So far, our activities together with our Greek friends and partners have been limited to feeding sites on the less touristical side of the island. Due to the fact that we became more and more present with our homepage and on Facebook while establishing the association, we were asked for help several times during our „restart“ in spring and also afterwards by tourists who saw straying sick cats and kittens on the other side of the island.
Since the association is called „Cats at Andros“ and not „Cats at only the half of Andros“, it was of course not easy for us to have to refuse with regret at first, because firstly none of us was there at the moment and secondly we didn’t have contact to any locals there. Fortunately, we were able to quickly find an animal rights activist near the seaside resort. Although she mainly takes care of dogs, she promised to inform two friends experienced with stray cats.
And we were not disappointed! In October, an animal welfare activist wrote to us, who has been feeding and medical caring cats for a long time together with a relative. She has now known about the request from the tourists and has taken care of it. Marianne, a member of the association who is very active in our public relations work, then tried to come in more contact. Gradually, this resulted in a more intensive correspondence, which in the meantime led to the first collaboration with H. and I., the two animal welfare activists.
We have agreed that we will support them with neutering and also medical treatments, because it is also important to them to neuter stray animals in order to alleviate the misery of the cats in their area and at their own feeding site. Unfortunately, as everywhere in animal welfare, the money is scarce there too, so they were happy to accept our help. In addition to feeding cats at their site, H. and I. also take care of disabled and sick cats that they have accomodated in a house on Andros. The following pictures from the feeding site offer a familiar sight – stray but well cared animals! We think it is worth supporting this work!
And the first successes that H. and I. achieved with our help are also impressive. In two catching actions within a short time, ten cats were trapped and neutered (Sofia got also surgery on the eye and tail):
We were overwhelmed by the consistently positive response and acceptance in the various internet forums when we reported on our „policy of expansion“. Within a few days, more precisely hours, the two campaigns were funded by donations!
We hope and wish that we can consolidate and deepen the cooperation with H. and I. in the future through personal contact during the upcoming trips. Our friends S. and the two A. were very happy about the expansion of our activities, because of course we will continue to be active at the old familiar feeding sites and can rightly call ourselves „Cats at Andros“ to help hand in hand even more stray cats on this beautiful island!