Our volunteers in Holland and Belgium:
Iris Korfer, Founder
My first visit to Greece was a couple of years ago. I was very impressed by the beauty of Greece, the sea, the villages etc, but I also saw large numbers of cats and kittens some severely ill, desperately looking for food and shelter. Cats with babies, ready to give birth to their next litter.
During my first stay on Samos, there were 4 kittens at the appartment, but their mother was gone. One of them had a big wound on his little head. They were very scared at first, but came closer as they learned to trust - one of them even crawled on my lap the last day!
As the end of my trip was getting closer, and I didn't know what to do because I had no idea of the existance of an organisation for animals on the island. I will never forget I had to leave those little kittens behind, knowing they wouldn't survive.
They followed us along the street when I left as if they knew I was leaving.. Many cats and kittens followed after this first trip, none of them I will ever forget. I started this foundation for them and for all the stray cats in Greece, they need our help!
Iris
During my first stay on Samos, there were 4 kittens at the appartment, but their mother was gone. One of them had a big wound on his little head. They were very scared at first, but came closer as they learned to trust - one of them even crawled on my lap the last day!
As the end of my trip was getting closer, and I didn't know what to do because I had no idea of the existance of an organisation for animals on the island. I will never forget I had to leave those little kittens behind, knowing they wouldn't survive.
They followed us along the street when I left as if they knew I was leaving.. Many cats and kittens followed after this first trip, none of them I will ever forget. I started this foundation for them and for all the stray cats in Greece, they need our help!
Iris
Monique Moerenhout
Animals have always been very important in my life: even as a 10 year-old child I saved motherless kittens from starving to death because their mother did not come back home.
My aunt had a special bottle to feed orphaned rabbits (which she kept to eat), and together with my mother I fed the kittens every 3 or 4 hours. They all survived, which was nothing short of a miracle, and of course I was very proud that I had saved their lives.
During my traveling in the Mediterranean countries I saw a lot of problems with stray animals. I remember a cat colony at Lesbos, Greece, with at least 40 cats. They were all very hungry. I brought them food from the hotel but I did not know where to start. I had not enough food for all the cats. I still remember vividly one kitten whose eyeball had popped-out out of the eye-socket,... simply horrific. These events spoilt my holidays and made me very sad.
That is why I am so glad that the Greek Cat Rescue gives me the opportunity to help stray cats. The problems with stray cats have to be solved in a different more fundamental way. It is not enough to feed them, the only long term solution is sterilisation, so large scale spay and neutering projects are top priority. The fewer kittens get born as strays, the less suffering there will be for these beautiful creatures.
Monique
My aunt had a special bottle to feed orphaned rabbits (which she kept to eat), and together with my mother I fed the kittens every 3 or 4 hours. They all survived, which was nothing short of a miracle, and of course I was very proud that I had saved their lives.
During my traveling in the Mediterranean countries I saw a lot of problems with stray animals. I remember a cat colony at Lesbos, Greece, with at least 40 cats. They were all very hungry. I brought them food from the hotel but I did not know where to start. I had not enough food for all the cats. I still remember vividly one kitten whose eyeball had popped-out out of the eye-socket,... simply horrific. These events spoilt my holidays and made me very sad.
That is why I am so glad that the Greek Cat Rescue gives me the opportunity to help stray cats. The problems with stray cats have to be solved in a different more fundamental way. It is not enough to feed them, the only long term solution is sterilisation, so large scale spay and neutering projects are top priority. The fewer kittens get born as strays, the less suffering there will be for these beautiful creatures.
Monique
Our volunteers in Samos
Mike Knowles Martin
I came to live in Samos in 2004 and as a cat lover, it is heart-breaking to see so many cats born, living and dying on the streets. Everyday, it’s possible to see new kittens born in the most awful of locations, cats looking for scraps of food in town rubbish bins and cats and kittens killed on the busy roads on the island. In your heart you want the time and money to try and help every cat have a better life, but with so many street cats, its just not possible.
Although we have resident Greek vets on the island who do a good job, there is nobody really caring for the street cats on a regular basis – for this reason, I'm happy to be part of the Greek Cat Rescue team, and being permanently based in Samos, I can do my best day to day for the street cats, doing everything from winter feeding, offering medication and arranging adoptions to new homes in Europe for a lucky few.
We don't yet have a cat shelter here for sick and injured cats, and that has to be a goal for the future. For now, it’s important to keep the cat population under some kind of control and with kind donations to our cause, we can bring vets to our island to undertake neutering programmes as often as possible. We are slowly winning the hearts and minds of the local people in Samos who see that caring and controlling the cat population is a benefit for the island and the cats that live here.
Please help us to help the cats here in Samos.
Mike
Although we have resident Greek vets on the island who do a good job, there is nobody really caring for the street cats on a regular basis – for this reason, I'm happy to be part of the Greek Cat Rescue team, and being permanently based in Samos, I can do my best day to day for the street cats, doing everything from winter feeding, offering medication and arranging adoptions to new homes in Europe for a lucky few.
We don't yet have a cat shelter here for sick and injured cats, and that has to be a goal for the future. For now, it’s important to keep the cat population under some kind of control and with kind donations to our cause, we can bring vets to our island to undertake neutering programmes as often as possible. We are slowly winning the hearts and minds of the local people in Samos who see that caring and controlling the cat population is a benefit for the island and the cats that live here.
Please help us to help the cats here in Samos.
Mike