Iguanas, feral cats & St. Thomas

Just back from a visit to "Technicolorland," aka St. Thomas, USVI, and sorry to report that for feral cats on that beautiful island, all is not well. Or at least, all is not united.

And while the status of iguanas on St. Thomas is still looking good -- we saw and enjoyed them in all their usual haunts -- it's very bad news for iguanas on Puerto Rico. There, officials have decided to kill off island iguanas and sell their meat.

Details on this cruel "solution" to what people there see as an iguana problem can be found at my 2nd blog -- www.nj.com/pets.

Now back to St. Thomas cats . . . Last February after returning from vacation, I wrote a number of posts here about the woman who had founded the "cat cafe" program, Dellia Holodenschi. At the time, she was working with the Humane Society of St. Thomas.

Since then, a lot has happened, including a rupture between the two, with Dellia starting her own foundation to continue with the cat cafes (and their Trap-Neuter-Return component.) The HS operations manager was unavailable to meet with me -- a great disappointment because of course I’m there only once a year.

That, plus the fact that their new facility should be opening any time now, and I didn’t get to see either the current site or it. So as far as cats are concerned, then, this was nearly a feline-free vacation, except for the few feral cats at MorningStar, where we stayed. They were usually in the vicinity of the cat café near the restaurant.
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‘And the winner is . . . ’

Remember Radu, the very special rescued cat in St. Thomas? He was the subject of a post here on February 10, and his “mother’s” efforts to spread “cat cafes” on the island also came in for some attention here around that time.

The “multi-rescued cat” might be a more accurate way to describe orange and white Radu, also the hero of a booklet that’s sold all over the island. First, he was rescued in Romania, his owner’s native country, then he was rescued a few more times via surgery to fix his cleft palate.

Now in his and Dellia Holodenschi’s “forever home” on St. Thomas, Radu became a contestant in an online photo contest sponsored by the Human Society of the US and Humane Society International, tied in with its annual Spay Day campaign. Votes equaled dollars, and Radu’s good looks and great story attracted numerous “votes.”

The excellent news: Radu took 2nd place in a field of nearly 29,000 animals!

As a result, the Humane Society of St. Thomas has earned $6,843 from the contest. It will be used for spaying and neutering 60 owned and feral animals on the island.

Once again, Radu has lived up to the name Holodenschi gave him: “feral freedom fighter.” In this case, it’s “freedom from unwanted pregnancies, kittens and puppies.”
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St. Thomas no ‘paradise’ for resident cats

A few closing words on feral cats and spay/neuter on St. Thomas (a.k.a. “America’s paradise”). In a recent note, Dellia indicated the island vets want to raise their prices for this procedure. This pricing situation keeps getting worse.

Even with a spay/neuter van on the island, the process still requires veterinarians’ cooperation. Last fall, a vet from Texas visited, and in two days, more than 100 cats were spayed or neutered in that van. It can be done!

In fact, Dellia points to cat colonies at both the Marriott resort and Magen’s Bay that are 100% “done.” However, that figure holds up only till more people dump their cats at those sites knowing they’ll be fed at the cat cafes. Unless such newcomers have been neutered, the result will be more and more kittens.

Overriding every other problem is that of food. What Dellia says is most needed is a source of wholesale cat food. Right now, she buys it and/or uses whatever is donated – a system that probably can’t go on indefinitely.

All in all, while at first I was delighted to hear about the cat cafes and TNR on St. Thomas, I’ve learned that the picture is not as rosy as I first thought, or wanted to believe. Numerous obstacles exist, including the very people who would be expected to want to save cats’ lives, instead of putting them down.

“America’s paradise” – that may be true for people, but definitely not for cats.
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Spay/neuter = population control answer

When her job required that she visit islands all over the Caribbean, Dellia Holodenschi found the one constant everywhere to be stray cats.

Even though many St. Thomas cats (including Radu) have been spayed or neutered, there are countless more cats to go. The island’s resorts, with abundant and surplus food (and rats), attract feral cats, and then the cats reproduce. And reproduce. . . In addition, domestic cats are lost or abandoned, and they do the same.

Dellia says that unlike here in New Jersey where there’s a “kitten season,” cats can have six litters a year in the Caribbean because of the always-warm weather.

“For years I’ve been feeding strays,” she said in a recent phone-talk. “Everyone does it who cares.” But she found that “bringing cats home from dumpsters didn’t make a difference (in the population).” So she looked on line for ideas that would substitute for euthanasia – which is all too common -- as a way of controlling St. Thomas’s feral cat population.

In Costa Rica, she found, there are no shelters. If animals are spayed/neutered, there’s no need for such things. This was the answer Dellia needed, and spay-neuter became the first step in her plan. “The most important thing is that they don’t multiply,” she says.

But that can be easier said than done. Too many people, including at least one island vet, believe feral cats should all be euthanized. When cats are trapped and taken to the Humane Society, there are two options: euthanize or spay/neuter. The second procedure costs much more than the first.

In fact, island vets charge prices for spay/neuter that would amaze people around here; it’s as if they’re trying to make spay/neuter impossible to afford.
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Meet 'Radu the cat'

The booklet’s cover art featured a tiny orange cat held by a young woman. It had me at “orange cat” because Harry, our first cat, once was tiny and orange (and now is big and orange!).

It’s the story of Radu, a stray cat the book’s heroine found in her native Romania and took with her in her travels, leading finally to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, where they both live.

Radu needed help beyond being a stray cat. He had a cleft palate, for which he had multiple surgeries, and he was also found to be a Down Syndrome cat.

More important than anything else, though, was that Radu was Dellia Holodenschi’s baby. That meant she would take care of him, just as she has done for countless other feral cats. (www.RaduVI.com)The “cat café” program on St. Thomas is Dellia’s brainchild. She started it with seed money bequeathed to the island’s Humane Society, and since then, pretty much finances it herself, she says.

Every day, she and volunteers who feel as she does drive all over the island to assure food and fresh water for the countless cats there. These basics are left at decorative cat cafes, colorful wooden feeding huts like the two shown in an earlier post.

Next: more about Dellia and TNR – which she says must be the first step – on St. Thomas.
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Previews of coming (C)ATtractions

These are 2 of the many "cat cafes" on St. Thomas. More info, possibly much more info, to follow. Meanwhile, think TNR!
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