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????