In Southern Italy there are so many stray and abandoned cats and kittens, it is down to volunteers to feed and look after them and where possible re-home them.
Many kittens are abandoned as the mothers select the strongest from a litter and leave the rest to give the strongest ones the best chance of survival. We take in the abandoned kittens that are usually 1 to 2 weeks old and hand rear them on bottles whilst looking for new homes. The volunteers who go out daily to feed the strays pay for food and vet bills from their own pocket, with winter coming and the tourists have gone home the cats need more food and the food bill alone is over £1000 a month before vets bills and whatever small donations they can find helps.
Neutering is essential to try and keep numbers down as re-homing is difficult in Southern Italy and most re-homing is to Northern Italy which means a 5-8 hour drive to take the cats to their new forever home. There are so many cats and kittens to look after and any help is a great help. We would like to try and help more and start an ongoing fundraiser for fellow cat lovers to make a small donation.