Tag 45-50 - Animal Welfare in Croatia

We were hesitant whether we should share the events of the last few days with you, as they are not the most beautiful moments of our trip. We tend to share only the positive experiences of a trip with our friends and especially on social media channels. But life includes both light and shadow, and the dark moments of this journey also have their right to exist here on the blog.

In the last blog post, we already reported that we found a little kitten on a campsite in Kravica on the Croatian coast when we actually had Montenegro and Albania as our next destinations in mind. Janja was maybe four weeks old, all alone, and definitely not viable without support. Since we couldn't find the mother and to make matters worse, it started to rain and storm, we took Janja in with us in the van for the time being.

After the initial excitement, she settled in well, let us feed and stroke her, and purred (or dozed) contentedly whenever she was picked up. As much as we immediately fell in love with her (and who wouldn't, she was so cute), we also knew that she couldn't stay with us permanently. With her constant need for physical contact and food every few hours, we wouldn't have been able to take care of her during the rest of our journey, not to mention the fact that we wanted to cross some borders. So we started looking for a new home for Janja.

Unfortunately, there are unbelievably many animals in Croatia that live on the streets, especially cats and dogs. We were already aware of this before our trip to Croatia and also that it would touch us deeply as big cat lovers. Animal welfare is not a big issue in Croatia, like in many southern countries, because the number of animals to be taken care of is overwhelming and the country has enough other problems. The state animal shelters are usually massively overcrowded, and not long ago, the law was abolished that allowed animals who had been in a shelter for more than 60 days to be killed. However, there are many amazing people who advocate for stray dogs and cats. Whether they are individuals, like the young veterinarian we took Janja to, who examined her for free and gave us kitten milk, or a few ladies who take care of young kittens at their own expense. Or larger organizations like Streunerglück and Croatian animal welfare associations, who run animal shelters, carry out neutering projects, set up public feeding stations, and try to place the animals in Germany, Austria, or similar countries. Especially the neutering projects are important so that the number of suffering animals in the cities does not continue to increase. Even though those involved give everything they have, the problem is not easy to solve, and the animal shelters are always overcrowded.

Since we initially couldn't find anyone who wanted to take Janja, we became acquainted with the idea of leaving our foster kitten on a private farm on the island of Rab. So we drove 300 kilometers along the Croatian coast to deliver Janja to her new home. Ljubica, a Croatian retiree, takes care of not only cats and a few dogs on her property but also two one-winged seagulls and a lost little lamb. Since she runs the place all by herself, we helped her with feeding, cleaning, and repairing the facilities for two more days.

In the meantime, Jessi and Andy contacted us, who wanted to give Janja a home. Since a "real" home with lots of attention is of course much better than just being one of many cats, we traveled with Janja in tow to hand her over to her new owners in Austria. It felt crazy to us, all the effort for "just" a cat. But in 6 days, the little worm had grown incredibly close to our hearts. It's hard enough to ignore all the misery enough to enjoy your vacation, but it's impossible to abandon the cat you've been holding in your arms for days.

The farewell was easy for us, firmly believing that we had organized a wonderful home for Janja and with the promise to visit her in February. Finally, all the stress of the past few days fell away from us, and relief set in as we drove towards Italy to continue our journey.

Unfortunately, it is not always enough in life to do the right thing, and not everyone gets what they deserve. Janja could hardly greet her new home in Germany. Within a few hours, she transformed from a happily purring, agile, eating kitten into a fatally ill one who couldn't even get up on her own and eventually died. We were endlessly sad when we received this news and are still in shock. Everything was finally going well, and then this happened.

We want to thank Jessi and Andy and Ljubica, who were willing to take Janja in, and all others who supported us in finding a loving home for her.

Janja, you were the cutest and coolest kitten there could ever be. We are incredibly glad to have found you, and even though we will miss you for a long time, we would always act the way we did. It is a comforting thought that we were able to give you a few beautiful last days, in which you were never alone. How you climbed up our legs and discovered Gretchen, enriched our journey immensely, and we wouldn't want to miss your acquaintance, even though it was far too short. You would have deserved at least another 20 wonderful years of cat life!

Animal Welfare Organizations in Croatia:

http://streunerglueck.de

https://tierhilfe-istrien.org

www.urlaubspfoten.de

http://www.tierhilfsnetzwerk-europa.de

TSV Insel Rab:

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=403082216556505&ref=content_filter