UPDATE:

Rachel and Mark, the holidaymakers, whose story is told below, have been raising money back in England, and now have enough to cover the neutering of four of the abandoned cats. Jacqueline, their friend here in Spain, has managed to capture two of the four and is letting them settle for a few days before taking them to the vet to have the operations. But the search is on in earnest to find new - PERMANENT - homes once they have recovered. If anyone can help in this please contact us at cats@paws-patas.org.

Safe in the 'Kitty Casa' at Jacqueline's house	The two male cats enjoying life indoors

This is a whole lot better ...	... than this!

The original story is below:

PAWS was contacted recently by two holiday makers, Mark and Rachel Stevens, who were staying with friends near Huercal Overa in a house with no running water.  They were in great distress over the plight of whole tribe of cats whom they encountered locally. 

There were not normal feral cats.  Rachel and Mark were told by local residents that someone had been running a charity to save cats – but had “simply upped sticks and gone back to England, just turfing all the cats onto the streets to fend for themselves.  The cats were all domesticated and some had been neutered.” 

This was Rachel’s account of their experience. "We went to the local supermarket, bought food and went back there.  I couldn’t believe my eyes, there were 14 absolutely beautiful cats all starving and going crazy when they saw we had food.  Every day after that we went and fed the cats and during the last few days they were sat waiting for us. 

"Mark and I have decided we are going to help these poor felines and want to get all of them re-homed as soon as possible, due to the weather conditions (very cold at night) and the packs of disowned dogs roaming the area.  I have since been sending my friend money to feed all of the cats which I will continue to do until they are re-homed. 

We were offered help but we have been let down which is a real shame, but undeterred we are again trying to get help.