Barbara and I were very excited to hear from Gaye that she wanted us to return to Croatia with the team in September. It was great catching up with everybody again and the first day in Gruz, getting supplies and collecting the cat boxes, was warm and sunny. With the clinic prepared and the vets waiting all we needed in the morning was cats. We awoke to pouring rain and it rained all day! Apart from the personal discomfort of getting soaked (we actually had to return to the house to change our clothes three times!) cats also do not like the rain. However, we caught enough to keep everybody busy. There is an old derelict hotel in the centre of the town where many of the cats live or pass through for food and it was an easy place to start.
Later in the week, we had been trying to catch a very difficult and unusually clever, large male at the back of the old botanical gardens. It is very overgrown at the back of the park, perfect for cats but like the jungle for people. We had tried leaving the automatic trap, but he just would not go near. We went again the next day to the park with the automatic trap and adapted it to manual with a piece of string and a ball point pen and waited in the bushes – but he knew we were there and sat just outside the trap. What we didn’t know at the time was that Lopud was awash with millions of tiny mosquitoes – but we soon found out! As we waited hidden in the undergrowth they landed on us in their dozens. It was really very unpleasant. I realised we would be in for a long wait, so ran back to the apartment to get trousers, as it was mainly our legs that were exposed. I went as quickly as I could and brought trousers back for Barbs – but it was too late. The following day we counted 80 mosquito bites, mainly on her legs – and we still hadn’t caught the cat! The following day, Lopud Barbara tried to catch him by hand, but of course he was now very wary and kept his distance. We finally decided to leave the automatic trap at the feeding station over night, but not set – so that all the cats could go into it for the food but nothing happened. It just became ‘part of the furniture’. The next day we closed one end so they could go in and out but only one end. The following day, we adapted the auto trap to manual once more and again waited in the bushes. This time we were well protected! Within a few minutes he had walked into the trap, confident he could escape – and we had him! After a small victory dance in the clearing, we took him, still in the trap, to the clinic. We didn’t want to risk transferring him into a carry box out in the open and maybe losing him again. He didn’t know that cat trappers are like the Mounties – we always get our man!
One memorable moment was when an elderly man asked us to go and catch his seven cats on the far side of the island. He waited for us early one morning and off we went in his electric golf cart (there are no cars on the island) with seven empty cat boxes. Because he had followed our instructions not to feed the cats, they were so very easy to catch and we were back at the clinic in less than 40 minutes! Debbie later said it was a bit like speed dating, only speed catching. He keeps the cats on his small holding to keep down the rodents but didn’t want anymore. Another special time was, when looking for a young female cat that looked like Hitler, we called on a lady living close to where we thought the cat lived. She said the cat was not about but would we like some home made cherry brandy? Well – it had been a long day and it would have been rude to refuse! She was so delighted that we were helping the cats on the island – she said she thought God had sent us. We told her no, it was Gaye and WVS!
