March 2018 – Let´s do it again!

The preparations for the trip have began, the packing of suitcases has started. Small but powerful – with the contents of these boxes, about 75 adult cats and 30 kittens can be dewormed, 18 to 27 cats can be treated for fleas and mites and 10 cats can be tested for FIV and FeLV. At the same time, a food pallet was packed again – the fourth in the meantime. As always, our pallet (on the right in the picture) is the largest! It arrived in Andros on March 29.

Right from the start, the first four cats were neutered – Samira, Ylvi, Kimi and Sophia. But as always after arrival, the path leads to the feeding site #1 in the evening. The news from there is not good. Winter took its toll – many cats are no longer there and those who can be found often have severe cat flu. Elias was particularly badly hit and was immediately treated with antibiotics by Marie. Well-known faces from the previous year appear. Some still without names, but also others like Aliki and Melina. In addition, new cats who are still watching everything from a safe distance.

Aliki and Elias in the sun. The parasites are an additional burden next to the cat flu – Marie is gradually coming to grips with them. As you can see from Elias on the neck, the neutering does not protect him from territorial fights due to so many unneutered tomcats on site. Elias is a social dream cat. He cuddles everyone, even though he is so bad.

There is also a first travel candidate – Amy. This time Marie asked A. to get the cats ready for travel who most needed to come to Germany. She is on site and can assess it better. Amy has extreme flu and doesn’t eat anymore. She is a newcomer at the garbage containers. Because she comes to Germany, she was able to stay with S. That will have saved her life – she’s still not well. What can be recognized as a belly is worm infestation.

The first four neutering candidates are back home and happy about it. By the way, the stray cats are not neutered over the stomach, but on the side. This has the advantage that the cats can move faster again and are released the next day and can join the lucky ones who were neutered last year. There they can get itself well in the sun.

And it’s already the next ones in the queue. 5 of these 6 kittens were abandoned at the garbage dump. At the veterinarian they are given antibiotics against cat flu, an all-round treatment against parasites (fleas, mites, worms) and are neutered if possible – three are queens, two tomcats. The little one may not be neutered because she is too tiny and sick. She will travel to Germany, then she can also be neutered there.

The feeding site is better visited again. The cats quickly learned that there is now food three times a day. The two tomcats live at the garbage site. They also got the cat flu badly. They hardly eat, but surprisingly let the antibiotic be thrown down their throats. Old warhorses who could defend themselves but not raise a paw as if they knew that the pill would help them. Finally, they come to the vet for an antibiotics injection. It then lasts again for 6 days. This means that they are covered with antibiotics long enough to treat the cat flu.

They are also medium-term travel candidates. They are people-related, cuddle up at every opportunity. For them, more contact with people would simply be nice. And socially, they’re just great characters. You can clearly see that they need more care and a roof over their heads to get durable healthy.

A newcomer of a different kind. She has been living at the garbage site for a few weeks. Marie and she made friends. She clearly knows how to be chased away, but came closer when approached. She is a very friendly dog, the cats are not afraid of her either. And then the totally seedy, shy newcomer finally dared to eat. That was sorely needed…

The success of this project depends on the fact that the care of the animals is ensured even during the time when Marie cannot be on site. When asked about this question, Marie wrote the following in a forum: „A. feeds when I’m not here once a day and also brings seriously ill cats to the vet. But a cat flu is difficult and time-consuming to treat at stray cats. ‚Just going in between‘ to the veterinarian is not possible, the way there and back takes an hour and a half. Giving antibiotics daily is difficult, e.g. today Elias didn’t eat it in the morning. I can make up for it, but I don’t do anything here all day except cats. A. has a daily job, own animals, looks next to my feeding site after her own stray group and several bandogs in several villages and she also makes my cats ready to travel (rabies vaccination needs 21 days in advance). There are of course limits to what is possible. So, the cats are fed on a regular basis and emergencies receive medical care if the project has the financial means (just now there aren´t any – this is not a call for donations, but an animal welfare reality). That the cats were so few this time may be due to the fact that A. had not been on the island for a family emergency for a few weeks. S. feeds the cats, but also looks after all the other feeding sites in A.’s absence and then does not stay long. When I arrived there was e.g. dry food there that S. brought. So the cats are taken care of, but without personal addressing they do not come at fixed times. And those who are missing … that was the winter, which is hard for the strays in the south too. They need sheltered places next winter. This is only very difficult in a public place, I still have to find a solution.“

In the course of the trip, several cats had the pleasure of being neutered. Which led to the fact that Marie was able to announce on March 28 that all cats at the feeding sites #1 and #2 and at S. had been neutered! Here is an overview of the 16 cats that were neutered during this trip:

This time flewn to Berlin: Yuna, Milo, Panda, Amy (first picture) and Liese (second picture).

Unfortunately, there is sad news afterwards: Liese had an acute, recidivate (recurring) bowel prolapse overnight on April 6 and was brought to the clinic. A recurrence is not uncommon, which is why she should not be returned to the feeding site after having spent some time in the clinic in Greece. Unfortunately, the situation was quite critical. She also had a cardiac murmur, but there was no need for action after the examination. In the following days, Liese had to go to the clinic several times due to renewed bowel prolapses. On April 16, they finally took a lot of time to reason out all the possibilities again, it was again examined by ultrasound to see whether there was a treatable trigger, whether a suture had torn out or other causes, but the reason was the damage that had existed for a long time ago. Liese was already connected to the inhalation anesthetic and was sleeping. So she could let go without pain.