Give Rescue Cats a Safe Future

Hard to believe it's August already, 2016 is motoring by!  It's low or rainy season on Koh Lanta and this year it has been raining an awful lot.  The island is very quiet.  Most businesses, especially those catering to the tourists, are closed and won't open again until the Fall.  

While the island maybe quiet, it's business as usual at Lanta Animal Welfare.  Cats and dogs still need rescuing, the animals at the centre need our daily care, and we are doing a lot of sterilization clinics on the surrounding islands.  Our donation levels are definitely low during this time but we have learned that we have to manage our finances carefully throughout the year to be able to survive low season.

As I prepare this report, Kitty City is about 45% funded.  While this isn't enough for us to 'break ground' for construction, it is enough for us to begin to further detail our Kitty City planning.  Were now engaged in a variety of activities that include:

• Solidifying our project plans, drawings, etc.
• Having our architect add details to the original drawings
• Identifying and detailing the construction activities
• Liaising with 'animal facility' experts in design construction for best practices for cats
• Ensuring that Kitty City will be 'green', sustainable and cost effective

Kitty Café is coming to Lanta Animal Welfare and to Kitty City

As we’ve been exploring the internet for new and creative ideas for Kitty City, we've found so many amazing Kitty Cafes around the planet.  We've decided that this is the perfect complement for Lanta Animal Welfare as it will positively improve the visitor's experience. 

We are now busy planning and designing a Kitty Café that will serve snacks and drinks during our visiting hours.  We’ve had discussions with one of our volunteers, who has agreed to manage the café, as she is about to retire.  She has agreed to our offer and we are now targeting early winter for her to start.  

Our Kitty Café will serve prepared foods from local restaurants, that will include pastries, salads, yogurt and sandwiches.  By engaging a number of local businesses in Kitty City, we will be improving our relationship with the local community.  This will help us further integrate into the local business community and demonstrate that Lanta Animal Welfare is of great benefit to all of Koh Lanta, not just to the animals.

Lanta Animal Welfare Adoption Initiative

Lanta Animal Welfare devotes considerable effort to finding forever homes for our rescued animals.  We are very proud of this initiative that has already found forever homes for over 100 animals this year.  One story that stands out in my mind is that of Shaun, a cat that was dumped at our centre during the night (in a sac) when he was a wee kitten.  Shaun is an adorable white and ginger cat that was rather difficult to have adopted.  

Shaun had been part of our Sunday Adoption Initiative, where we have cats available for adoption at a local park.  Sundays this park is quite busy with local Thai families and we have had success with adopting our kittens there.  One Sunday we had a handful of kittens on display and all were adopted except poor Shaun.  It was sad bringing Shaun back that day as we realized his colouring was just not appealing to the Thais.  The best way to describe Shaun is that he is a white cat that got splattered with ginger paint.  Thai's love white cats, but I guess not ginger and white cats.

A few days later I was at Lanta Animal Welfare and got chatting with 2 women from Swizerland who had been playing with some of our cats.  They wanted to hand me a lot of money for a cat, which was highly irregular.  We make all the arrangements for adoption, including the tests required by the various governments, the travel bookings, and so on, and when we know the costs, we ask the future adopters to make a payment.  I told them I'd arrange for them to meet with our Adoption Manager the next day as she was off that day.  I would like to mention that once Kitty City is complete, we'll have a private, quiet area for adopters to socialize with their animal of interest.  

While they readily agreed to this appointment, they still wanted me to take their money.  They said that by taking this money I was confirming the adoption, and I quote " because he is already our cat.  We just fell in love with Shaun!"  I did take their money, and of course they both starting crying and hugging me.  Shaun is now happily settling into his new life at his forever home in Swizerland.

Our Sincere Gratitude to All Our Kitty City Supporters

I want to sincerely thank each and every one of you for your generosity and for helping us with our Kitty City Project fundraising.  Please let me know if you have any comments, questions or suggestions.  And by all means contact us if you are going to be visiting Koh Lanta.  We can provide you with a personalized tour of our centre and show you the wonderful rescue work we are doing on Koh Lanta.   

Please visit our Web site for more information on Lanta Animal Welfare.

Links:

• Lanta Animal Welfare Web site

Lanta Animal Welfare Kitty Kity Progress Report - May 2016

Kitty City Current Activity

Our Kitty City Project has now entered the design phase.  This phase involves preparing the proper building documents for the Kitty City facility, including electrical, plumbing, and other trades schematics on the drawings.  There are also many Thai government approvals required to ensure the plans meet the many requirements here in Thailand.  

We have been fortunate to have sourced a local gentleman who builds large retirement homes on an adjacent island to help with the design phase and possibly with the build phase as well.  His knowledge of the Thai approval process and the required building standards makes his contribution to this phase invaluable.  

This man has always been a friend to the cats of southern Thailand.  A few times a year he arranges for upwards of 20 cats to come to our clinic on Koh Lanta for sterilization.  He has even organized a 2 day sterilization clinic on Koh Jum so we could do the procedure on site, providing lodging and food for our traveling vets and helpers.

Some of Lanta Animal Welfare's Current Activities

To give you a better picture of Lanta Animal Welfare, I'm going to tell you about 2 recent activities that we are very excited about.  

We Completed over 150 Sterilizations in April 2016

Performing neutering and castrations are the main objectives of LAW and just last month a record of 150 animals were sterilised by the LAW volunteer vets.  Steriliations is the only humane method to control unwanted litters of cat and dog populations. Over the years thousands and thousands of cats and dogs have been sterilised thanks to your support and donations.

The work only continues with hundreds of sterilizations being carried out on both stray and pet cat and dogs every month.  Sterilizations not only controls populations but also ensures a healthy pet minimizing their risks of roaming, fighting and diseases such as pyometra in dogs and contacting fatal infections such as Feline Leukemia and Aids in cats which almost always results in long suffering and pain eventually death.

We are about to launch the Lanta Animal Welfare eShop

At Lanta Animal Welfare on Koh Lanta we have a small shop selling our merchandise.  We have decided to expand our shop to include an on-line eShop so supporters can purchase our merchandize even when they are back home.  This will help us with our cash flow during the spring-fall low season.  During this season our visitor numbers are greatly reduced from around 100 people a day in the winter high season, down to 10 people each day in low season.  

While the tourists may not be traveling to a warm climate in low season, our cats and dogs still need to be sterilized, rescued, cared for and adopted.  We will be selling our Eco-Tote Bags, Caps, Drink Coolers and various clothing items in our eShop.  We are targetting our lauch around mid-June and working very hard to meet this day  Our eShop will be available on both our Facebook page and on our Website.  I will be sending out a notice when we lauch so you can go in and browse around.

Our Sincere Gratitude to All Our Kitty City Supporters

I want to sincerely thank each and every one of you for your generosity, helping us with our Kitty City Project fundraising.  Please let me know if you have any comments, questions or suggestions.   

Please visit our Web site for more information on Lanta Animal Welfare.

Links:

• Lanta Animal Welfare Website