TOJOTANGA CAT RESCUE

30th of august 2006: The contribution list is updated

THE BEGINNING

All started when we were at one week holiday in Puerto Rico, Spain the first week in April 2006.

The travelling companions consisted of Torill Chr. Johansen of (N) Tojo Polaris with family and Lise Egeland (N)Tanganyikas with her mother Ingrid Egeland.

Very soon we got a black visitor that was not leaving. She was starving for food and company. We just couldn't help giving her food. Then we already had made a commitment that you will see ended up taking some cats with us back to Norway.

Our black visitor is now named Mossa of Puerto Rico, because Lise once had a black domestic cat with very much the same personality and his name was Mosse. As you can see, she has very awful wounds on her legs. The wounds looked old, but of course she has not been privileged with veterinarien threatment. There was not a change that this could be healed without help. It is actually looking like the wounds are caused by acid.

Mossa is a true heartbreaker that is not in any circumstances able to leave her company. She is just stucked with you. It is not easy to say what she prefer, food or love....because she is very hungry all the time, but to be cuddle with or lay on peoples laps make her incredibly HAPPY!

Pictures of Mossa at the quarantine station

One late afternoon Mossa brought with her a very beautiful black mackerell tortie, that looked very sad and very fed up with life, searching for food everywhere. We named her Tigris of Puerto Rico because of her patterns. She was also very happy to meet friendly people that just not waved her away. She had as mentioned a very sad and tired look that hurted us very much as the catlovers we are. She looked at us as she asked "are you really going to give me food, just like that, what is the drawback?" And "is it so good to be cuddled?".

Pictures of Tigris at the quarantine station

Since we were just allowed by our travel company to bring with us three travel boxes, we had to leave two boys behind. That is Mario, black/white and Luigi, black with a little white spot on his breast. That was a really hard thing to do. They are two extremely friendly males.

The night before we left they stood outside the balchony door faithfully and stared into the windows, when we woke up the next morning they were still standing there, and we just had to leave them behind. That sight has haunted us and we couldn't stop feeling very bad about the feeling of letting them down. When we came back to Norway we started to think of ways to undo the fact that they were not the lucky ones, that we decided that should we the three adult cats that we were allowed to take with us on or flight back to Norway.

Due to the fact that we don't know any in Puerto Rico, beside the veterinarien, we sent a mail to the veterinarien and begged for help. So the lovely veterinarien got some photos of the boys and went to Puerto Rico searching for them. Until now she has probably found Mario. Now we cross our fingers that she will find Luigi too. He sat his eyes on us in a very special way the day before we left, and our conscience will hunt us until he is found.

Then she will microchip, deworm them, and give them European passports and send them to Norway.

Luigi is found!!

Pictures from the quarantine station

This is Adrian, he is probably Mario's brother. When the veterinarian and her mother were searching for Luigi, this boy were waiting at the same place that the other boys did.

They sent us photos of him and we recognized him as one of the other boys that came for food while we were in Puerto Rico. Since the veterinarian told us that he probably still are waiting for us..after almost two weeks, we told her to send him to Norway, with the other boys.

So now are Mario, Luigi and Adrian on their way to Norway.

Pictures from the quarantine station

The third day a black and white female turned up. She was also very hungry. We saw that she had to have babies somewhere, because of her tits. She was also like the others very surprised over having food and to be met with friendly hands and voices. So she started to come twice a day and after eating she just layed down and relaxed among us. One night she started to talk a lot to us and was very eager to have us to follow her. She headed on and we followed. Then she jumped about two metres down to a shelf behind a high fenche (see photos). She had two kittens that had a beer box as pillow, in a bush. The shelf was not more than 70 cm wide and there was many metres down... under there was a highway. There was a miracle that the kittens hadn't fallen down yet. For what we know, maybe the litter actually consisted of more than two kittens.... The mother also did a marvellous job and had to be very stright and clever with the kittens to manage to have they stationed on such a small area.

The mother we named Beauty of Puerto Rico because of her cleverness, and she is not making shame of her name. The staff at quarantine station say that they have never seen such a good mother before. Her kittens are named Tim and Tom. Tim is a black mackerell and white boy, and Tom is a black and white boy.

Pictures of Beauty, Tim and Tom at the quarantine station

Tom and Tim

There were actually not so many safe places to hide kittens in that area, so we did understood why she had decided to pick such a dangerous place for her kittens. The cats very not allowed to be at the hotel areas and they were scared away by all the staff all the time. Even the vegetation around was not safe either, because of the gardener. So Beauty did not have any safe places to choose between.

We really understood her choice of place for the kittens when we tried to figure out how to get the kittens. There was not easy for people either to climb down there or move at the very small shelf. The vegetation on the shelf were also rather thorny.

CHOSEN BY COINCIDENCE

We were stucked by our conscience..... these cats had chosen us.

We are totally aware of the fact that there are cats suffering around the whole world, also in our own country but we actually have a several good organisations that do an enormous good work. We are quite sure that none of these cats would never have been helped. Life is also a big set of casualities, these cats just happend to cross our lives. They are maybe just a needle in a haystack, but we found it not very productive to think in that way, if there ever shall be a better place for cats all over the world. So as mentioned these cats crossed our lives and there were no way we could left them behind since they trusted us so much.

They are not many and the costs for the preparations and transport to Norway and 4 months quarantine will cost a lot of money, but suffering can't be measured in amount !!! Remember that all help are very good help

So if more people help the ones that cross their lives, there will easier to be a cat in this world.

We were not able to just leave Spain without trying to find a solution for these cats.

So the last days we were in Spain a lot of phonecalls were taken. We called Mattilsynet and talked to a nice and positive man that told us that this was not a problem. We had very little time before our flight back to Norway and usually Mattilsynet needs more time to work with these issues. So we were absolutely in need of positive and flexible persons at all stages in this rescue. Our travel company also allowed us to send three travelboxes with one adult cat in each box. We contacted a lovely veterinarien in Arguineguin that ordered three travel boxes from Las Palmas. She examinated them, microchiped them, dewormed them and gave them passports.

We also want to thank Kate Høyer (in Merridancers) that contacted Hlin Eldon Jonsdottr at Eidsvoll Quarantine station. So we owe Hlin a big thank for giving us green light for this, in such a short time. The staff at the quarantine station is just lovely and give the cats what they really need..... caring !!!!!

We also want to thank Marianne Barbo (in Carrabasset's) that also have a big heart for cats, and will help us to organize the costs and contribution from helpful people.

A big thanks to FIFE judge Karina Bjuran, with the very big heart for cats, that reacted immediately and did a marvellous job as an ambassador for these cats.

A big thanks also go to Benthe and Arve Prytz ( Arctic Coon‘s )that also will help like Karina Bjuran ,and be ambassadors for these cats, Benthe and Arve are also true catlovers.

A big thanks also goes to Cathrine Pettersen (in Lankhmar), for doing the webwork for free.

If someone wants to give these cats a loving and lasting home please contact:

If someone wants to help us with a penny or two, you will actually be a part of helping these cats to start a new and happy chapter in their lives.

For norwegian contributors:
Lillestrøm Sparebank
Account no.: 1286.44.58759

For foreign contributors:
DnB Nor - 0021 Oslo
Swift code.: dnbanokkxxx
Iban: NO3912864458759

Feel free to use our banner to link directly to this page, so you can help us to spread the word:

The Cats and us would like to thank all these good-hearted cat lovers who have given a contribution to TOJOTANGA:

Per 22/8

Per 01.06.2006

Per 15.05.06

Per 02.05.06

Per 21.04.2006