News & Events
2010
Is Twinkles 'Crystal Anniversary'
!!!! This year we celebrate 15 years !!!!
of Twinkling in Fuerteventura
Forthcoming Campaign 2010
During the month of March we will be carrying out our regular spring feral cat neutering campaign in Fuerteventura. We hope to be able to sterilise & treat approximatly 250 cats during our week on the island. The Twinkle team is made up of about 20 volunteers from the UK and Fuerteventura. Everyone plays a vital role, ensuring each cat is given the best attention possible while in our care.
Sponsored Tandem Skydive - December 2009
Laura's Lacey a Twinkle volunteer veterinary nurse has jumped from a plane and helped us to save and improve the lives of many stray and abandoned cats in Fuerteventura.
On a chilly but sunny December morning Laura set off again for the North London Parachute Centre (www.ukskydiving.com), which is based near March in Cambridgeshire. This was Laura's 4th attempt at making the jump, previously each time she tried the weather was not safe, so she had to give up and go home. But never one to be deterred, Laura vowed to have the jump completed by the end of 2009.
With her instructor Mike Rust, Laura jumped from 13,000 and loved every thrilling minute of it. Laura's jump has so far raised an amazing £1,338 for Twinkle and there are still a few more sponsors to collect. This money has been invaluable and helped us to improve and save the lives of many of the feral and abandoned cats of Fuerteventura.
Thank you Laura for being so very brave and never giving up on you're mission and thank you so much to everyone that sponsored Laura and for your words of encouragement.
Our Autumn Feral Cat Neutering Campaign
November 2009
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During our Autumn feral cat neutering campaign, we caught and treated an amazing 370 cats during the week of the 25th November 2009.
175 females sterilised.
175 males sterilised.
009 cats received treatment only.
Included in the above figures we also treated:
002 cats with hernias.
002 cats which needed an eye removed.
004 cats which had cancer of the ears which needed amputating.
001 cat which needed a wound to his leg stitched.
001 cat which needed to have his tail amputated.
004 cats which had to be put to sleep because of serious injuries or medical conditions.
Treated on our behalf by Bichos Veterinary Clinic of Fuerteventura during this week were: 005 female cats sterilised.
004 male cats sterilised.
002 cats received treatment only.
We also managed to rehome 5 cats/kittens while we were working.
Since Twinkle started helping the cats in Fuerteventura in 1995 we have sterilised over 5669 cats. This figure does not included all the cats treated or sterilised by the local vets we use in Fuerteventura, which would probably make the total well over 6500 cats.
What an amazing week - what an amazing team. Although we treated a great number of cats, it was one of the least hectic and stressful campaigns for many years, this is down to the compassion and hard work of all the volunteers. Twinkle is very lucky to have such great people who are willing to give it their all for these trips.
We are always looking for volunteers and foster homes in Fuerteventura that could help us through out the year - but with the mass departure of many foreign residents, due to the economical crisis of Fuerteventura, things don’t seem to be getting any better.
Here are two short stories on cats and kittens we were able to help during our recent November 2009 campaign.
Our first story is about an injured Mum and her 3 young kittens.
While out catching one afternoon, volunteers Catherine and Pat spotted a little kitten running around the side of an old derelict building in the village of Antigua. They stopped their car and went to investigate and found a mother cat and her 3 small kittens living in an old ruin. Although the mother and kittens were very wild, they could see straight away that Mum could not use one of her back legs. Although the building was crumbling and looked and sounded like it was going to collapse any minute they bravely went in and set about catching this little family. Mum was taken to the vets for x-rays and indeed needs surgery to her hip. The vet recommends that as long as Mum is comfortable, we should wait until the kittens are weaned before he operates. Then she will need a couple of months to recover, so this is what we plan to do.
It will be impossible to release them back to their old environment after several months in our care, one reason is that it is unsafe and the other is that by then the kittens would not be wild anymore and not used to fending for themselves, so we are now trying to find them a foster or permanent home for them all to go to once Mum has recuperated.
Our vet estimates the cost for Mums operation to repair her hip will be approximatley £250. Can you help?
Our second story is about the blind cat of Ajuy.
Since March 2009, we had been hearing stories of a small black blind cat, living in the small fishing village of Ajuy. We were told of her plight, just after our spring campaign and it was too late for us to do anything by then as we were already back in the UK. So this trip we were determined to see if we could help her. Catherine and Pat made it their mission and were not going to give up on her. After many unsuccessful attempts at catching her, we did begin to wondering if we would ever succeed. Although blind, she knew her territory very well and always had 2 younger cats with her, which we think are her kittens. Thanks to Catherine’s patience and determination she was caught and taken to the local vet for a full examination.
First the vet carried out blood test’s to check that she was free from deceases such as ‘feline aids’ and ‘leukaemia’ and thankfully she was. Apart from her blindness which did not seem to affect her, she was in very good condition. She was very wild and it was necessary to give her an anaesthetic to carry out the blood testing, once we knew she was negative it seemed rational (while she was still anaesthetised) to operate on her eyes to ensure she would not have any future problems and at the same time spay her, so at least she would not be burdened with the responsibility of having any more kittens.
We do not normally release blind cats back into the wild, but she lives in a safe location and apart from her eyes, she was in very good condition.
Once she had recovered from her surgery, we released her back, much to the delight of her young family and herself. It was a hard decision to make, we would have preferred to have placed her in a new home but sadly there are none. She is being monitored by a local man and should she encounter any problems, we will not hesitate to help her.
Here are a few more photo's taken during our latest campaign.
Island Connections newspaper article on Twinkle - press page 1 & page 2 to read more.
Thomas Cook Supports Twinkle
Thomas Cook is supporting Twinkle by air freighting much needed supplies free of charge to Fuerteventura. Previously, Twinkle has been unable to purchase or accept some donated items simply because we could not afford the cost of freight to the Canaries. Having the generous assistance of Thomas Cook will create many new opportunities and enable us to achieve a great deal more.
Special thanks go to Mr. Martin Spiers - Airport Manager LGW for Thomas Cook Airlines, Mr. David O’Neill - Deputy Airport Manager LGW for Thomas Cook Airlines, Mr. Leon Brett, Ms. Kate Turnball - Customer Affairs Executive, and Ms. Joanne Baddeley - Sustainable Tourism Manager.
So far Thomas Cook have air freighted - 1 box of cat flea and worm treatments, 14 boxes of donated cat food and 6 new weather proof cat beds for our outside farm cats.
Our farm cats live outside in our gardens and although this can be a heaven most of the year, the autumn and winter months bring strong, cold Atlantic winds which drop the temperature to an uncomfortable chill. These new cat beds will provide a warm, windproof spot for our cats to curl up and go to sleep in, this will be especially welcome by some of our elderly cats.
At our farm house we need 333 tins of cat food each month, plus dry cat food and special diet food for our sick cats, we also supply cat food to some of the feeders at our cat cafes. This is to ensure the stray and abandoned cats have a source of food and do not have to scavenge in bins or around guest apartments looking for food.
The cost of cat food in Fuerteventura is very expensive. At over 85p for just 1 tin of cat food it puts a big strain on our monthly budget and cat biscuits are not a cheap alternative.
We are thrilled that we can now accept donations of cat food, this will help us to keep many homeless and our farm cats fed.
