Busy Start to the Year for Animals in Need Volunteers

The New Year has started with a bang for Animals In Need’s (AIN) cat rescuers.

No sooner had the year began than AIN had to take in two cats that were both surrendered by their owners.

But then on Friday, AIN received a call from a lady who had visited her ill son and found that he had at least twenty cats and kittens.

The cats’ owner has to go overseas for treatment this week, which would mean that there would be no one to look after all the cats.

AIN contacted the ISPCA and the charities will be joining forces to help the cats.

Seven of these cats and kittens were rescued by AIN at the weekend and the remaining thirteen or so cats will be caught during the week.

The cats are semi-feral but most of them can be handled.

ABOVE: The colony's youngest kittens were seriously underweight

However, the youngest kitten, a ginger boy of around 13 weeks old, is skin and bone as the older cats had been pushing him away from the food, which has left him seriously undernourished, though the rest of the cats are in good condition.

This ginger kitten is now safely in an AIN foster home, where he is getting a plentiful supply of good food to build him up.

There were numerous calls about lost and found cats and dogs over the holiday period and into the New Year though, thankfully, many of the calls had happy endings as the owner and pet were reunited.

One such reunion came after Nutella, a black cat without a tail, went missing from Kilmacrennan back in October.

Despite numerous appeals and attempts to find her, Nutella’s family had almost given up hope until this week, when they came across a post about a cat found in Drumkeen and realised it was none other than their missing cat Nutella.

Luckily, the family that had found Nutella had taken her in and looked after her and so she was able to be reunited with her overjoyed owners in Kilmacrennan at the weekend.

It is a mystery as to how Nutella travelled the 20km between Kilmacrennan and Drumkeen, and she isn’t telling!

If you find a lost animal, there are certain steps you can take to help them to get back home.

The first port of call if you find a dog should be to take them to a vet or rescue straight away, where they will be scanned for a microchip which should contain their owners contract details.

It is a legal requirement that all dogs are microchipped and that they wear a collar with their details displayed on a disc, although unfortunately, many dogs are still unchipped or the information contained on the microchip is out of date.

The next step to tracing a dog’s owner is to contact the local Gardai, animal rescues and radio stations so that the dog can be advertised as found.

By law, all stray dogs found in the county must go to the Letterkenny Dog Shelter, where they will be advertised as found if they cannot be reunited through the microchip. The telephone number for the Letterkenny Dog Shelter is 0749125159.

Letterkenny Dog Shelter is a safe place for found dogs, where they are very well looked after.

ABOVE: AIN takes dogs from the Letterkenny Dog Shelter and rehomes them

AIN works closely with the Dog Shelter and takes out any dogs that have not been reclaimed within the five mandatory days or have not been rehomed directly from the Shelter.

AIN will then find fantastic forever homes for the dogs, either in Donegal or through rehoming charities they collaborate with in the UK or Sweden.

Finally, AIN’s Charity Shop in Donegal Town has reopened after the Christmas break.

To mark the reopening, the store has a massive sale on with buy one get one free on all clothes, shoes and handbags.

The Charity Shop is located between Specsavers and Aldi in the Carpark, Donegal Town, F94 P896, and is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 4 pm, so why not drop by and grab a bargain.

To help AIN’s animals, please donate €2 to AIN’s ‘Help Us To Help Them’ fundraising appeal via your phone by texting the word ‘KITTEN’ to 50300. Every cent goes directly to the rescued animals for their food, bedding, vet bills, worming treatment and vaccinations.

For further information on adoption, fostering, volunteering etc, please contact the main helpline on 087 1356188. For cat/kitten enquiries please call 087 7644420. Animals In Need Donegal is also on Facebook and has a website at http://www.animalsinneeddonegal.com.