Veterinary expenses are high and constant. Help us to continue this project, we need to ensure the comfort and health of our boys. Without your help it is not possible to continue this project.
Sintra Cat Village Association, our association has existed for over 4 years, we started at the time of Covid where we helped many senior cats who lost their family at that time, cats that are still in the association.
As we all know, senior cats need more care and need to go to the vet every year for a check-up. Unfortunately this month we had to do more than one check-up for some of our senior cats.
Balú and Marú had to go and have some teeth pulled, and we also have Cleo and Nina who haven't gone yet due to lack of funds.
We discovered that Sol has kidney problems and inoperable lymphoma. All we can do is give him the best possible comfort and lots of love so that he can have a happy end of life.
Simas has an altered kidney function, he had to be hospitalized for 3 days and returned to the association medicated and will have to be monitored.
Ariel, a mother we took in in 2021, unfortunately during a visit to the vet we discovered that she has inoperable lymphoma. We will also do our best to ensure that Ariel takes home good memories of her time at our association.
Kitty... Our old lady had a wonderful little yellow cat who was 16 years old, another one who lost her family at the time of Covid has been with us for 4 years and also on a trip to the vet she was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and is being medicated and will be for the rest of her life.
Maria, a kitten of about 3 years old who developed FIP and is undergoing treatment. FIP treatment is a long-term and very expensive treatment, but we cannot give up on this girl.
Pitchau, a 15-year-old boy who was found on the street with a chip, but we have not yet been able to contact his owner, was hospitalized for a week. We fear the worst, but we still don't know how he will evolve. He was riddled with fleas and anemia, he had to have a blood transfusion and is now undergoing treatment. He will need to be monitored by the vet.
Mia, a girl who has been with us for about 4 years, we are still waiting for the results of Mia's tests but she has been quite sick.
Agachadinho, this sweet guy was in one of our colonies, we couldn't have them all in our space. Agachadinho showed up one day with one of his paws limping, he went to the vet, was given medication and now he just needs to rest.
As you can imagine, it was a huge financial loss, with so many trips to the vet and it will continue. We are completely barefoot and have no working capital left and we still have pending payments at the clinic. We need your help more than ever.
Sol tem problemas renais e um linfoma não operável
About the author
The association was born from a dream. Sónia is an animal lover and has been involved in animal causes since she can remember, with her main focus being cats. Little by little, she has been creating conditions to improve the lives of nobody's cats.
She started by building shelters, and at home she would take in the sweetest cats to give them up for responsible adoption. However, as more and more sweet cats needed to be rehabilitated, she decided to rent a space to have better conditions to take them in, since she could no longer do it at home alone. In the middle of the pandemic, Sónia rented a space. It was a huge risk, but her dream of helping nobody's cats was even bigger.
Four years ago, Sónia's dream came true with the help of several friends.
The Sintra Cat Village Association was set up a few months after Sónia rented the first space. Over the years, many people have joined this project and some of them are Sónia's right-hand man. The Association has had its ups and downs; there are days when we cry a lot, but there are also days when we smile a lot.
With the number of requests for help to foster kittens and the increasing number of abandoned animals, the space where the Association was located no longer met the necessary conditions for the well-being of our boys and in January 2023 we moved to a larger space with better conditions. However, we know that we need to make improvements to have better conditions.
Our struggle is daily and our financial difficulties are many, because with more than 120 adult cats, the expenses are not easy to bear considering that we only survive on donations.
Every month we are responsible for:
- Rent - €770
- Electricity, water and internet (so we can access the PC) - +-350€
- Cleaning - €500 Cleaning is very important and fundamental in a shelter. Unfortunately, due to a lack of volunteers, we have to resort to external services to ensure daily cleaning.
- Food - €750
- Patés - +-1,800€, As we can't control the food each one eats, with the paté we know what they are eating, the math is easy to do for 120 cats (some eat more than one paté or others eat a special paté for 1€...) at 0.50€ each paté gives 60€ per day x 31 days gives 1860€
- Veterinarians - This part is the hardest of all. Last year it was more than 40 thousand euros. We have already calculated the amount for the first 4 months of this year and the amount was 14,778.08 euros (or around 3,700 euros/month).
After 4 years dedicating ourselves to this cause, after 4 years giving our boys a home and after having found permanent homes for so many who have passed through our path, we do not want to throw in the towel, we do not want to give up this fight, we want to continue to do our best for them.