Fundraising - A Fine Lunch for Stray Cats

On Sunday the 4th of December 2016, the SASG Stray Animals Support Group in Malta had organised a fund-raising lunch at the Mellieha Holiday Center. Around 100 animal lovers and friends gathered in a section of the holiday center's restaurant overlooking sunny Mellieha Bay, and we enjoyed a wonderful buffet, followed by a tombola with beautiful prizes. Islands of Cats contributed two books to the tombola, one "Islands of Cats" and one "Il-Gżejjer tal-Qtates", the Maltese version. They were picked up quickly.

About the group: "SASG's aim is to provide support and help to organisations and individuals who dedicate their lives to caring for stray animals. The main activities are providing food for abandoned animals, helping with medication and operations, rescuing and providing recovery facilities for injured cats, neutering stray cat colonies (with post operation recovery facilities), rehoming abandoned cats and dogs, and, of course, fundraising to make all these things possible."

SASG's manager Janine is one of the stray cat carers featured in Islands of Cats. She was presented with her personal copy, with her beloved Biscuit by her side, who also found a place in Islands of Cats. He accompanies Janine during all her activities, on her daily round to feed cats in the wider St Paul's Bay and Golden Bay area, to take care of the shelter in St Paul's Bay, and to supervise SASG's charity shops in Qawra and San Ġwann on Malta. All together, 25 volunteers work for SASG, giving their spare time to stray animals.

We hope the fundraising and tombola ticket sale contributed to the financial needs of this organisation. Alexander and I are always touched to see so many people willing to share - often not the richest of this world - and we congratulate Janine and her crew at the SASG for the wonderful work they are doing for the stray cats and dogs on the Island of Malta.

If you would like to help the SASG, follow this link. And if you'd like to see Janine feed a cat colony in the north of Malta, watch this interview with her made by PBS-TVM and aired on Malta's prime TV station's Saturday night news on 11 June 2016 (Maltese language).

Stray Cats and their Carer on national TVM

Clip was shown on Saturday 11 June 2016 in prime time news...What a nice surprise when we were contacted by Malta's national television station PBS/TVM for an interview together with a stray cat carer out in the fields. Luckily, a carer from the northern part of Malta was able to find a friend to take over her usual feeding tour that late afternoon of June 8. Now she had more time for the interview.

We met with Janine of the SASG at one of her colonies close to St. Paul's Bay. Adrian, the interviewer, and Charles, the camera man, had already arrived, wondering whether those cats that suddenly appeared when they parked the car, were actually friendly. They would find out soon, as stray cats only got food on their mind when it's their feeding time.

The sun was still shining, and the cats were posing nicely, as Janine fed the colony of almost 20, and talked about her work. In the light of a few recent incidences around stray cats in Malta, such as the internationally renowned Cat Village in St. Julian's being moved (for profit from building development), and the controversy around the famous, chipped cat "Masha" in Valletta recently being euthanised by the authorities (without informing the owner), the stray cat topic is gaining more momentum in the public, and we are particularly happy that national TV will dedicate 5 minutes of the evening news to the hundreds of thousand of stray and abandoned cats in Malta very soon. And we are happy for the chance to talk about our book "Islands of Cats", which is dedicated to the important work of the more than 1,000 individuals in Malta and Gozo, looking after the welfare of our furry co-citizens.

Watch video clip on YouTube