No vets here...

If you were wondering how the volunteers in Athens manage with boarding the cats at vets whilst they are being sterilized, they don't. One one of the trips to drops some cats off down town I got invited into the building to help take the cats upstairs. Expecting a vets office or similar,it turns out the animals are kept in an empty apartment which someone has kindly given over for the group's use. The cats stay in their carriers for the duration of their stay, a long way from the nice cosy vets office and warm, lighted holding pens of the UK vets where the FCW guys usually stay. The cats are operated on and then transferred back to the carriers, with a kind of diaper on the floor of the carrier to soak up any spills. I did see one guy who had had an operation on his ear and he was in 2 transfer cages which had been strapped together to give him more room. These guys are really operating on a minimum budget and making ends meet as best they can. It may not sound ideal from our POV, but the cats ARE getting treated and this is better than not being done at all. The room was clean, didn;t smell, and I have no impression that they are treated with anything but love and kindness whilst in the apartment by a rotating procession of volunteers who come in to clean and feed. This is the outer room and you can see the double cage on the right of the picture

Here is the inner room, you can see the carriers lined up,each one with a cat in. The black and white cat out of cage at the back of the room has recently been taken in after her owner, and old lady, died. The cat was going to be put down and they are currently trying to find her a new home.

These guys should get a medal for doing what they do under such difficult conditions. You would only do this out of love, people come by all hopurs of the evening to let the volunteers in the drop off cats and collect them to return them to their respective neighborhoods. Anyone still wodnering why they need more people chipping in their time to help????

Grabbed by the Fuzz.

Well, today was different. There I was trapping away, slow start, got up to 4 and then 4 police on 2 motorbikes rides up, stop, and pull me to one side to ask me what I was doing. Well, these guys have ridden past a couple of times over the last few days but not stopped before.

I felt a little intimidated by 4 big tooled up foreign cops on my ass, I can tell you. Seems the cats 'belong to an old lady' and we were not allowed to take them. I was ordered to release the cats I have caught and leave the area taking my traps and equipment with me. I rang Petros and he came over as soon as he could, around 30 minutes later. He was furious. he said some interfering busy-body - we suspect it was an old geezer who walked by when Petros was there and asked him what we were doing - had rung them and it drove him crazy. He said the old lady fed the cats but that was it and the police should have known better as we have worked there before. he says this guy is typical of people in Greece who will feed them this week and then poison them the next when they get fed up with them. Petros said they have saying in Greece: 'The fool's mother is always pregnant'. He said there is never any shortage of fools. He told me about a time when he was one the beach and people were trying to stop the dogs going into the sea in case they peed in it! So today was a 4 cat day, then a zero cat day. Nice ending to my Greek trapping experience...NOT! Aside from that there were alot of calcio, tricolor [trik-a-law, as Angeliki k had called them] about today, both adults and kittens.

I realized I haven't posted a shot through the bars, into the abandoned wasteland. This is what the lovely area looks like....

Just where you want kitty to live and grow up.

Had enuff of Greece...

Okay, finally the amount of cats and kittens is taking it's toll and I need to get out of here. The more you are here, the more the size of the problem hits you. There are cats with kittens, sometimes just one kitten, sometimes more on every street. Hearing about it is one thing,the reality is something else. This mum [foreground] and kitten were on the grounds of the Acropolis and the kitten, whilst healthy looking, was meowing for attention/food. As usual Mum had a calm resignation about her.

This second pair appeared a bit older, say 6 months-plus and could have been siblings or mated. They were play-fighting in the sun as people walked by. One German women then called them over with some meat she had in her bag [?] and the ginger guy tucked in.

I'm ready to rip up all the 'cute'cat postcards and calendars, proclaiming Greece loves cats. BULLSHIT. The absolutely hypocrisy of it. If this country loved cat it would not say 'Ooohm, it's not natural to neuter the poor thing' and would chop ginger toms balls right off! This is the only way to help these guys. Stem the population explosion, stem the suffering, stem all the endless dead and dying cats as a result. Vivi and the guys can only do so much and it is not enough. I am not sure it ever will be. They can help a few, but not the many. This thing needs to get a lot bigger before it can reach enough animals to make a difference. Read my next post about today's trapping fiasco, to get an idea of what they are up against....

The natives are getting smarter,,,,,

Those little cats are getting smart. Took us 90 minutes to get just 2 cats today. Most of the regular guys were there,including this big ginger tom who doesn't look all that well and would probably have benefited from a trip to the vets.

But would anyone go in the traps at first? NO!

Then when they did start going in, the little sods just ate all the foot infront of the foot plate and either ignored the food at the back or stretched their necks and LEANT OVER the footplate.

One little black kitten was in the damn trap 4 times, ate all the food, every time, and still never set it off :+} We were about to give up with just cats to show for our trouble when some new guys cam across road from the factory-side and these guys were on the look out for some free grub. At one point bopth traps went off within about 5 seconds of each other. We were up to five, with it now dark, so decided to call it a day. Just goes to show, trapping is no exact science, if the cats don't want to go in, they ain't going in. We even switched out bait mid-way through and swapped out pilchards, which had previously worked sop well, for some manky tinned cat food. Well, everyone like the chance of menu, but were still canny enough to bet a bit to eat without the setting the traps. It was as though they knew if they ate the first lot of food and left, we would end up replenishing it for them. Tomorrow is the last trapping day, we'll see what happens.....

Location, location, location.....

This is the view from across the road to the area we are trapping the cats, in the empty lot... attractive, huh?

This is again from the other side of the road[a huge contract monstrosity of a factory is opposite the cats and at my back], looking right. You can see the fence for the factory on the right of the photo

This is looking left, again factory is on the left

Great location,huh? Aside from a few scrabby trees, it's all the concrete, concrete, oh and don;t forbget the tarmac

Too late, too little

Yesterday was a disappointment at the factory, to say the least. We got there alittle later than normal as had a new local volunteer who wanted to come with us and see how I worked. When we got there - me, Angiliki, her husband Viscilli, and the new volunteer - the old lady had already been and fed the cats. result was everyone was well fed and didn't come out. We got just one taker, a big ginger fella, in an hour. We gave up there and move to Angeliki's neighborhood as she had a bunch of cats she wanted trapping. Wow, what an eye opener! Right in the middle of the city, the streets are no wider than a back-to-back street in Leeds and you have buildings right up against one another, and a narrow pavement, then cars parked on both sides of the road. In amoungst this live the cats, dodging traffic, pitbulls [yes, even in Greece], and anything else the city throws at them. We managed to nap a hefty 5 cats yesterday, which Angeleiki was delighted with. All the time a small, ginger 3 months old kitten was hanging out with us/the cats. Poor little bugger didn't quite know what to do with the traffic and and Angeliki says he has yet to get his 'road sense'. She says there were 2 kittens but now just one. Despite the 5 we caught there were at least 5 more who have already been neutered and 'hung-out' with us, a couple letting us stroke them as they know Angeliki and hubby who feed them. Guys, this is ONE BLOCK in the city.Multiply that around the rest of Athens and you're starting to get a flavour of how big the cat issue is. So whilst the factory was a bust yesterday, we still did some good work. We started around 4-ish in the afternoon and I finally got home after dropping the trapped cats off at the 'holding station' [basically an empty flat someone has given the volunteers] down in the middle of the city at half-past-ten. A long, but rewarding day. Right, today's foray to the factory begins in about 45 minutes. let's see who we get....

This one that got away....

Okay, I wanted this gorgeous girl in one of my traps all day, but would she as hell go in! Anyone who knows our FCW Feral Group will know she looks like Belle, one of my fave cats in the group [she's a semi longhair, you can see, with a mixed white/ginger/brown coat. You can see it better from a different angle]. Every time I time I saw this little one, and she is only a kitten, she is the one I wanted to save. I will be gone next week, but if I can do one thing, I want this little sterilized. It may not help in the long run, but it will make me feel I have done my bit, if nothing else.

This is a shot I took yesterday, that's her on the left, possibly with sibling and Mum.

Return of the mad cat lady

Okay, this old lady totally fits the 'Mad Cat Lady' stereotype. We kind of communicate in broken English and sign language. Luckily she turned up a bit later today when everyone was caught so she as total food overload kind of kills the food-in-the-trap...go-in-trap-for-food strategy. God love her though, she brings a tons of food - daren't think where she gets it - and water to top their bowls up with. She's gotta be 70+ ig she's a day. We must have looked a right pair stood by the side of road with traps, food and a swarm of cats around our feet.

A bumper haul....

Got up to 9 guys today, then ran out of traps/carriers so called it a day. It was almost like shooting fish in a barrel today, no literally I had the traps baited with sardines! There are a couple of big males that I knew would bust out of the carriers so brought a big wire transfer cage for them... as you can see below, the big fella never stood a chance!

My last catch I put the trap on the wall as this is where the guys seemed to feed most and felt safest as they could zip back through the fence... didn't help them any. This black guy pushed ahead of the other fellow to get to the food and sealed his fate :+}

Here are 5 of the carriers and the big transfer cage ready for transport....

If you're this far into the trap. you're already caught... sorry!

Trapping begins....

Well we got off to a slow start... 1 cat. The little black guy below to be exact. Got a bit worried when for the next 30 minutes no-one went in a trap. I brought some dried food but the cats were too impressed and even ave the impression they were not that hungry. As luck would have it and old lady push a cart turned up and out popped the cats [this is not the woman we had thought would turn up as she got taken into hospital today]. She dropped down a bunch of spaghetti and meat balls the cats wolfed it down! Seems I have been using the wrong bait. Had a bit of a mis-understanding with the woman when she kept trying to put a whole load of food at the mouth of the traps and I tried to explain it should only be a little and at the back.... She then walked down the road and all the damn cats followed her like the pied piper! Put a crimp in the old trapping plans. It was slow going until she came back and now dropped a slew of sardines and other fish bits..... out come the cats again. Anyway, cut a long story short I got 7 cats, with 2 more escaping as I tried to transfer them from the traps to the carriers - these have SIDE OPENING DOORS on the front... check the picture. I had to completed remove the door and then once wedged the trap against the absk opening., use the trap sliding door once the cat was in the carrier. Then I had to re-insert the door onto it's hinges BETWEEN THE FRONT THE CARRIER AND THE CLOSED TRAP! I didn't realize how easy I had it back home. Anyway 2 particularly big and feisty buggers squeezed between the carrier front and the trap as I was trying to put the door in place. I left the final 2 big cats in the traps rather than transfer and one of them was BIG BUGGER! If you look at tghe photo's you can see how run down the area is, without the support of people like the old lady these guys would starve... It's around 9.30pm and the cats have been dropped at an empty house, still in carriers/traps, and we went back at 9 to collect them and take them to the vets. All starts again tomorrow and will be taking some tuna and sardines with me :+}

Acropolis cats

A few cats roaming around the Acropolis, up by the Parthenon they were pretty tame and you could stroke them. Most looked well fed, if what I saw was anything to go by a diet of insects such as butterflies! Yes one guy actually stalked, caught and ate a butterfly. At the foot of the Acropolis

round one side is a wall-off area where about 3 adults cats and a good dozen kittens were. The area didn;t looked used and was chained up. The guys were just screaming out for someone to go in there and TNR. It broke my heart to see the kittens frolicking with each other in the grass without a care in the world, but some of the older ones already had a world-weary expression as if they knew their fate ahead of time.....

Athens, First Cemetery cats

Went round the NC today.... always liked looking at the headstones and sculptures you find there. The First Cemetery of Athens (Greek: Πρώτο Νεκροταφείο Αθηνών) is the official cemetery of the City of Athens and the first to be built. It opened in 1837 and soon became a luxurious cemetery for famous Greek people and foreigners. I wanted to see how the architecture differed from English cemeteries. Very little green vegetation aside from alot of tall trees which made for some nice shadow-photo's. Biggest impact on me... more cats. Again a good few kittens and most hanging around with Mum. One poor little black fella had a snotty nose, not looking like he's gonna get that treated - he is in the bottom of the foto with the Mum & kittens. A few quite skinny kittens, what the hell are these guy eating as there isn't much on offer aside from some pigeons that I could see and I can't see the visitors feeding them. Saddest site was a young kitten sleeping in a plant pot. Alot of the cats I have seen so far at least 'look' quite perky and alert, this little guy just looked sad.....

Factory cats... update 1

Right, as I said we went to the factory site today. Very depressing, just a huge walled-off piece if waste-land where the cats are living/breeding. We were there some 30 minutes and a bout a dozen cats, mostly 4-6 months old kittens heard us and came out thinking they were going to be fed. Angeliki reckons there are probably about 50 cats in there. Whilst the cats looked fairly healthy, she says they will all have a short, hard life. Poor buggers. We'll do what we can, but it is like a finger in a dyke to the overall problem. It doesn't help that there is a working factory over the road, with yet more cats/kittens wandering around that we saw. I guess the cats cross over the road between the 2 areas. Here's some of the guys we saw today....

Adventures in cat-trapping....Greek-style

As I was saying.... A very frustrating day as I have discovered I am not going to be able to drive round Athens and catch the cats as planned. Driving is just to difficult... no road signs, no road markings, traffic comes out all directions, all at once! I hired the car and we 'drove' round the sites this morning to see where the cats where and where they would need to be picked up/dropped off at. The final straw was that the vets they need to go to is down town in central Athens and we have to go down at 9pm at night when all the other shops are shut! NO WAY. Street are badly sign-posted as it is so I stand no chance at night, even with my Sat-Nav. We have no-one else who can help who can drive so we are now going to have to use a local taxi driver who works with the local cat volunteers. It looks like it is going to be an afternoon/evening job as we start trapping at 4.30, catch 2 loads of cats who have to stay in an empty house until we can take to the vets at 9pm. I guess so long as it works, it is not what we wanted, but hey....

Bad day continues....

Just typed a bunch of stuff about today and Chrome shut down! Sums up the day :+{

The Eagle has landed

Okay, day one. Started at 3am in Leeds, thru to driving through a raging downpour to Manchester and getting soaked even before getting on the plane. Anyway, 5 hours later and it's blazing hot, in the high 20's.... man, what a difference to Leeds. Got settled into hotel, gr8 view from 6th floor. Walked into the center if Athens, not an easy thing when millions of tiny side roads and NO SIGN POSTS! The city has a tired, run-down air,reminds me of Egypt. Saw my first cat around the Flea Market area near the acropolis, picking scraps from outside a restaurant. A few morefollowed. All looked healthy, but it there are still some tourists about so guess they are still getting some food. A few un-neutered males aabout as well. Let's see what the first day of trapping brings tomorrow.

GREEK CAT SOCIETY link

Okay, thought it would be useful for you to see where and the reason I am going to Greece: http://www.greekcatwelfare.moonfruit.com/ If you can help with any kind of donation or just spreading the word about the plight of these cats, it would be appreciated.

Update long over due...

Okay, no excuses, we've not updated for yonks! Good thing is we're off to Greece in a week to do some TNR work with The Greek cat Society. Kind of jazzed. Lots of firsts: first trip to Greece, first time TNR-ing out of the UK and first time working to TNR a large number of cats at once.Stay tuned, I;ll keep you updated. Promise!