By Susanna Patari | Project manager, Grumpy Old Cat Lady
We are currently in the middle of high season here in Gili Trawangan. Augusts are always crazy busy, boats from Bali bringing in full loads of happy people. Hotels, restaurants and dive shops buzzing with action. At our MeowQuarters things are currently pretty calm, cat-wise, although our shop and cafe have been busy, just like everyone else.
Our Grumpy Old Cat Lady finally took a little holiday in July so we were closed for 3 weeks and re-opened on August 1st. That break was so much needed, but now we are back in kitty bizniz! Due to the holiday, this report is quite short, since not much has been happening.
May cat clinic
Since our last report in April, we’ve organized one free cat clinic here in Gili Trawangan in May. So many of the kittens in our care were ready to get spayed and neutered, we needed a vet visit, so our magnificient Supervet Rini came to do a 2 day free clinic.
During this May clinic we met 44 cats in total, and of those 35 were spayed and neutered. We were super happy with this, since our goal was to have 30-50 cats getting vet treatment, and minimum of 30 cats getting spay/neuter surgery.
The cat clinics we organize are always free of charge for everyone who brings their cats, or other animals, to see vet Rini.
Meet one of our rescue cats: miracle kitten Pate
Pate was brought to us as a tiny kitten in January this year, and his story was so sad and heartbreaking: He and his 3 siblings were found with their already dead mother, the kittens desperately trying to nurse from their poor dead mamacat. All 4 kittens were malnourished and dirty, had fleas and worms, ear mites, diahrrea. Pate was the tiniest of them, and he was very weak and sick. While her brothers and sisters were eating well, Pate was too weak to be interested in food. We really didn’t think he will make it, but we always want to try and give everyone a chance. We put Pate on medications and force fed him, and in a few days he started to improve, and begun to eat by himself too.
Incredibly, while Pate was growing stronger every day, his bigger siblings all got sick and died, one after another, but Pate kept eating good and gaining weight. He has not had a sick day since, which is quite a miracle, considering how difficult time he had when he arrived.
Pate got neutered by vet Rini in May, he’s been fully vaccinated and has moved to live his best life at our Grumpy Old Cat Lady’s house, where he climbs trees, chases chickens at the nearby football field, and plays with all his kitty friends.
Animal rescue work is not easy, and you often have to remind yourself you cannot save them all. But it is cats like Pate who keep us going and who remind us why we do what we do.
Whats’s happening next:
SAVING MONEY FOR IMPROVEMENTS
We are currently saving money for little facelift. We will now work like crazy to get through this high season, and hopefully we manage to save enough for some new shop furniture and such.
Please note that 100% of the donations we get go directly to cats: food, medication, vaccines and such. All other costs we have are paid with the income from our shop and cat cafe. So anyone who donates money to us helps our cats directly. Your donations are not used for anything else.
CAT RESCUE WORK CONTINUES
We continue looking after cats and kittens that are brought to us, and we never turn away a cat in need of help. Cat rescue work is the core of what we have been doing since 2013 when we started, and it still is what we are and what we do. Everything else (charity shop and café) is just to support our work with cats.
MORE HUMANS NEEDED
Cats Of Gili needs more people to get involved and we are still looking to hire staff. It’s incrtedibly difficult to find anyone, since it’s high season and so many places are short of staff. And we cannot hire just anyone, we need permanent, trustworthy, hardworking humans, who love cats, to help. Hopefully the right person or persons will soon find their way to us.
THANK YOU FOR DONATING! WE COULD NOT DO ALL THIS WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT!
We are sending loud, warm purrs to everyone who has donated to our island kitties this year! Your support means a lot and enables us to continue our work with Gili island kitties.
Thank you, terima kasih, kiitos, purr!
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