Catalyst!

According to my 'Pocket Oxford Dictionary', catalyst means 'a person or thing that precipitates change.
Well, that describes my daughter Catherine to a T. She is known to her friends as Cat, a fitting name for her as it turns out!

She is involved now with several animal welfare groups in Dubai – one group who call themselves “Feline Friends” and another named the “Bin Kitty Collective”.  These are all dedicated, wonderful people who took it upon themselves to do something about the sad problem of feral and abandoned cats. Although the cats do a fantastic job of keeping the rat problem at bay, their numbers were increasing alarmingly. So began the TNR, or 'Trap Neuter Release' programme. In the last year, she has trapped over 30 cats. She pays most of the vet bills for these (some people do donate from time to time), she feeds them and tries to find homes for the few that are tame enough to handle. She helps with fund raising and supports anything that helps the cats.

Yesterday she sent this mail to everyone that she knows! Count the cats in the photo below:

Thanks to Cat

'A security guard at a labour camp in Dubai called this week pleading for help with a large number of stray animals that are living in their camp.
On investigation it was found that about 40-50 cats, and a few dogs, are living in the labour camp and being cared for by the labourers to the best of their ability and means. These animals are also breeding unchecked.
The cats and dogs need to be trapped, transported to the vet, assessed and neutered asap, They will also need to be relocated and the tamer ones possibly even homed as the labour camp is moving and these animals will essentially be abandoned as the labourers do not get to take them along.
Several animal groups in Dubai are mobilising to manage this but we desperately need help with funds to cover:
- vet costs and neutering
- transportation
- food
Many thanks.'

If anyone would like to contribute towards this please click through to the Fundrazr campaign or contact her via her blog

While we are on the subject of cats, one of our ex-ferals has interesting sleeping places! Rob came down to make coffee one day last week, to find a different 'fruit' in our fruit bowl!

Our squashed fruit!

It turned out to be Dilly (well named!). A 'purrberry' or a 'catapple'?

Parked for the day!

He also loves to lie in one of my wheelbarrows and watch the world go by.

A pansy by any other name!

And, this is him squashed into a wooden planter that Rob made!

Maybe I should have called him 'Weed'?

He was a feral, he is one of the lucky ones.