Success on a few fronts. We took the little butterfly cat and her sister, TortiMiniMe, to be neutered yesterday and all went well. When we released them this morning (their mum Jessica was waiting outside the house at 6 am) they shot off, but both turned up later for food, much to our delight, and they look really well, and not as if they have just had the weirdest 36 hours of their short lives! There's a great feeling of satisfaction with this. They will likely live longer and happier lives, only needing to worry about getting food for themselves - in addition to not producing any kittens.
The other thing that has surprised us is that we did finally manage to catch Tortipizza who has the mouth problem. She is currently sitting quietly in a cage in our darkened bathroom awaiting her appointment tomorrow morning with the vet, who will sedate her and examine her mouth. She was making the most horrible yowling noises earlier, to the point where we were feeling terrible that she was so distressed. But it is the right thing to do, and we're hopeful her problem is something surgery can fix, and she can live a much longer life and never have to be in a cage again. If we could communicate I think she'd agree on that point.
We face constant dilemmas about doing this stuff. We question ourselves all the time, and I have to remind myself that I did not go looking for a Spanish village with feral cats. I imagined using binoculars to watch buzzards and seeing the odd hedgehog, boar or deer (all this happens!). I did not for a minute consider we'd be running some kind of cat hospital, and I really wish there weren't any feral cats here, or that there were perhaps 5 neutered and healthy adults who were warm and dry and well-fed! I share these anxieties with the neighbours as well, but more about that later.
The reality is that there are many feral cats here, and we have some opportunity to help (and maybe reach that goal of there being a few healthy adults) so I think we must. But intervening comes with much soul searching.
The other thing that has surprised us is that we did finally manage to catch Tortipizza who has the mouth problem. She is currently sitting quietly in a cage in our darkened bathroom awaiting her appointment tomorrow morning with the vet, who will sedate her and examine her mouth. She was making the most horrible yowling noises earlier, to the point where we were feeling terrible that she was so distressed. But it is the right thing to do, and we're hopeful her problem is something surgery can fix, and she can live a much longer life and never have to be in a cage again. If we could communicate I think she'd agree on that point.
We face constant dilemmas about doing this stuff. We question ourselves all the time, and I have to remind myself that I did not go looking for a Spanish village with feral cats. I imagined using binoculars to watch buzzards and seeing the odd hedgehog, boar or deer (all this happens!). I did not for a minute consider we'd be running some kind of cat hospital, and I really wish there weren't any feral cats here, or that there were perhaps 5 neutered and healthy adults who were warm and dry and well-fed! I share these anxieties with the neighbours as well, but more about that later.
The reality is that there are many feral cats here, and we have some opportunity to help (and maybe reach that goal of there being a few healthy adults) so I think we must. But intervening comes with much soul searching.
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