By Susanna Patari | Project manager, Grumpy Old Cat Lady
MEOW again from Indonesia!
Greetings and purrs from Gili Trawangan! Our little island is currently pretty quiet, but Christimas is just around the corner. Busy times ahead for everyone! And rainy season is starting, finally, our island nature has been in desperate need of some good watering.
Cannot believe it’s December already and again another year gone. 2024 has been a difficult one for us, so happy to be done with it! But don’t worry, we are not giving up. There’s always kitties that need us. Or chickens. Or goats.
Read on, and we’ll tell you all about it, both good and bad!
Snip-snip here and chop-chop there… Cat clinic in November
Just recently we got some messages asking about our next cat clinic, and we also had a few kittens in our care who started to be old enough to be spayed and neutered. Therefore we decided to see if we can get a vet visit organized quickly, before the rainy season really kicks in. Luckily our supervet Rini had a couple of free days in her calendar at the end of November. Quite a short notice, but we decided to go for it, since there clearly was a need for some free-of-charge surgeries and vet care.
We had our clinic open for two days at the end of November, and it was a nice little clinic. Not busy, we only saw 20 cats (and of those 13 were spayed and neutered), but it was all worth it. And because we were not so busy with cats, we finally had time to go through our medical stock with vet Rini. We got rid of lot of stuff we do not really need, and some medical items and medicines we donated forward to a horse project here, and some to dog projects vet Rini works for in other places around Indonesia.
The cat clinics we organize are always free of charge for everyone who brings their cats, or other animals, to see vet Rini. Our next clinic will be after rainy season, in April or May next year.
We love all animals and we have some new arrivals who do not meow!
Past couple of months have been pretty weird. We’ve received, and also found, several birds needing help. Baby birds fallen from their nests and unable to fly. Injured chickens. Pigeons attacked by cats. Baby goose attacked by something else (possibly a lizard, and the poor little gosling died soon after we got it).
Our Grumpy Old Cat Lady can take in chickens and ducks and such. Other type of birds we give to a local family we know, and they are very good at taking care of baby birds and birds with minor injuries. We have bought couple of nice sized cages for them to keep the birds in, and may need to get a few more if this keeps going on.
We currently have 3 chicken babies in our care. Two came with injured legs and one with bad eyes. Everyone has recovered well and are doing great. Two of them turned out to be roosters, and we cannot wait to see how handsome they will be when they grow up. All 3 live in a comfy little chicken mansion our Grumpy Old Cat Lady built for them and once they grow up they can run free in her garden.
And now we also have a goat! About time, been waiting for this to happen for years! We found a small young goat, very sick with scabies. She had trouble walking, couldn’t see or hear much and was just in horrible condition. She was also alone, which meant she had not been able to stick with other goats, too sick and weak to be able to follow her friends. She was in desperate need to get help so off to our Grumpy Old Cat Lady’s garden she went! She was immediately given injection of medicine for scabies, as well as vitamins. And a big bowl of food! The goat, named Vappu, started healing, and as of writing this we’ve had her for about 3 weeks, and she is doing super good. She runs free in the garden, eats together with chickens and ducks, sleeps in the front terrace with cats. She’s a bit shy still but she is slowly learning to trust she is safe and has nothing to worry about.
Yes, we are CATS of Gili, but we love all animals.
Animal welfare work is not all cuteness and purrs
These reports probably should be all positive and cheerful and only telling how much amazing things we have achieved with your help and how much more we can do if you just keep on supporting us. But instead of sugar-coating the reality, let’s be honest: animal welfare work is not easy, and often it simply sucks. You struggle with never having enough time for everything, never having enough money, not being able to save them all, not being able to have much of a life outside the welfare work etc.
Animal welfare work involves lot of emotions, and many who work in this field do this because they simply love animals and want to help. But this also makes it easy to put your own needs aside, your own life on hold and before you can say meow you're burnt out, exhausted, feel helpless, suffer from depression, and let's say it aloud: suicidal thoughts keep sneaking in. You often feel very alone and sad and find it hard to talk about this, because it's you yourself who has chosen this life. And no matter how tired you are, you simply can not fall apart, because the animals need you, they always need you. No matter what goes on in your personal life (if you manage to have one) the kittens still need to be fed and there’s poop to be cleaned. And because of all this, it is very very easy to take advantage of people who work in this field. We work our asses off, no matter what. Kick us to the ground, and we will still get up at sunrise to go feed some kittens and clean some poop. Because the animals need us and depend on us.
Cats Of Gili was started back in 2013 and since then we have been through pretty much everything imaginable. We’ve survived big earthquakes and managed to live through covid-years. We’ve kept on going, no matter what. But this year, for the first time, we’ve been very close to giving up. Simply due to being exhausted beyond belief.
Things have to change. Welfare of humans must be taken care of too. What that means, remains to be seen. It could simply be we will finally find the right person, or persons, to come work for us and help with the work load, and the money to pay salaries will miraculously drop on our lap from somewhere. If that doesn’t happen, the change may be, for example, that we will close our cat café permanently. Or we may reduce the days we are open. We will definitely have a real holiday at some point next year and not wait another 5 years until having days off. And we might even try start saying NO occasionally (that’ll never happen, but it looks good written in here, doesn’t it?).
But here’s the thing: you may feel lonely, sad, exhausted, ready to give up... and then a little kitten jumps on your lap and purrs… and you know, no matter what, you are doing something important, something that really matters.
And with this, let’s end the report with a little summary.
2024 in a nutshell:
What will we do in 2025?
IF YOU READ THIS FAR: THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING US.
Especially this year, when we have struggled so much, the support from all you cat loving humans has meant the world to us. Not just the money, although that helps too, but just knowing there are people out there who believe in us, who have our back and who step in to help us when needed... THANK YOU. We could not do this without your help!
We wish peaceful and happy Christmas for everyone and nothing but good things for the coming year!
Thank you, terima kasih, kiitos, meow!
Links:
By Susanna Patari | Project manager, Grumpy Old Cat Lady
By Susanna Patari | Project manager, Grumpy Old Cat Lady
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