Vet Port Kotor

Relja Ćetković, DVM and Goca Ćetković, Vet Technician

Kotor Kitties exists because of Dr. Ćetković – Relja. He is loved by many in Kotor because of his compassion for community animals and their caretakers! We approached him for this project because he had been the family vet of two of our founders. What amazing good fortune that was for the cats of Kotor Municipality and the rest of Montenegro! His partner in life and in the veterinary practice is his wife, Goca. She is a vet technician by training, with many years of experience working side-by-side with Relja. She has a unique understanding of cats and relates to them as a natural “cat whisperer!”

Veterinarska Ambulante Gorašević, Nikšić

Nebojša Gorašević, DVM

Invited by his friend and colleague, Dr. Ćetković, to help with our first “Spay Day” in Kotor, Dr. Gorašević finished the 3 day event so enthused that he returned to Nikšić and announced free sterilization of community cats for the next 5 weeks, and half price for owner cats. He had found his mission, and Kotor Kitties had found the perfect vet to help us grow in a second community!

Novi Vet, Igalo, Herceg Novi

Božo Perisić, DVM

Somewhere among the large animals he sees as the main part of his practice, Dr. Perisić also developed a reputation as a fine small-animal practitioner. He was highly recommended by Dr. Ćetković and Dr. Gorašević as well! Kotor Kitties was thrilled when he finally agreed to become a part of our program in the fall of 2019!

RoyalVet, Podgorica

Marija Georgieva, DVM

One of Kotor Kitties’ founders stayed in Podgorica with her 3 cats for a while and helped the community animals whenever possible. None of the vets she tried felt “right” for the kind of testing, treatment, and spay-neuter work she was looking for – until she met Dr. Georgieva! She has a passion for community cats, and handles sterilization whenever possible.

April King

Although she still cherishes her first childhood toy — a Steiff cat — April thought she had permanently retired as a cat lady in the 1990s. Then she visited Kotor, met Danijela at her gift shop, Kotor’s Cats, and Luka, who needed a snip….. Suddenly her crazy background in anthropology, community organizing, non-profit management and cat rescue/spay-neuter/TNR activities made sense, as they merged to meet the needs of Kotor’s Kitties.

April and her husband, Michael, share their home in Seattle with rescued kitty Reilly O’Rourke, TNR’ed kitties Teddy and Nellie Caboodle (they failed the Return part!!), failed foster Bugsy Malone, and rescued dog Emma Louise. Their sons turned out to be fairly normal, but their daughter, Maggie, shows potential as a fine cat lady! April looks forward to retirement in Montenegro or Croatia.

Sarah Kok

After moving to Montenegro in 2008, Sarah struggled with the suffering of Montenegro’s animals on a daily basis. Although she knew sterilization is key to controlling stray animal populations, there were no free or low-cost sterilization programs available in Montenegro. She was excited to finally see a TNR program for cats set up by Kotor Kitties and volunteered to schedule surgeries.

Sarah runs the popular guide to Montenegro, Montenegro Pulse, and uses the platform to help bring awareness to the plight of Montenegro’s stray animals and seek donations. She lives with her son, dog Remi, and cat who thinks she’s a dog, Maza.

Carol Christensen Wang

Carol lives in Redmond, Washington (a suburb of Seattle) with her husband, Don. They have 4 children and 7 grandchildren. She is a retired science teacher and her husband is a scientist at a cancer research institute in Seattle. She has always had cats as pets.

Carol had the opportunity to vacation in Kotor and Croatia with a group of lifelong friends (including Sue and April) and knew about the “cat city,” but she was surprised at the number of cats and how friendly they were. The group’s Airbnb even had its own resident cat(s). Where she lives, cats are adored and cared for, so she was horrified that all these beautiful cats had to survive winters on their own. So, with April, she vowed to do something about it. Carol doesn’t have much experience starting a non-profit, so she is learning as she goes. She is confident they are doing the right thing and hopes to continue as long as she is able.

Melanie Davies, Chair

Melanie had no background in animal welfare or non-profit management. However, a trip to Montenegro in 2018 changed all this, when the huge number of street cats, often in poor health, began to play on her mind. This led to a connection with the burgeoning Kotor Kitties Facebook page. As her involvement grew, Melanie had to learn about TNR and cat welfare quickly. Melanie now also volunteers as Treasurer for Snip International, a UK registered charity that provides TNR equipment for non-profit organizations, including Kotor Kitties, all over the world.

Melanie works as an actuary and has two adult children who still live at home with their cat, Molly. Every Christmas Day lunch, the three propose a toast to “Skinny Cat,” an extremely ill stray cat they found on Christmas Eve in 2010. Sadly, “Skinny Cat” had to be euthanized that day, but left an everlasting impression.

Victoria Belchamber

As an animal lover, Victoria has always felt that animals are at a disadvantage, not being able to communicate with humans, and she feels the need to help as she can. She has been a vegetarian since she was 11 years old (a very long time now), and that was influenced by “Watership Down,” a film that made her realize how helpless and vulnerable animals are in the human world.

Victoria visited Kotor in July 2019 and was heartbroken by the number of stray cats/kittens. This was such a shock, and she was taken aback by the number of cats begging for food. Many looked very sick and thin, and some were so young. One day she spotted some kittens under a tree. Mum had gone off looking for food and there were two left. One sibling had been run over in the street. The next day one kitten was left, a sickly white kitten with an eye infection.

Victoria searched the internet to see if anyone in the area could help, and to her delight she discovered Kotor Kitties. They found a local volunteer to take care of the kitten (though, despite their efforts, it died). This made her wonder if she could do more to help, and she found that Kotor Kitties was looking for volunteers to help set up the charity in the UK. So she is now looking forward to helping the cats/kittens of Kotor in the quest to spay/neuter these cats and bring down the ever-growing population. 

Faye Morley-Vaughan

Faye has a passion for animals and a desire to help. Whilst holidaying in Montenegro in September 2019, she posted an Instagram photo of a Kotor Bay street cat, which caught the attention of Kotor Kitties. After a short communication, Faye offered her skills as a qualified Graphic Designer. Back in the UK, she set about creating flyers and posters for Kotor Kitties and worked with other volunteers to translate them into English, Russian, French and Serbian.

When Faye is not at work, she can usually be found at home with her partner, Steven, and their cat, Cobain. Most of her time is spent saving bees with sugar water, refilling feeders for the birds and squirrels in their garden, or doing something creative in memory of their cat Juno, who died just a few weeks after their return from Montenegro.

Tamsyn Ross

Tamsyn traveled from London to Dubrovnik, Croatia, for a friend’s wedding and took a day trip to Kotor. On the way up to the Fort of St. Ivan were six tiny abandoned kittens that were hard to forget – so difficult, in fact, that she returned a few days later to see if they were still there. Four remained, and a sequence of days followed that she’d rather forget – taking the kittens to the vet only to find that no treatment existed for their eyes and then trying desperately to find help for them. She was so grateful that Kotor Kitties responded to her Facebook message.

Tamsyn worked briefly on a (“in hindsight ethically questionable”) lion farm in South Africa, followed by a (“much more ecologically sustainable”) stint as a safari guide on a private game reserve in Limpopo, so she has an understanding of what goes into animal management and how people might respond to animals in crisis. Closer to home, a few years ago she adopted a pair of 14-year-old cats from Battersea Cats and Dogs Home, and Jenko and Scarlet asserted sofa and lap rights for several snoozy years. She can’t relate to people who don’t like animals; at social gatherings you’ll find her hanging out in the kitchen with the dog.

Rosie Davies

Rosie is Melanie’s daughter and she was also concerned with the plight of the many stray cats in Montenegro. She would have brought them all home if she could. Rosie has just started work following graduation from Loughborough University. She’s a Crazy Cat Lady in training, and held her 21st birthday celebration in a cat café.

Sonja Krstić

Sonja credits her strong feelings for animals to growing up with family pets—always a cat or dog, or both! One special memory was a stray puppy adopted from the streets in 2007. The pup got lost, and the family spent a great deal of time looking for her and visiting the local shelter to see if she was there. A month and a half later the puppy was found, and she never ran away again!

The search for the missing puppy, whish included visiting the shelter where euthanasia was routine, changed Sonja forever. Since then she has always tried to help animals as much as possible.

When she moved to Montenegro in 2017, she found a very sick kitten in the streets and immediately scooped her up to help her. Soon the kitten became a permanent roomie, and that story repeated a few more times!

Today Sonja is an architect, living in Tivat with 4 cats and 3 dogs. All were adopted from the streets, and of course all are spayed or neutered! Besides volunteering with animals she likes exploring nature, hiking, cycling and reading. Sonja found out about Kotor Kitties 2019, when she wanted to spay an office cat at work. She was happy to find a programs in Montenegro funding spay/neuter. At that time, she didn’t realize that she would quickly be put to work as a volunteer with what she calls a “ marvelous group of people in their fight for animals to have better lives.”

Dr. Arijana Gradinčić

Dr. Arijana Gradinčić is a native of Zenica, Bosnia and Hertzegovina and grew up in a family that loved animals. She has happy memories of her grandfather’s dog and many cats when she was a little girl

Dr, Arijana first studied medicine at the University in BanjaLuka, BiH, then specialized in Urgent Care medicine in Belgrade, Serbia. She now has a clinic in Kotor, where she works as a General Practitioner.

During her studies, Dr. Arijana adopted a stray cat. After moving to Perast, (Kotor Municipality) Montenegro in 1992 she began feeding and neutering many cats who needed help. She and her family continue to live in a large house in Perast, with a peaceful garden and terrace shared by 5 dogs and several cats.

When Kotor Kitties first asked Dr. Relja about colony caretakers, Dr. Arijana was the first person he mentioned: she feeds TWO colonies! One in Perast, where she lives and another in Kotor, near her clinic! She quickly embraced the concept of TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) for the hard-to-catch cats, grabbed a trap and has been helping “snip and tip” cats since the first traps arrived in 2019!

Dr. Arijana was impressed by the ideas and organization that Kotor Kitties brought to Montenegro, and when the time came to start a Kotor Kitties NGO in Montenegro, she happily agreed to be one of the Founders!

Milica Daković

Milica has always had an empathy for animals and has always felt the need to care for them. She used to just care for her own pets, but for the last 20 years she has been looking after stray cats and dogs.

Over the years she has taken over 40 cats and 3 dogs off the streets and had them neutered/spayed and housed and fed them as well as taking care of their medical needs. In addition, she still feeds stray cats and takes them for neutering, etc., too.

She says she was fortunate to have met April and the Kotor Kitties organization, which has greatly helped her in a coordinated sterilization program.

Despite all her efforts, she is still faced with an ongoing problem of cats and their kittens being left in Perast by people knowing that she will take care of them. There are 4 like her in Perast who take care of stray cats, but sadly their efforts are often sabotaged by people who throw away the water and food that they leave out for the cats. She has even encountered people who have threatened to poison the cats.

Milica says she would be extremely happy if the Government of Montenegro would strengthen and enforce laws for the protection of both the animals and the people who care for them.

Sarah Kok

After moving to Montenegro in 2008, Sarah struggled with the suffering of Montenegro’s animals on a daily basis. Although she knew sterilization is key to controlling stray animal populations, there were no free or low-cost sterilization programs available in Montenegro. She was excited to finally see a TNR program for cats set up by Kotor Kitties and volunteered to schedule surgeries.

Sarah runs the popular guide to Montenegro, Montenegro Pulse, and uses the platform to help bring awareness to the plight of Montenegro’s stray animals and seek donations. She lives with her son, dog Remi, and cat who thinks she’s a dog, Maza.

Melanie Davies

During a trip to Montenegro in 2018, the huge number of street cats, often in poor health, began to play on her mind. This led to a connection with the burgeoning Kotor Kitties Facebook page. As her involvement grew, Melanie had to learn about TNR and cat welfare quickly. Melanie now also volunteers as Treasurer for Snip International, a UK registered charity that provides TNR equipment for non-profit organisations, including Kotor Kitties, all over the world.

Melanie works as an actuary and has two adult children who still live at home with their cat, Molly. Every Christmas Day lunch, the three propose a toast to “Skinny Cat,” an extremely ill stray cat they found on Christmas Eve in 2010. Sadly, “Skinny Cat” had to be euthanized that day, but left an everlasting impression.

April King

Although she still cherishes her first childhood toy — a Steiff cat — April thought she had permanently retired as a cat lady in the 1990s. Then she visited Kotor, met Danijela at her gift shop, Kotor’s Cats, and Luka, who needed a snip….. Suddenly her crazy background in anthropology, community organizing, non-profit management and cat rescue/spay-neuter/TNR activities made sense, as they merged to meet the needs of Kotor’s Kitties.

April and her husband, Michael, share their home in Seattle with rescued kitty Reilly O’Rourke, TNR’ed kitties Teddy and Nellie Caboodle (they failed the Return part!!), failed foster Bugsy Malone, and rescued dog Emma Louise. Their sons turned out to be fairly normal, but their daughter, Maggie, shows potential as a fine cat lady! April looks forward to retirement in Montenegro or Croatia.