Symi Chat

Symi Animal Welfare, Autumn News 2008

We are delighted to announce that the UK vet, Martin Bilson, will be on Symi again during October.

Due to general feeling and comment from tourists and residents alike regarding a declining cat population, S A W will not be doing any 'random' cat catching or neutering this year. We respect such comments and appreciate recent feed-back on this issue. Our intention has always been to help control and maintain a healthy cat population on Symi, recent reports suggest that our efforts and hard-work over the years are paying off. We will of course be monitoring the situation over the coming months .

Would you like to be a SAW volunteer whilst the vet is here, or during the winter-feeding programme which will commence later in the year. Or perhaps you'd prefer to become more directly involved? Please let us know.

Thank you, as always, for your support, Melanie Sharp

[quote="symivisitor"]

Our intention has always been to help control and maintain a healthy cat population on Symi, recent reports suggest that our efforts and hard-work over the years are paying off. [/quote]

Yes indeed, I've really noticed the improvement during my years of visiting Symi. Keep up the good work!

Sickly kittens expiring in the streets are a thing of the past, thank goodness.

At least I have a lot of cats around. I will try Mille to put some pictures here

Tove does have a LOT of cats around! Here's a few photos I took at her house a couple of weeks ago. Hope the kittens are well.

[img]http://www.symivisitor.com/tove2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.symivisitor.com/tove3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.symivisitor.com/tove4.jpg[/img]

Tove sent me a lot of pictures, will put them up later, promise

Better late than never, sorry about the delay. I have had a few very busy days!

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3216/2830149392_8a94135df4.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3248/2830148558_91981815d4.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3101/2829311099_5eff837cb2.jpg[/img]


And a happy Symi cat living in Denmark gave birth recently

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3088/2829318321_854e999672.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3019/2829317431_c5096ede7f.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3244/2830153176_116f1f5bd3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3294/2829315167_abc43ed529.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2289/2829314433_243f166554.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3042/2829313623_9e47b8321b.jpg[/img]

What beautiful and healthy looking pussycats Tove...they are gorgeous . I particularly like the little white one with a stubby tail who likes like he/she has a wayward eyebrow .

I like the photo of the family lined up eating. Reminds me of something.

Beautiful cats and kittens!
I'd love to have as many as that. Really like the photo of the kitten in the bowl!

Waiting for a bit of a drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkle of oregano.

Anthony, the cats reside around Tove's house up in Chorio.
Cant wait to see them (and the house) in real life!

And that is just half of them. I have at least 20 coming around for dinner, breakfast, lunch and supper .Use more money on them than on food and drinking for myself .But I wouldn't be without them .But I think I have to take some of them to the vet in October otherwise we will have double as many next year.But they are cute

Tove, will you be around during my forthcoming visit (1st - 22nd October)?

I'd love to see the cats, particularly the kittens. [img]http://www.planetsmilies.com/smilies/happy/happy0052.gif[/img] [img]http://www.planetsmilies.com/smilies/happy/happy0052.gif[/img]

Sure, I will be there from September 21st to October 22nd. Maybe we shall make a cat visiting day for those who are around. Martin, the vet, will be there as well in the beginning of October and I hope he will check some of my cats.I have 8 kittens visible at the moment and some more coming with 3 mothers, where the two of them are kittens from last year, so I have to do something even if they are feeded in the winter. I don't think so many can survive in the area.

Anthony perhaps you might like to join us in helping Martin the vet when he comes

I would like to donate some food for the winter programme when we come over in October is it best to get food on Symi or give money to the programme? Where do I go and who do I see about it? I would love to have been able to help the vet but I am sadly alergic to cat fur so cannot be with them for very long before I start to wheeze which is a shame becuase I love them they are so cute...

Poppet, the best thing is to donate money, because we buy food in big sacks to do it cheaper. You can always put money in the boxes around named SAW. There are another organisation named FAROS, but I don't think they do the winterfeeding. SAW has boxes in the bar 2A's, Jean and Tonic and in the Sunrise Cafe and I think Tina, the Kaloudoukas rep has one in her office in Chorio too. We have the clinic up in Maurovouni behind the square in Yialos.

There you go Poppet, a very comprehensive answer from our lovely Tove.

I'd encourage all comers to consider supporting S.A.W. and FAROS initiatives. Both organisations do slightly different things but what each does is equally worthwhile and important and it's a nice way of giving something back to the island that gives so much to us when we visit.

S.A.W's winter feeding programme is hugely important to the animals of Symi at a time when life can become quite uncomfortable for them. S.A.W. do however keep a watchful eye over the island's animals throughout the whole year. As with any venture of this nature, donations are the life force of what can be achieved, so do consider making a donation.

Anthony, I'll make a point of trying to track you down when I get to Symi just to give you a little gentle encouragement .

Many thanks, I shall make sure that we look out for them, if we can't find them I shall pop into seeing the guys who do Symidream as I just love their pictures, we have been wondering how to do it more directly for years, keep up the good work I can remember years ago (oh my goodness its 25 years now)when there were many,many poorly moggies and dogs on Symi, but you seem to have it more under control now..so well done...