Finding, developing and connecting resources for Montenegro’s community animals and their caretakers

Before Kotor Kitties had a name or a Facebook page, there were emails:

• A woman arrived home after her holiday in Montenegro and couldn’t stop thinking about the tiny kitten that sat alone by the waterfront in Prcanj. Could we send someone to find it and help?
• Someone had threatened to poison the neighborhood cats—could we help?
• A community cat kept having litter after litter of kittens that died; the feeder wanted to take the kitty for the free sterilization she heard about, but she couldn’t catch the cat. Did we have someone who could?

Along with our commitment to raising funds and developing a High Quality, High Volume Spay-Neuter program for cats, the Kotor Kitties volunteers soon found that they were called on by people from all over Montenegro to provide answers, services, and resources for anything to do with cats plus a sprinkling of queries about dogs, rabbits, turtles and hedgehogs!

Veterinary schools and humane societies in the US now formally recognize the need for social services like this to help keep people and pets together! There are specialized programs being added in vet schools.  Kotor Kitties pioneered this type of work in Montenegro.  We call the program Community Connections.

This informal work by Kotor Kitties soon grew to add another English speaker, then two bilingual Montenegrins to form a team which responds to Facebook and email contacts. Now there is less need for Google to translate, but more need for internal coordination.

The messages we receive remain varied but fall into three main categories:

• Accurate information and problem-solving: connections to information resources

cat and kitten care, behavioral problems, spay-neuter, TNR, our vets, taking animals out of Montenegro, flea and parasite control, finding specific products for animals

• Tangible assistance: connections with kindness

sterilization, carriers, traps, food, help rehoming family pets or street animals, care for sick or injured animals, foster homes, transportation

• Compassionate support: connections with people

coping with the death of a beloved pet, the final moments of a sick or injured animal, or the daily stress of feeding a large number of animals when few people around you are sympathetic

Between messages the team helps spread the word about the benefits of spay/neuter, requests donations, and uses the internet to build relationships in the community and internationally.

The most common questions regard cats found in poor health or perhaps a group of tiny kittens has been abandoned with no means of obtaining food or care.

Most of our volunteers do not live in the area and can do little about these scenarios other than posting on social media and appealing for help more locally. Even when we have local volunteers who could help, usually these people are overwhelmed already by cats and kittens in their care. It can be an impossible situation which takes its toll on everyone.

We also receive more and more requests from local people who would like the cats they feed to be sterilized. There can be as many as 30 cats in a colony, or it can be just 2 or 3. We really want to help, as that is why Kotor Kitties exists, but when funds are low we cannot help immediately, and the cats have to wait. It is frustrating to have to advise people this when we know sterilization is the solution to Montenegro’s abandoned animal situation.

For an all-volunteer organization like Kotor Kitties, providing these connections is a time-consuming but valuable service that we can provide to the community. It allows us to maximize the funds we devote to spaying and neutering while we build and maintain relationships with the people of Montenegro.