May Newsletter
16th May 2023
Dear Members, Friends, Volunteers & Supporters,
Herewith the April/May newsletter which I hope you will find interesting and informative. The weeks are passing by quickly and we will soon be well into the height of the summer season, when we hope very much to be able to move to our new shelter which as many of you will know is still under construction. I had hoped to be able to bring more of an accurate moving date at this point but upon writing this newsletter - alas I cannot bring you such information as there are evidently some delays to the project. As soon as I have more details from the Town Hall we will write and let you know of the progress. With the move in mind, we will be looking for teams of people to assist with moving the animals and of course much of our equipment and materials. We will write as soon as we have a date with more specific details and information.
For the past year we have been situated at our provisional site while we wait for our new facilities to be built, this has proved to be challenging in many ways but particularly now when our shelter is completely full up. Our transports abroad have been more problematic to arrange due to unforeseen complications relating to the complexities of the site we are on and we’ve had more animals arrive than we can physically accommodate. We are arranging for yet more kennels to be built on the provisional site so that we are not in the heartbreaking position where we have to turn animals away to other shelters. Our priority is the duty of care to the animals currently with us while making sure that we are equipped to meet the welfare requirements of incoming animals. This is extremely challenging as we are currently understaffed and as always - finances are stretched. On behalf of the governing board I would like to reiterate our heartfelt thanks to the wonderful families fostering cats and dogs in their homes so that they do not have to endure our crowded shelter with it’s additional stress and now the heat. We are also indebted to the many volunteers that come and walk our dogs every week and those that give their time to come and help in the cat house. Each moment you spend caring for the abandoned animals of this municipality means so much to them.
On a more positive note we have now manage to solve some of our transport issues and over the coming months we have animals booked to go to Germany, Sweden, Holland and the United Kingdom. We also enjoyed a recent visit from the Finnish association who have also reserved some of our dogs - one of whom - little Olivia has already left to her forever home in Finland. Olivia was a tiny Yorkshire Terrier that arrived badly injured and left on the streets, she was treated by the medical team and had an enjoyable few months in a wonderful foster home, thank you Vendela! Many thanks also to Rosa and Angela who have on several occasions arranged urgent foster care for tiny bottle fed kittens - not an easy job and we are very grateful. If anyone would like to foster an animal, particularly one waiting to travel abroad to their forever home please let us know by emailing info@tripleamarbella.org.
Please take a moment to view our new look website www.tripleamarbella.org for information on our animals and other ways that you can help us. We would particularly like to encourage people to sign up to our Virtual Adoptions, this programme is one way that really helps the animals directly on a regular basis. For as little as 15 € per month you can sponsor an animal, receive regular updates, have your name published with your pet, visit your sponsored animal and receive our new look certificate. Our Virtual Adoptions programme is now being run by Lauren White & Jan Saleeba, if you would like to know more please get in touch by emailing virtual-adoption@tripleamarbella.org.
The Virtual Adoptions programme was originally created by Vice President Lily Van Tongeren and has successfully grown from strength to strength thanks to one of our long standing members and volunteers Paula Read who has done an incredible amount of work building this initiative for many years and thanks to her we have many regular sponsors from all over Europe - we appreciate everything that Paula has done. By way of recognition of Paula’s hard work we would like to plant a sensory tree in our garden at the new shelter for the animals to enjoy. Jan Saleeba is one of our fabulous co-ordinators and has lots of sponsorship ideas for the new site. Jan will soon be launching Sponsorship packages for business and individuals in and around Marbella whereby they will sponsor individual kennels and cat patios on a yearly basis. We will send more information about this very soon but if you wish to pre-reserve sponsorship of a kennel or cat patio at our new premises please get in touch by emailing info@tripleamarbella.org marked for the attention of Jan Saleeba.
In this newsletter I would like to make a mention of the Street Cats Programme. This has been successfully run by Javier Peromingo Jimenez for many years. The work Javier does is crucial for keeping Marbella from being overpopulated by stray cats. It is very rare these days to see litters of kittens fighting for survival in street colonies and this is thanks to the careful and meticulous work that Javier does by safely gathering these cats, transporting them to be castrated then setting them back out to their original places. For those people who know how this works you will appreciate the patience and dedication it requires and thanks to Javier, just his year alone at the moment of writing this newsletter Javi has trapped, castrated and released 597 cats! An incredible job of which many people in Marbella are grateful for. At Triple A we endeavour to always be available to help with injured or sick street cats and we hope that in our new shelter we will be able to once again help more with castrations and neutering due to the prospect of two new separate operating rooms.
In other news we are soon going to be creating an agility and stimulation course in Recinto 1 with the help of Matthew - one of amazing Saturday volunteers. If you enjoy a bit of physical work and would like to help with this or any other maintenance around the site - please get in touch, we would love to hear from you. We would also appreciate some help with putting up shades to prepare for the summer months, volunteer Sheila is always gathering what she can to create shade and it would be super if she had some assistance especially with the higher areas.
In Fundraising news - a very big thank you to Isabelle - our Essential Oils and Aromatherapist volunteer who donated a generous sum of money to the cat house from money received for her husband Carsten’s birthday last month, instead of presents he asked for donations to TripleA. Thank you very much Carsten and to Isabelle for her continued work with the animals. Isabelle works predominantly with the cats as they are in a calmer environment and more receptive to treatment but she recently did some great work with one of our abandoned dogs Solo, who has been very depressed since entering the shelter two months ago with his buddy Compi. The work Isabelle does makes such a difference to the animals as the shelter is such a stressful place to be. The head of our cat house Kay says “Isabelle has a special connection with the cats, they always look forward to seeing her. The cats that are treated by Isabelle are instantly calmer and relaxed. She also knows which cats need cheering up not necessarily unwell and she gives them different herbs to make them playful and energetic. The cat house is a much happier place with Isabelle.”
On the 9th May El Banco Restaurant in Aloha Pueblo hosted a magnificent afternoon tea & fashion show which raised 2,380 € - this will go towards external medical bills. Recently we’ve sadly had to treat a dog with a fractured leg and a cat with a broken leg which we could not do without the assistance of external veterinary clinics that always do their upmost to help Triple A. Many thanks to Tracy Duggan and Deborah Charles for organising this annual fundraiser which is always a popular sell out event!
Something new!
Introducing the Triple A Fundraising Lottery! We will be doing a bi-monthly draw to raise money regularly for the shelter. Participants can choose a number (between 1 and 100) from the office board for only 5 €, once the lottery board is full we will make the draw and the lucky winner receives 100€ (the residual of each draw goes to the animals). The winner will be announced in the next newsletter. If you would like to participate but cannot come to the office you can still take part by making your donation online and we can pick a number for you.
Call to Action!
Many of you know the dangers of Leishmaniasis here in Spain which is rapidly transmitted by small biting sand flies. This is an horrific parasite and can have serious consequences for dogs. Visceral Leishmaniasis can affect the internal organs and dogs will incur skin problems, enlarged lymph nodes and spleen, eye problems, lethargy, weight loss, nose bleeds, vomiting and diarrhoea. Not only is this a terrible disease for dogs to endure but also chances of travel to homes abroad are significantly reduced which is utterly heartbreaking. As we all know prevention is the best thing therefore we would like to try and treat all of our dogs so they don’t suffer like poor Cleopatra. Cleopatra is a beautiful female dog who caught leishmaniasis while at TripleA during the period of time she was waiting for her forever home in Sweden and therefore lost out on her adoption. In order to avoid this we would really like to treat the whole shelter. The estimated cost of this treatment will be up to 3,500 € and we are starting a collection for this cause now. If you would like to help towards this goal please either call in to the office or you can donate online via bank transfer or PayPal - please state your name and use reference LEISH. We will keep you updated on the progress of this campaign.
We are also now introducing a Student Volunteer Programme where students from local colleges over the age of 16 can come and do a course of volunteering with a report and certificate at the end. We have already had several very good participants who are thoroughly enjoying their experience. If you or your school would like to get involved with the schools initiative please email volunteers@tripleamarbella.org.
Since the beginning of the year 140 dogs, 105 cats and 2 ferrets have been adopted.
Since the launch of the initiative “dog for a day” 56 of our dogs have enjoyed a day out with a trusted volunteer. If you would like to take out a dog for the day please contact Ines on 651 435 372. This is a great way for dogs to get used to experiences outside of the shelter and enjoy much needed one to one attention from a human.
If you would like to come a volunteer in the cat house please contact Kay on 622 547 227. If you would like to join the weekday or weekend dog walking volunteer groups please contact Barbara & Chris by emailing volunteers@tripleamarbella.org
This month we welcome our new Vet - Rafael who so far had a big seal of approval from the dogs!
Finally please help us to spread awareness about our shelter and the work we do. Unfortunately we live in an area where not everyone sees animals as sentient beings or members of family. It beggars belief how many neglected, malnourished, abused and abandoned animals we have in this municipality - we are here to serve these animals. It is increasingly disappointing when precious kennel space is taken up by dogs brought in to us purely because it has become an inconvenience to it’s owner. We always consider adopters extremely carefully when homing our dogs and cats and the adoption team is always try to determine if a family is fully committed to take care of animals for the rest of their lives. When we place a dog or cat it is because we firmly believe that the adopter is able to provide adequate care and provision for the animal no matter what circumstances should arise.
Thank you for your continued support!
Elise Emanuelle Dunweber
Presidenta