Casa De Los Gatos
April 6th, 2008 - Sandra Marshall
Following the Treasure Hunt, I have been exploring as many options as possible to ensure we can help the maximum number of animals with the money we have raised. Population control of the strays is vital here, and also finding ways of re-homing some of them.
I had only heard about a possible cat sanctuary in the last 10 days, and having looked at the web site for Casa De Los Gatos, yesterday evening I went with some friends to have a look. The house belongs to a lovely German lady Gisela who appears to dedicate her life totally to the animals. They have as she says laughing literally taken over her house!
We met about 40 cats all milling around and amazingly friendly; most were fully grown but she also had 2 sets of kittens, some around 3 weeks and the other only 10 days, which she feeds every 2 hours. She explained that fighting flees is a constant but my impression was that the animals were clean. as well as seeming well-cared for and happy. Some of the newer additions were still in cages for an adjustment time, and she was clear that they come out when they were ready.
The way the house works is that she takes in stray cats and through a network of dedicated people finds them new homes in Germany, but not any old home. Perspective owners are visited and vetted and follow-up visits are carried out after 6 weeks and then 6 months after the cats move in, with interim phone calls and requests for photos. It appears from her web site that some of the owners ultimately take several cats, and frequently send updates. I mentioned the 4 kittens we need to catch and re-locate urgently, and not only will she take them when we are ready, but if I want she will keep me posted on their progress and where they finally end up. Fantastic!
Of course there is a financial cost to all of this. Gisela works daily cleaning people’s homes to raise money for food, and supplement the funds she gets from Germany, but asks for every cat left with her that the vet bills are covered. She wrote down all the necessary treatment for me and it came to 125€ for each cat. Only 30€ of this was actual sterilisation as she has a wonderful vet who helps her for virtually nothing. In addition vaccinations, passports, blood tests etc. are all needed. However the total cost is no more than we would pay a local vet just to sterilise the animals, and the solution is so much better. The 4 kittens I have in mind will hopefully eventually have good homes, and we will have 4 less stray animals in Almerimar.
As part of the conversation, she gave me 2 more numbers to ring of other ‘projects’ where I may be able to get animals sterilised very cheaply or even for free, which i will try tomorrow.
I think that helping Gisela, and people like her who work with dogs, has to be the way forward; we don’t have enough money yet to take this route for all our strays so some will need sterilising and returning to the street but it is a solution to work towards.
I came away amazed and slightly humbled by how much she is giving to the animals, and how hard it must be to keep feeding so many. If you would like to look at her web site, which she using to publicise the cats needing homes, please click below, and enjoy my photos of which there are more on our Flickr account.
About Almerimar
Almerimar is located in the region of Andalucia, Spain. The nearest airport is 30km away in Almeria. Other airports that are within 3 hours include Malaga, Murcia, Granada, and Alicanti. Other holiday resorts in the region include Mojacar , Aguadulce and Roquetas de Mar
Almerimar is a great place to live as an expat amongst the expats, or to work amongst the Spanish. There are all kinds of properties including villas, apartments and town houses for rent or sale. It is a very traditional part of Spain, with traditional Spanish foods so if you plan to travel to Spain either to look for jobs, for your company to trade with companies in Spain, or to learn Spanish and enjoy the Spanish weather then come and take a look.
If you are interested in purchasing a property in Almerimar please visit our sponsors Mirror of the Sun or Mediterraspain. If you have purchased a property and need it furnished please check out our Sponsors DBJ who will give you a Exclusive 5% discount with the code AL2008.
If you want to learn Spanish, get help with anything to do with the legal issues in Spain, or want WiFi access in the marina please check out our sponsor CentrePoint who will give you a 10% discount off all services with the code AL2008.
If you want an amazing activity based day out in the mountains and to learn how to ride a motorcycle off road then check out our sponsor The Long Way Round and get 5% off with the code AL2008.
Almerimar is also one of the largest marinas in Spain with over 2,000 births and excellent boatyard facilities.
