In August, I received messages from a lady over in la Florida who was concerned about some street cats who they’d been feeding whilst on holiday. That is obviously very much out of my area by over 30 minutes but after not receiving response from others close by or TNR projects, I made the journey to check the situation.

The two youngest had slight ringworm & parasites but were overall in good condition. I explained that we are the height of kitten season and rescues can only take in emergency medical cases, so gave dewormers & some cream for the ringworm & discussed resources for that area. Upon returning home, they decided they would actually love to adopt the two youngest black cats and offer them a forever home in the UK. So even though we were full with dire medical cases, myself & Lisa Colley-Mason were delighted that two black cats could have their happy ending, that we worked out all the costs involved, agreed a payment schedule with the family & went back over to trap them with promises of a new life off the streets.

They were semi feral females and needed socialisation. I was fully full & Lisa so kindly offered to house them until travel, socialise them & get them to & from their vet appointments. The first payment was made without issues for the transport deposit and first batch of food, litter etc. the 2nd payment never arrived… We were made aware she might be a little late & needed to release the gofundme money they raised which would take a few days. Then… radio silence.

No updates, no gofundme money, it felt like these babies were just.. forgotten. During this time, they’ve been treated for ringworm (medication donated from our own stock), & came into their first heat so had to be sterilised before they travelled (paid for by Lisa) and are now rabies vaccinated, passported & microchipped (paid by me) in my name with no home waiting anymore. Whilst our messages are ignored & the family are off on another holiday.

To say I am disappointed and hurt is an understatement. These two babies have been taken from their street family & will now live in the small end section of my outdoor catio that is meant for feral emergencies. Lisa & I worked incredibly hard keeping the costs down and spreading the payments to help, donating from our own low stock & we’ve now been left high & dry with hundreds of euros paid from our own pockets & two poor babies who had a travel date with no destination.

At the end of an incredibly difficult and costly kitten season full of bottle babies, emergency operations & unadopted cats to feed, vaccinate & sterilise… we get financially put on our asses & these girls get condemned to life in a cage.

We didn’t want to jump the gun, we were patient, but it’s clear we are being ignored with intent so we now need to recover the costs we have lost that leave our rescues without & plea for an adopter. We really need these guys to stay together. They rely on each other to build confidence. Such beautiful girls deserved better than this

current costs -

€135 rabies vax, passports & microchips

€200 sterilisation x 2 females

€50 running costs for September

outstanding -

€120 - kitten injections (1st and 2nd)

€50 running costs for October

??? - running costs for November & beyond…