Our Home, the Cat Sanctuary
When we purchased our Spanish Villa we never anticipated it to be a cat sanctuary! Our property sat empty for 7 months before we could occupy it, to keep an eye on our place we had cameras installed. I’ll never forget the time we got notified there was activity, watching the footage we saw a few different cats walk by the cameras near the cottage! I was so thrilled and couldn’t believe there were at least 8 different cats!
Since I could remember I’ve always loved cats. When I was little I would dress them up and push them around the house in my doll stroller. Wherever I go I always seem to meet another feline friend. Yes I was and still am a real life Elmira!
When I first met Kyle he had two cats and I knew he would be the one. Since Kyle has been with me I’d say he’s really embraced his inner cat lady. I remember rescuing a kitten one winter in Denver, Colorado. Luckily his friend wanted to adopt him, or we might end up with a 5th cat. Esteban was a cool cat and his friend ended up having him for 18 years.
Cats have always been a part of our family and our relationship. When we made the decision to move to Spain, there was no question of bringing our four cats with us (See our Blog, Is there a cat show in town)
Acupuncture for Gamma
At the end of 2020, our cat Gamma Ray was diagnosed with cancer in his lower intestine , there was no question we would do whatever we could to help him get healthier. With acupuncture, b-12 shots, a homemade diet, supplements and lots of love he fought that prognosis for almost 2 years!
Needless to say he’s resilient AF and was able to make the journey with us to Spain.
We have always done whatever we could for our cats because they were and are a part of our family. We made a commitment when we adopted them from the shelter, that they are our responsibility to provide a loving home and take care of them.
In 2003 Kyle found our cat Mr. Little Jeans, hit by a car and left for dead in the street, since then we have made the conscious decision to keep our cats indoors with occasional outdoor supervision. It’s similar to letting your toddler play outdoors unsupervised. Not only are we concerned for them getting hit by a car, we have a yard full of plants toxic for cats, along with poisonous caterpillars, snakes, spiders, street cats, and the cold rainy weather in the winter. Our vet Los Tendales, agrees to keep cats indoors if you want them to live longer.
With our love for felines, we never thought we would be living on a property full of cats, much like a cat sanctuary! When we saw them in the footage we thought they might belong to someone, only to find out how much of a problem the feral cat population in Spain is and more often than not animals are viewed more as property and not so much family out here.
At first, it was fun to see cats roaming about as I gardened. As the months went on the reality began to set in, that they were homeless. We would see them getting skinnier, injured and the worst part, the kittens we didn’t know what to do with.
With such a large street cat population in our area, it’s common to see this. Everyone you talk to knows it’s a problem, finding a solution and a sense of urgency around the issue is a whole other dilemma.
After researching and reaching out to shelters, and the local city hall, we have found the best way might be to take action into our hands until we find a better solution.
I decided something I could do right away is raise money through hair services! I’ve been a hairstylist for 20 years back in Denver Colorado. I never thought I would be doing hair again, especially in Spain. We’ve met a handful of people since we’ve been here and as much as I resisted doing hair initially I started to provide cuts and styles for some of our new friends. I thought if I’m doing hair again I might as well raise money to help the street cats on our property. I’ve always had a passion for doing hair and cats, it feels natural to combine the two.
We got pricing for the services that our vet recommends and we purchased a live trap with gloves, so it begins!
As we were trying to figure out a shelter for cats during the winter months we realized we have an unused chicken coop. We don’t plan to have chickens and it would be the perfect place for the backyardigans to find shelter. We didn’t occur to us to provide a cat shelter until last winter there were kittens we were trying to rescue soaked and shivering out in the rain. We unfortunately weren’t successful in capturing them, we’re hopeful one of them grew to be the black cat on our property we call Smokalito.
Cleaning and preparing the coop for the cats is next on my list. Be sure to watch our episode of “Lucy cleans the coop!”
After being here a year we decided to help by feeding them once a day in the morning, this gives them some guaranteed nutrition and maybe less bird killings. Papa G we’re lookin at you!
We don’t know what this path will bring, probably more cats! One thing we know for sure is that the cats feel safe here at our casa, and that makes me feel I’m doing the right thing. They’re content eating catnip, not feeling threatened at least by us, and having a little safe haven to relax and enjoy some sunshine.
If you’re a cat lover like us visit La Casa De Los Gatos and see how you can support our cause, or book a hair service at my salon pop up Cuts4Cats
