Caring for Cats: Neutering, Food and Shelter

Faísca (Sparky, in English) arrived here as a puppy one rainy night. He curled up next to Mel and stole everybody's heart. We took him to the vet right away for his vaccines and deworming medicine, but he was so young when he arrived, we had to wait a few months before we could neuter him. Today we believe he is around 1.5 years old now he is completely integrated into the community, healthy and neutered.

He is the most playful member of our canine community, greeting everybody with his ready-for-play pose. He also loves trails - he is the most adventurous of the gang running forward and going farther away to sniff around before finding us again. 

One behalf of Faisca, his canine and feline friends, we want to sincerely thank you for helping us keep these animals healhty and safe, in a loving environment! We will keep you posted about important health concerns and the profiles of our furry community's members.

With the arrival of the summer comes finally some warmth and sunshine! 

While we are all excited to spend more time outdoors, the season is favorable for bot fly larvae, so in the following months we will have to be very attentive to our cats and dogs, to make sure to prevent and treat them. We have already have had some occurrences, and while there are preventive measures, our best bet is to stock up on topical antibiotics to make sure an infection does not develop. Your support has been of tremendous help for us!

For this report. We want to introduce you to Mel, or Honey, in Portuguese. Mel is as her name implies, extra sweet. She makes the cutest puppy eyes, and we think she knows that, because she tends to get away with mischiev and uses them as her secret weapon! 

Mel's loves feeling sunshine on her belly, and probably has the biggest appetite of all the gang. She does not like car rides at all! She arrived here one rainy night, scared and cold. She integrated into the community very fast, and never leaves her buddies' side (except when she is trying to sneak into the office for a nap). 

Thanks to your help, we were able to spay her right away. We know how difficult and uncertain these times are, and are so thankful for your continuing support. Stay tuned to hear more adventures from our furry friends!

Pretinho - or blackie, in Portuguese - is one of 5 dogs that were abandoned recently at SINAL. He has a very sweet disposition but is a bit scared of people sometimes, which makes us think he had a troubled past. 

Since he arrived, he has been fixed (see cute photo attached!) vaccinated and wewormed. He has integrated into our multi-species community! as he has warmed up to people he has truly shown how loyal he is, always wanting to be around the SINAL team. He is also probably the biggest eater around here... so we have to watch out for leaving food laying around! 

One of his favorite things to do in the afternoon is acompanying one of our team members for a jog around the property. He really does not like bath time at all, but is getting used to it too! 

A big thank you to our donors who help us give a dignified home to all our furry friends who have been abandoned and mistreated, it truly transforms their personalities. Pretinho is the biggest example of that! 

About a month ago, we found two kittens that were abandoned here at Sinal. They were very tiny, and we didn't find their mother anywhere. Since then, the two have already been adopted by members of the Sinal community. For this report we would like to present to you Pancho the cat!

Pancho is very agile and loves to run and climb everywhere, which makes the SINAL campus a perfect place for him to explore! At the same time, he lkes to spend a lot of time with humans, searching for someone to cuddle with when he needs a nap after all that running around. We are waiting until he is a bit older to neuter him, but he will certainly get all of his medical history in order!

We will share with you photos of him as he grows! A big thank you to all our donors who help us give these cats a dignified and loving environment.

Last month, our home valley of Santo Antônio was severly flooded as unusually heavy rains fell over the Christmas holidays. In that context, over several days, 4 stray dogs came to SINAL to find shelter.

Since then, we have castrated, vaccinated and administered vermifuge to them and are in the process of searching for their forever home! We have named them Mel, Pretinho, Dom and Bebê (Honey, Blackie, Mister and Baby). 

We at SINAL have a committment with the animals that arrive here, to be treated with dignity and love. It is very common in Santo Antônio to find stray animals that are neglected - castrating and helping them to find a better life is very important to us!

Thank you for helping us give the animals a better alternative - both our feline community here, as well as these occasional guests!

We will keep you posted about them and our cats in the following reports.