We were on holiday in Benidorm a couple of weeks ago (a nice break from miserable UK weather !), and one of the things which always makes it hard is that we miss our cat Duncan. But there is a small consolation, because Benidorm has quite a few street cats.
We ended up taking lots of photos of them on this trip, so rather than making one post with dozens and dozens of photos, I thought I'd make three posts to highlight a street cat colony, and two very special cats who deserve posts of their own.
This first post is going to focus on the kitty colony at Torre Coblanca on the sea front. Whenever we come to Benidorm there's usually a colony here, although the numbers vary. This time around, almost all of the cats we saw were really still kittens, most looked no more than a few months old.
Street cats in Benidorm have a tough life, and it's rare to see one two visits in a row.
But there are volunteer organisations that do the best they can with trap, neuter and release programs and provision of very basic vet care.
There are also registered feeders who put down dry food and biscuits daily.
Feeding them without being a registered feeder is notionally illegal, but doesn't seem to be enforced. We saw the kind of problem this causes while we were there; a couple of well-meaning tourists bought and emptied out three or four cans of wet food straight onto the gravel.
The cats had some of it, but of course they had already been fed, and over the next couple of days the pile of cat food became a rancid stinking mess attracting flies and probably worse. Any cat eating any of it would have become very ill.
The colony seemed to have about 8 or 9 cats in total; at least four ginger or ginger and white ones, a tortie, a tabby and a beautiful black cat who seemed older than the rest and was probably a parent to most of the others.
The photos below are the black one. We weren't sure if it was a boy or girl, it was always sitting or lying down ! But was definitely being watchful over the kittens.
The ears are a clue that this colony hasn't been given any vet care yet. When they trap-neuter-release, they clip one ear to make it quick to see which ones have been caught and which ones haven't. I hope they get to this colony quickly, not all of the cats were in great condition.
This was my favourite - a tiny tabby kitten. Very fluffy, and was less timid than most of the tribe. But none of them was socialised enough to let humans get too close, so giving them a stroke was a definite no-no !
The tabby had a ginger friend who wanted to share the limelight.
And this was the ginger friend gurning. We're not quite sure what he was doing, it was somewhere between a yawn and a fierce-face. What a comedian !
All photos taken by myself or my wife
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