Help me help the cats!

Hi! I’m Mariëlle, and I’m what they call a crazy cat lady. Every since moving to Cyprus, I’ve been involved in taking care of the stray cats in my village.

Over the past five years, I’ve taken in six stray cats (four dumped kittens, and two sick feral kittens who decided to stay after I was done treating their illnesses), and I can’t even remember how many stray cats I’ve fed or taken to the vet because they were ill.

Before adopting my own lot, I also fostered cats who were up for adoption and bottle-fed kittens. I even ran a workshop once on how to take care of neonatal kittens!

I used to work for a charity, but because they’re already doing so much and struggling to cover their many bills, I reached the decision it was time to start organising my own funds.

I wish I was able to pay for all of this myself (it’s not your fault my heart’s this big), but the reality is that money has been going out faster than it’s been coming in since making that decision.

Which brings me to how you can help!

There are currently two cats in particular that are eating up a lot of my savings: Eleni & Josie.

Eleni

Eleni showed up under my car on 21 May. In Cyprus, this is the name day of Saint Constantine (Konstantinos) and his mother Helen (Eleni), so my neighbour suggested we call her Eleni.

Once I started feeding her on my veranda (which is accessible from the street), she stayed put (I was so scared she’d be run over, because they tend to speed in front of my place). She was incredibly scared of me, and I remember worrying I wouldn’t be able to catch her when she was old enough to get neutered.

I worried for nothing: five days later, she allowed for a first butt scritch, and nine days after her arrival, I was allowed to pick her up. She purred so loudly!

It took me a couple more days of waking up worried, hoping she was still alive and well, before I decided to slide open the fly screen to my living room and see if she’d come in. She did, and now she’s safe.

Josie

Josie was dumped at a former feeding station for cats with her four siblings year ago. They were already at neutering age, so, as a volunteer of the charity I mentioned earlier, I organised a couple of traps and caught four of them over the next two days with the help of my mum, who was visiting at the time – it would take another couple of years before we managed to catch her last brother… He was a sneaky one (he passed away last year).

The winter after, Josie (who’s named after my mum!) became really sick. Because she was still quite feral, I spent weeks getting her to trust me. Once she came close enough, I was able to grab her, put her in a carrier, and take her to the vet.

That day, she was diagnosed with chronic rhinitis, and I was told that the only way to treat it was to keep taking her when it got bad again so she could get another round of antibiotics.

That was an easy promise to make, but then we had to remove her feeding station. We did find ways to keep feeding the cats there, but Josie hardly showed her face anymore. Sometimes, months went by without a single sighting.

Until my mum’s last visit in April.

It turned out that Josie had found herself new living quarters, around one of the beach cafés my mum likes to sit and read at. That’s where I saw her again, and she was not OK. She was horribly congested and she’d lost so much weight, I could feel all her ribs. She was so weak, she hardly moved, and when she walked, she was so wobbly it broke my heart.

When we finally got her to eat – once cats lose their sense of smell, they stop eating – I realised how slow she was eating, so I doubled down on my efforts to regain her trust so I could take her to the vet.

A few weeks later, it turned out I was right about her teeth: she was in pain. Because of the state of her rhinitis, though, they couldn’t tell whether her gums were inflamed because of rotting teeth or because her immune system was just that low. So they gave me antibiotics to give her first, with the advice to came back in ten days.

That was three weeks ago, and Josie is still deciding whether or not to trust me again. I did eventually manage to give her all her medication (mixed with incredibly expensive recovery food and tuna), but it took me 2.5 weeks instead of ten days.

She’s still sneezing, and it’s rapidly getting worse again, so I keep visiting her daily in the hope she’ll soon let me catch her for another round. She is still eating, although I’d love to be able to afford some good quality wet food for her to up her calorie intake.

Breakdown of costs:

What’s coming up for Eleni: vaccination, neutering, and microchip. A generous friend of mine has already pledged €75 towards neutering, so that one’s almost entirely paid for. What remains is around €150 of upcoming medical bills.

What’s coming up for Josie: another vet visit for her chronic rhinitis. Our last visit was €50, but if they decide she needs some teeth removed, it’ll obviously be much higher. The recovery food I’d love to give her is just over €4 a tin. Spread over two days makes that an extra €30 a month.

What’s coming up for ‘my’ strays in general: I’m running out of food. My last food order for the strays was just over €125 for 38kg, and it lasted me a little over two months.

Not including the recovery food for Josie, the total of that comes down to €325. To cover GoFundMe fees, I’ve set the goal to €350.

** Update ** Because we reached €350, I raised the goal to €425 to include two months of recovery food for Josie (including GoFundMe fees and transaction costs).

Can you help out? Can you help me help these beautiful creatures?

P.S. If I end up raising more than €350, I’ll be using that money to pay good food for Josie. If there’s more, I’ll save that up for when I next have to order food or take one of the strays to the vet.