By Perley-Ann Friedman | Lanta Animal Welfare, CFO
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:
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.
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