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Areas Worked: Based at Los Estancos with cats coming in from all over the island.
Duration - April 23rd until 13th May 2008 (neutering took place 1-6 May)
Veterinary Surgeons - Rachael Pitty, Eilidh Cameron. Veterinary
Nurses & Assistants - Vicky
Withers, Marta Cooper, Carly Zybal, Deborah
Lamb and Lizzy Wraight Kitz 'n'Katz Europe. Project Co-ordinators - Jenny Billimore and Mirjam Kirschsieper.
Local Support in Fuerteventura - Angela Bedwell, Cherry Swinnerton, Caroline Moore, Claudia Gamberta, Beate Orlik, Karin Schwanfelder, Monica Martinez, Ursula Lobberich, Suza Dominguez Cabrera, Lynne Granger, Leahn Stanhope & Sascha Kliewer, Javier Gonzolez Leon of Bichos vet clinic in Puerto del Rosario, Fermin Silvera Perera and the Turicomplex team, Barcelo Hotel, Miguel Remedios of Bungalows Castillo Playa and many others. Recovery room with Carly and Deb, providing the nursing care needed. .
We have just carried out our 26th cat sterilising trip to Fuerteventura.
The Week. We recently completed our 26th feral cat sterilising trip to Fuerteventura , as always it was a very busy week but a tremendous success. Two local ladies Claudia and Cherry came up to the farmhouse to clean and prepare the equipment and rooms and help unpack the supplies, in just a couple of days we were ready for the arrival of the team.
Because of the increasing cost of the trips and the typical heavy work load, we had previously set a limit on the number of cats we could take in during our week. Even with the new limits, we managed to treat a tremendous amount of cats. With extra help at the farmhouse during the day and night from two UK volunteers, Chris and Helen, this meant that for the first time in 13 years, every day I was able to have a shower, something to eat and even managed to get some sleep at night. What luxury! More importantly, the cats also felt the benefit from the extra help, every night (or should I say in the early hours of the morning) Helen made sure all the cats were transferred from traps to clean and more comfortable baskets and gave them all a late night feed before their operation the next day. Both ladies were a fantastic help with everything from logging in and caring for the cats, to making sure the rubbish went out. It's very hard for volunteers to get time away from home and work to come and help us in Fuerteventura and not everyone can spare the time twice a year, so thank you to all our volunteers, particularly those that make repeated trips.
Up at the farmhouse we needed somewhere else for the team to park their cars, we normally park on a piece of land around the entrance to the farmhouse but this land is owned by someone else and they had recently built a house on it. At times there can be as many as 8 cars and volunteers loading and unloading equipment and cats. Not being able to park at the gate would have meant walking to and from the nearest road across a rugged dirt track, which is no fun with a heavy load, especially in the dark. Sascha came up with the idea of ‘modifying' an area of our garden so the volunteers could park in it without causing any danger or disturbance to our resident farmhouse cats. He spent many hours working in the garden and moving stones by hand, it was a concern solved for us and worked out extremely well. As each cat comes into us for sterilising or treatment we scan it to look for a microchip, we do this to try and ensure we do not pickup any privately owned cats.
We found 2 cats had microchips, one of which was a long haired male, he was not sterilised and had been feeding in someone's garden for several weeks. His coat was so thick it must have acted as a solid heat blanket, which combined with the amount of debris and parasites imbedded in his coat would have been almost unbearable for him. Although he was microchipped we made the decision to shave his fur or should I say his matted coat, to have left him with this would have been irresponsible and cruel. The relief on his face afterwards was a picture. We were able to track down his owner and he came to collect him. He told us that his cat had gone missing on several occasions and was very pleased to have him back, we explained that unless his cat is castrated he will continue to go missing in search of females to mate with and may contract infections while mating or fighting other cats, we hope he takes our advice.
This trip we were short of volunteers from the UK and Germany to carry out the catching and driving but thanks to the help of some local ladies we were never lacking cats in need of Twinkling. Doris (a catching volunteer from TTAA Germany) assisted local lady Beate and many cats from the south of the island were caught, they did a fabulous job and managed the long drive from the south of the island every day, several times a day.
Worldwide Veterinary Services (WVS) helped us find three new veterinary volunteers. Rachael and Eilidh the vets and Marta the vet nurse had not been on a Twinkle trip before but Rachael has carried out this type of work in various other countries. It did not take them long to settle in and in no time they were all working as a great team. One day there was a gap between arrivals of new cats to be sterilised and so some of the veterinary team took off down the road in search of some, although they found some cats, they had previously been sterilised by us but it was great to see everyone so keen to carry on working. Some of the veterinary team also gave Twinkle some donated medical supplies, this was a big help and genuinely makes a difference to our thinly stretched budget. WVS also assisted us by ordering our supplies and gave us discounts where ever possible.
Franz and Mirjam of TTAA Germany worked very hard all week making improvements to the cat foster cages and installing new cat cafés. TTAA Germany assist us in many different ways and help by rehoming the most desperate cats (for example, white cats and blind cats etc.) to good homes in Germany . Our cat cafés would not be so successful if it were not for the help of the local ladies, Lynne, Claudia, Angela and Beate. They spend their time between their normal jobs and helping cats by ensuring the cafés are kept clean and replenished with fresh food and water. Thank you ladies.
Thank you very much to everyone previously named in this newsletter and to everyone that supports our work, especially our hardworking volunteers & ‘Friends of Twinkle' who help with donations and support. In no particular order: The Shuman Animal Welfare, John Hardman, Martin Tyler, Kevin Banfield of Eschmann Equipment Ltd, First Choice Airways, Thomson Fly, Thomas Cook Airways, Antonia McGathan & Barcelona Tapas Bar Y Restaurante, Francisco Rodriguez Castro of Ilustre Colegio Oficial de Veterinarios de Las Palmas . Some of the Twinkle volunteers were given free accommodation by Turicomplex and Barcelo Hotel which is a very big help. Javier and Barnabe of ‘Bichos Vet Clinic' in Puerto del Rosario continue to support and assist us whenever we and the cats need help. Thank you Lynn & Roye Membury of Moggies Kitten and Rehoming Centre/Kitz 'n'Katz Europe for taking in two orphaned kittens from us and giving them the TLC they needed. Thank you to the ‘angels' that foster kittens and cats for Twinkle when ever possible - Leahn Stanhope, Lynne Granger, Caroline Moore, Angela Bedwell, Cherry Swinnerton & Ursula Lobberich.
Twinkle is dependant on the kindness of our donors and we ask you to consider our charity when making your will. Contact your solicitor for advice. Remember under current legislation all legacies to a registered charity are exempt from Inheritance tax. Every single Twinkle person is a volunteer, so that means every single penny that you donate goes directly only on the expense of our work and helps us to continue to care for the cats of Fuerteventura.
3 ways to make a donation: Online You can now make an instant donation from our web site www.twinkletrust.org just click twice on the [Donate] button, all major cards and PayPal payments are accepted.
Send a cheque or postal order to PO Box 4133, Upper Basildon, Reading. RG8 6BP. Please make payment to Twinkle Trust Animal Aid.
Standing Order donations - You can pick up a form from your bank or print one from our web site donation page. Once you have completed the form you can post it to your bank and they will do the rest. Twinkle's bank details are:
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