Shelter 17/11/2018: Elin.

Our best Morgan has built these amazing Winter Palaces for the cats. We have been concerned about their safety now when the cold kicks in so she took matter in her very competent hands and build these houses for them.

They are made out of preloved shelves bought second hand and recycled wood material for the doors. The opening is covered with a flap of thermic plastic used for industrial refrigerators and the inside is insulated with  styrofoam.

On the pictures above you can see Morgan´s cat Frankenstein inspect and approve the construction as kitty friendly.

Finally this Saturday they were ready for installation in the cages and after fussing around a bit annoying the cats they were finally in place and ready to be used!

We put warm blankets inside each apartment so hopefully each cat can find their own little winter home to keep safe and warm.

This Saturday again we were quite many volunteers coming to help out with the cats so the work went smooth and easy. We were also very happy to welcome a new girl to our group; Anne, she founds us through our Instagram account @gatalunyabcn and decided she wanted to help out. She was not shy to get to work and started directly by cleaning out the litter boxes. I think one of the best thing about being a volunteer is all the amazing people you meet that are prepared to come an early Saturday morning to help out with the animals.

Since we didn´t have to take any cats to vet or had any other pending tasks we decided that some of us would go help out with the dogs once done while Siiri would stay back starting to work on the socialisation of the remaining cats.

The issue we are facing now is that the remaining cats in the shelter are not too social, they are on a scale from very afraid to possible to touch a bit while they are eating. Marley that you see on the picture is one of the cats we think that with some time and love we can make progress with. Best would of course be if she could get a home with some patience and calm people teaching her how to trust and how to love again.

Siiri is very good with cats so only in this short moment she made some connection with Marley. Sad thing is that we can only come once a week and that is too little to make real progress with these cats, that is why it´s so important we can manage to find the right home for them.

As mentioned, we left Siiri to do her cat magic and went to help out with the dogs.

In the shelter there are over 50 dogs so as you can imagine even though there are volunteers coming every weekend it is hard to find time to get all of them out for a walk. Just as the cats they live in cold, damp cages so it is crucial for as well their mental as physical health they get out of there as often as possible. And again nothing would be better for them than to get a real home full of love and care.

This week we were contacted by Moa and Philip that were looking for a shelter where they can help out with dogs. We invited them to come with us since the need of volunteers is never ending and the more dogs that get to come out the better!

Moa and Philip are both very used to dogs and seemed to be enjoying themselves hanging out with our doggy dogs. It is really such a joy meeting all these people who are prepared to give up some of their time to make such a huge difference for the animals. I am sure you will see more of Moa and Philip if you stay tuned...