CARE4CATS formerly Friends of Duo – IBIZA -
Report on Neutering Programme – February 7 to 14
The Team
Veterinary Surgeons: Sarah Hunt and Valerie Coyle
Veterinary Nurses: Janice Taylor and Jasmine Wilson
Cat trappers: Tan Ahmet and Sabine Albers
Ibiza Helpers: Angela Collins, Jackie Berryman and Fayriel Hickman
Ibiza co-ordinator: Wendy Calavella
PREPARATION
This was our eighth visit to Ibiza. 242 cats were neutered, bringing the total since our first visit in January 2000 to 1,826.
Tan and Angela went two days before the Veterinary team to get the clinic ready and all the equipment in place and to make contact with many people that help us. Sarah Hunt ordered and brought all the veterinary medicines, and equipment with her.
We purchased 3 more automatic traps and 1 Queens cage and 1 restrainer cage. We are still very short of baskets – if 40 to 50 cats come in one day then we need that amount of Queens recovery cages for them, so we really need to buy a lot more – probably 25 more recovery cages which seem to be our greatest need, plus more restrainer or small carrying baskets.
AREAS WORKED
San Antonio
For the first time we bought in a lot of cats from there – 51 in all. They were brought in by Angela, Tan, Jackie, Zyggy, Agnes, Lynn, Paul, Sonia and Vincente.
Through the Cats Protection League in the UK I had a call from a Deborah Lamb who asked us to help a lady in San Antonio called Maria Nanrique who feeds an amazing number of cats and has done for over 19 years.
Most of her cats live in a rough woodland near her home, and others in the streets . We went to see Maria and with the help of Sabine who speaks Spanish and told her that we wanted to neuter all the cats that she feeds. She was quite overwhelmed as she has to watch all these female cats giving birth maybe twice a year. Some of them she had been giving birth control pills to. The next morning we went with Maria and with her help caught 10 – all females. They were all returned the next morning and we then caught more – We still need to trap all the male cats there in that area.
We have lent Maria one of our traps so that she can trap any females and they can be neutered at Martina’s clinic. Now is the time that the females are getting pregnant. One little cat who was living in a building site was so affectionate and we were able to pick her up easily and cuddle her. She is a longhaired off white Persian cat, but both the tops of her ears were eaten away with cancer.
While neutering her, the ears were treated and all the cancer cut away. The vet found that she had a lot of bad teeth so these were removed too. She is about 8 years old. We obviously didn’t want to put her back in the street so Agnes asked a friend if she would give her a home. Apparently she is now happily settled and has a little hat to cover her bald head until the fur grows again. This cat purred as soon as you got near her – she was so happy to be loved again.
Es Cana
We were called to a house in the countryside where Lourdes feeds about 40 cats. We caught and neutered 18 of them. Most of the others had been done by us before. There are still two or three females to be caught and we left Lourdes with a trap so hopefully they will be caught before they get pregnant.
San Lorenc
Tan caught 13 cats here.
Ibiza
Tan met Angeles who has a shop in Ibiza town and whom rescues cats continually. Together they caught 13 cats and Tan plans to go straight back there on the next trip.
Cats were also brought in from Playa den Bossa, S. Eularia, San Jose, San Raphael, Cala Llonga, Ses Paises, San Joan, Cala Bassa, Cala Tarida, Jesus, Can Furnet, Can Rei, Siesta, Can Guash, San Jorde, and Santa Gertrudis.
Barbara gave one lucky cat from San Raphael a new home in San Jordi. This is a Siamese Tabby cross that has been scavenging for food for years from the rubbish bins, but she was very tame, and Barbara says she now looks lovely and has put on quite a bit of weight
Airport
Sissy and Agnes bought in a lot of cats from Ibiza airport as they had received a call from the airport saying that there were many cats there that needed neutering.
Request
We always need newspapers and old linen. Each cat that comes in uses one newspaper and we also cover the recovery room under the cages with newspaper. So really we need 400 newspapers each trip. It has happened that we have run out and had to buy new ones to use! So please save your newspapers for us. We also cover all the cages with a sheet or towel that is then washed after each cat so we need a lot of these too.
Give a cat a home
On every neutering trip we come across maybe 10 – 15 cats that are so tame and affectionate we cant bear to put them back on the streets. If you are prepared to give one of these a home please let us know on our next trip.
We have now neutered 1826 cats altogether. We are now quite well known on the Island and as our visits are mentioned in two local papers; Ibiza Now and Ibiza Sun, just before we arrive, we are now hearing from more and more people asking us for help to neuter cats in their area.
Thanks
To the Veterinary team for all their very hard work and long hours. Thanks to Martina for the kind use of the clinic. Thanks to Bonnie for the apartments for the team. Thanks to Jackie for her hard work and dedication. Thanks to Fayriel for her hard work and care. Thanks to Doreen of San Antoni and Barbara from San Jordi. Thanks to Karen and Paul, and to Rosie. Thanks to Sabine, our translator, who listens to any problems and translates them to the appropriate language and also for translating this report Thanks to Wendy for all her help. Thanks to Agnes for finding homes for so many of the cats.
Thanks to those who support our work financially – The Alice Noakes Memorial Trust, SPANA, and all our friends. Thanks to Doreen Rolph of Animal Aid and Advice in the UK.
Finances
I am including a new page on the financial side of our work i.e. costs involved in each trip. This report will now in future be sent out to a lot of people who may not have heard of our work and who we hope may be interested in becoming involved in some way i.e. in a practical way or financially. We are at the moment a very small charity and we really do need a lot more help to continue and even expand.
The approximate costs for this trip were as follows:
Air Fares £1,200.00
Car Hire 450.00
Medical supplies 950.00
Cat food 90.00
Petrol 100.00
Traps and cages 250.00
Total £3,040.00 (€4,470.00)
DONATIONS
In Ibiza we received donations from the public of €300 this time which is deposited in our Ibiza emergencies account. This is available to treat cats when the Care4Cats team is not in Ibiza. We do get quite a few emergencies so the donations are very important to us.
