Foster Care

 

 

 

 

Alongside the cat colony living in the park for more than 25 years, new cats and kittens are left to their luck every day. Most of these abandoned cats are domestic cats and fall into two categories: kittens, and young or adult domestic cats.

 

Litters of kittens are abandoned when cat owners do not spay their female cats and want to get rid of the litter, passing the responsibility to someone else. This is most of the time due to lack of education, but also negligence and even stubbornness on the owner’s part. The kittens are usually left without their mother, in boxes, baskets, plastic bags and even entirely sealed cardboard boxes (leaving no air for the kittens to breathe). They can be anything from 1 day to several months old, and most of the time are covered with fleas, full of parasites and underfed. People take advantage of the night, when the park starts emptying, to leave them there.  Without a foster home or adoption family where to spend the night, the kitten’s lives are at risk: most of the time, they disappear the next day. While recently abandoned adult domestic cats can survive on their own, many of them are either hurt or frightened, to the point of running around desperately, crossing the avenues bordering the park even with dense traffic and putting their life in danger.

 

Unfortunately GVDF does not count with a dedicated shelter for recently abandoned kittens and recovering cats. This is why foster homes have to be found for both these categories of cats. The Huachipa refuge was not made to take in abandoned cats and a few shelters exist outside the group, but they are all always full and relying on donations, just like us. Sadly foster homes are scarce, and space is limited since foster care volunteers cannot accept more cats until others have been adopted, which can sometimes take months.