Spay Day – Friday 18th November 2011

It’s early morning. Where are we?

People are appearing with all sorts of boxes – some cat boxes, some cat traps, even soft bags with holes in for air.

FOR TODAY IS SPAY DAY.

At the reception, the staff are waiting to receive and help register all the cats to be neutered. Inside, the veterinary staff and volunteers move purposefully going about their various jobs with a calm professionalism.

To the fresh eyes of the newest volunteers it was a great experience watching all the frenetic activity from the more experienced team of professionals and volunteers. We were given jobs in the post-operative stage when, like a conveyer belt, the vets brought us the operated cats and it was our job to untie them from the trays that were holding them securely during their operation.

The unconscious cats were carefully checked to make sure that they were breathing correctly and set in a recovery position with their heads to one side and their tongues hanging out of their mouths. Heated pads were placed under them, and once back inside their cages, they were covered with a warm blanket. Their cages were also covered to reduce any stress and then they were moved to the recovery room where some dedicated volunteers carefully observed the safe recovery of the animals.

The five vets were kept busy from 9 o’clock through to 6 o’clock with just a short break in the middle of the day for a welcome lunch prepared by more loyal volunteers. In addition to the hearty meal, the workers were constantly encouraged throughout the day with coffee accompanied by cakes made by Dottore Friz and Maria, a volunteer from the British NATO community.<.p>

To our great delight, by the end of the day the vets neutered 119 female cats and 56 males. How fantastic is that!

The tired and happy team of professionals and volunteers felt more than satisfied with their successful day. Now it was time to relax. HELP!!!!!!! An escapee! A clever cat had recovered and opened its cage, and was causing mayhem. The clever rogue cat was chased by the team and triumphantly returned to his cage amidst the cheers and laughter of the onlookers.

As new volunteers, we would like to thank Dorothea Friz and her loyal team who made us feel so welcome.

Julie and Elisabeth
two British Volunteers

SPAY DAY OCTOBER 2011 REPORT FROM VETERINARIAN DORTHEA FRIZ

To celebrate WORLD ANIMAL DAY (October 4th), LEGA PRO ANIMALE offered another “SPAY DAY” (free spaying/neutering of stray cats). After the memo was put on the homepage within 10 days cat care takers from all over the Region of Campania in southern Italy made appointments for over 200 animals. And this time nearly all of them arrived: 205 cats were caught, but only 204 were operated, because one of the females showed a big scar on the belly and probably she was already spayed, even if there was no tattoo (there is a law in the Region of Campania that prescribes to tattoo the letter “S” close to the incision for all dogs and cats in order to not open animals twice).
133 female and 71 male (a big number of them under the age of 4 month!) now do not proliferate anymore; they will not contribute anymore to the big stray problem. We never should forget that a female cat can have up to 4 litters a year with up to 8 kittens in only one litter and one male can get pregnant around 300 female cats in only one year. With only one “spay day” the birth of over 20.000 kittens can be avoided in the following year.
And everybody asked when the next spay day will be, because there are still thousands of cats in the streets that need neutering.
The LPA “spay team” wants to thank all donators from all over the world to have enabled the October spay day and hopes that the next one can take place as soon as possible. Who wants to contribute can do as follows:

In the USA please contact Susan Wheeler: Rappwhheel@aol.com

Or donate online securely through PayPal by visiting our website www.legaproanimale.org.

ANY AMOUNT DONATED TO OUR CAUSE WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO THE LIVES OF ANIMALS IN NEED.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT

My trip to Italy in late September and October was very fruitful. It started in Venice where I stayed in the wonderful apartment that is up for rent at a very inexpensive price for anyone who wants to help the DINGO Gattile (cat shelter) on the Lido. There are a great many cats that need spay / neuter on the island. I caught 4 very close to the gattile and was sorry I didn’t have time to catch more at other colonies. I am happy that Friends of Roman Cats (FORC) was able to make a donation of 250 Euro which will be enough to pay for the spay / neuter of the cats I caught and help the gattile with some extras it needs.

On to Rome – where I spent many happy hours at Torre Argentina. The sanctuary is doing very well. Last year they spayed / neutered over 3,300 cats and a number of dogs. Daniele, their vet tech, said he has seen a real sea-change in the attitudes of Romans since Torre Argentina opened. People used to come down and denounce them for neutering the city’s cats; now people call to see where they can get their cats fixed. The people in the office are doing very well – as is Lia and the people who run the actual shelter. Check out their website, www.romancats.com, for a nice article on FORC, celebrating our 10th anniversary.

Was particularly happy to hear that one of my favorite cats, Giuturna – a very frightened blind cat I’d worked with for several visits – has been adopted by a Roman family. At their house, she has learned to maneuver the furniture, come to trust them and their children and now purrs continuously. I gave Torre Argentina 250 Euro and 2 boxes of the suture packs we ordered through Dr Scarlett at the SF/SPCA. On the down side, I never saw Silvia. She has had a number of serious health problems and kept saying she would be in, but never made it. I so hope she recovers!

Did an overnight trip to visit a cat group in Montecatini Terme, a beautiful spa town where you go to drink the waters. It is about 45 minutes west of Florence. My contact was a dear, very energetic Australian woman who is married to an Italian. She feeds colonies, checks on foster cats and fosters kittens with a great group of Italians who trap cats, pay to have them spayed / neutered and work with the local Public Veterinary Services to get more cats fixed. I had a wonderful dinner with them, stayed in the very beautifully appointed medieval house of one of the woman and, the following day, went out to look at places to take a future Cats and Culture tour. There is so much to choose from; we decided to include a visit to a place that makes cheese, a winery, and a chocolate-making facility. All places have felines that were fixed by the cat group.

Took two more nights away from Rome to visit Dorothea Friz and participate in an amazing “Spay Day” during which 204 cats were sterilized. Dorothea is a national treasure. Of course, I visited with Emilio Giovanni, Dorothea’s favorite water buffalo who she saved when he was a tiny calf. He comes running when he hears her and you can almost see a big smile on his hairy face. I gave Dorothea 14 of the 16 packages of suture packs we ordered and she was very grateful. (I was delighted when I returned to San Francisco; there were an additional 5 boxes of suture packs to send to Italy – a donation from the manufacturer, I believe.) Since I was so close to Naples at Dorothea’s, I went down to visit the Archeological Museum that has many of the major treasures from Pompeii and Herculaneum.

While in Rome, I fed the little cat colony that lives in a small archeological area near where I stayed in Rome’s Testaccio neighborhood. I have been feeding them for the last 5 years and still see the same group. Also saw my Roman friends plus several different groups of American friends who were visiting Rome while I was there. Love playing tour guide!

As you can see, the trip was a full one!
Susan Wheeler

President, Friends of Roman Cats