A gentle reminder that we help cats as well
While our main focus in Krabi, Thailand is helping dogs we do also focus on all other animals as well. We have helped monkeys and even cows in the past, and we always will.
Our cat operations get a lot less attention because of the fact that their suffering is often a lot less noticeable than the plight of the dogs are.
Unlike the dogs of Krabi, cats are generally quite private creatures, especially when they are suffering. I don't know exactly why this is but when a cat is sick or suffering from an infestation, they have it built into their DNA that they stay away from other cats as well as humans. Cats are found dead a lot more frequently than dogs because they crawl away to suffer in silence. This is quite tragic and it also makes helping them significantly more difficult because we can't find them.
Even healthy cats tend to not really seek out attention from humans as much as dogs do as they seem to be quite independent and will normally only warm up to their owners or someone that has been giving them food. There are exceptions of course but for the most part and through many years of dealing with hundreds of cats, I have found that if I don't have food, they will wander off quite quickly.
We do still help them whenever they allow us to though. The "street cats" of Krabi tend to completely stay away from humans, especially if they were not raised by humans. In Krabi, we even have a sort of semi-feral cat that is not the same thing as the ones that you would have living in your home. Unfortunately these cats were illegally introduced into Thailand and I knew someone that had one of these cats. This thing was not approachable and would attack almost anything that go near it other than, surprisingly, the family Chihuahua.
If you are ever offered the opportunity to purchase a housecat that looks a bit like a bengal tiger, be warned, the major breed of this kind of cat is completely unsuitable for house-cat status, and this is the reason why these cats in Thailand have ended up in the wild where they do NOT flourish.
These "1-step-removed-from-feral" cats are illegal to own without a permit in most countries and they are illegal here as well. But just like a lot of things in Thailand, the law isn't really enforced. These cats can be trained, but much like difficult breeds of dogs such as Beagles, they take constant attention and training. They also do not play well with other animals and introducing them to new animals smaller than them will almost always result in them killing that other animal.
I'm getting off topic here but for regular potential pet owners, please ignore the information you see online about this "popular breed" because that information is put out there by people that are selling this, normally $2000 cat.
The stray cat problem in Krabi and likely around the world is just as big of a problem as it is with dogs but there is a pretty tragic reason why the problem isn't as noticeable. When cats have a litter of kittens the mothers are far more likely to abandon them than dogs are, at least that has been the situation here in Krabi. You have probably heard the rumor that you shouldn't touch baby kittens because the scent you leave on them will encourage the mother to leave them. While I don't know about actual medical evidence of the truth of this, I do know that we frequently hear stories from locals about how once they moved the kittens from the den the mother had established, the mother would no longer look after them. We have ended up raising dozens of newborn kittens because of this.
If you do find a group of kittens somewhere, it is advisable that you keep an eye on them to see if the mother is taking care of them, but only move them once you are absolutely certain that the mother has abandoned them. I will talk about this in greater detail at a later time and it is based on many years of experience.
In Krabi, and everywhere else I have ever been in the world including my grandparents' farm, cats were plentiful but you wouldn't really see them very often. They tend to stay away from humans as well as most other cats as well. They do not need the social interaction that dogs seem to need, and this makes them more difficult for us to treat for illnesses. Thankfully, they are genetically hard-wired to be better at looking after themselves as far as their health is concerned largely because a lot of their day is spent cleaning themselves. A dog on the other hand, is perfectly happy being absolutely filthy.
But we do help the cats in Krabi, and we always will. We just have to be let know by locals where they are before we can do that. Unlike dogs, they are very unlikely to present themselves to you if they are sick.
if you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
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