed and explained and the jobs received so far were handed out. We split the island in two as we had done in November when it worked well. Twice as many calls had been received from the San Antonio/San Jose region than the rest of the island so that was designated as an area and the rest of the island as another. We also wanted to concentrate on the many feral colonies in San Antonio Town if we could as that was an area that still needs dealing with.
Overall 91 jobs were called in with more than 200 cats to trap. And the calls are still coming but people are being asked to call back in October.

In the East of the island we had Kelly and Steve (first time volunteers), Sue and Dave (long time volunteers), Lisa and Kerry (1st and 2nd time volunteers) and Simon who traps fulltime in England for the Celia Hammond Trust and came out the last trip. They mixed and matched themselves into teams depending on the jobs visited and had 4 vans at their disposal. This was possible because 2 vans were paid for by Sue and Dave. One was a large van which was perfect for taking large numbers of cages so Dave assisted the team by collecting and delivering cages as required.
On the West of the island we had Tracey and Sue (first time volunteers), and Jill and Kerry (long time volunteer and 1st time volunteer) both teams had vans. We also had Lara, Jaki and Tess who used 2 cars for trapping the first two days but then had to pass on their 6 cages to Tracey and Sue who were dealing with bigger numbers and kept running out.

As usual it was a week of laughs, sadness, frustrations and manic rushing around. We're still waiting to calculate the final numbers of cats trapped and neutered but we did manage to rescue 7 kittens; 3 which have found homes on the island and the others will go to Germany when fly partners can be found. Sadly we also had to deal with 3 incidents of cats being hit by cars. None survived.

This visit we made sure that each person who called us was given a care4cats leaflet in the required language, and many were handed out to passersby. Our consent form was also re-designed to fit more information on and was in both English and Spanish. However the big change was that every job now had a reference number issued. This not only allowed us to know at a glance how many calls we had received but more importantly we were able to track back every cat trapped and neutered. It also stops people walking off the street into vets saying the charity will pay for the neutering of their cat. All vets now know that they must first have an authorisation code on a signed consent form before neutering any cat.

The teams of volunteers met some lovely people over the week, many who are caring for feral colonies as best they can. One German lady, Crystal, feeds over 415 cats around San Jose/San Antonio. Many are neutered but it was great to finally get the chance to put our heads together and identify where cat colonies were in the San Antonio area that still need attention. Unfortuntely the teams ran out of cages throughout the week so weren't able to hit as many spots as we hoped...particularly in San An town.

The lack of cages is quite frustrating for volunteers. We go to colonies that haven't been fed so they can be easily caught. You get most of them but run out of cages so you can't continue. Of course you then can't go back for the others until you pick up cats at the vets and release them thus freeing up cages. However you have to feed the cats because they haven't been fed so can't return the next day. It can become a logistical nightmare!
Having discussed this we now feel the time has come to split the visits in two. 1 set of volunteers could work for one week in the West using all the equipment. Then a second team comes out the following week to work the other side of the island again having access to all the equipment. That way no-one should run out of cages. The other benefit is the vets don't have to work in one concentrated week.
So that is our future plan.
I'll report back in a week or two with the details of the numbers trapped and neutered and photos of the trip! So stay tuned!

The story of Millie

I was having a chat with Sophia Ellington from "The White Island corner Shop" about cats, our main topic of conversation as Sophia and her husband Rod adore cats, they have seven. We both agreed that boy cats are more affectionate than girl cats. Sophia and Rod have all boys (the boys as they call them).

Well that is the exception of our Millie!!!

We were feeding our colony of cats down by the river in Santa Eulalia December 2008. When along came two young girls holding this most adorable kitten who they told us was named Misha, we continued feeding the cats, the next thing they put her on the wall where we feed the cats and walked off.
As nieve as Mike and I are we thought they would come back for this kitten, but alas no.

We contacted Angela Collins (founder of care4cats Ibiza) about this little girl. She said to take her to the vet for micro chip rabies injection, then take her back home with us to await to fly to Hamburg to Carmen and Michael (care4cats Hamburg) who would find her a good home.

She had the necessary treatment at Elena's the vet in Santa Eulalia, then we brought her back to us. Two days later she was very sick. We telephoned Elena the vet, she told us to bring her immediately to the surgery. She was diagnosed as having panluekimia (which is the same as dog distemper) she was in the vet a week, very little hope of her to survive. Angela paid for the treatment.

When she came back to us she looked a sorry state, a bag of bones. Mike slept with her in the spare bedroom for six weeks to keep her warm (he was fine about that except when she decided to use her litter tray at 4. am then sat on his face!! Pooh!).

We waited once she had recovered for someone to take her to Hamburg, we both looked at this sweet little girl. Well you guessed it she never went to Hamburg here she is with us. Millie is her name or (poppet clogs). The illness has left her with a weakness to her back legs, but otherwise she is very well, Boy can she eat! ( if we go into the kitchen she is there - "did someone mention food?").

She likes raspberries blown on her tummy several times each day and a lot of kisses. We love her to bits.

Susan and Mike Broomhead.