Strays on holiday

[Cally62]

Didn't know where to post...thought maybe aibu.
Really need someone to give me a slap with a wet fish.....
Currently on holiday. Just came away for a post Christmas break...day 2 of the holiday whilst sitting on the balcony a cat comes over and joins us. No problem....we gave him some ham. Day 3 cat appears at our door for breakfast and he's brought a relative. So 2 cats for breakfast. There were 3 later that day...first one dcat1 started to snuggle into us...other 2 are such scardy cats.
Anyway have spent the week feeding the 3 cats and dcat1 has been snuggling with us watching tv, enjoying head rubs etc.
I,m going home in the morning and am probably going to sob my heart out at leaving them.
I have a dcat at home who is adorable and we love very much.
Wasn't sure what to do about feeding these though...we see people coming to the beach daily to feed the cats....one of the maintenance guys who works here goes around feeding these cats too....don't think they're going to starve. They're all clean, plump and look healthy.
But who is going to give them head rubs when we're gone....

What a sweet cat. I never know the right thing to do-I have bought food for the strays. The worst was a kitten at a bus stop in Dubrovnik in the hot sun. We moved it to the shade and put some water down for it. No idea where mum was but there were a lot of strays in that area. Thinking back it was June so likely height of kitten season.
PS.Like your cat pjs!

OMG yes brought my cat pj's on holiday.
The cat on my lap is one cat the other pics are of his brother and sister...possibly so 3 different cats.
How can you possibly walk by a and not offer water and food. Hope the kitty survived.
Each of these cats has the tip of one ear removed....noticed other cats in the area also have the tip of an ear removed...think this is to identify which ones have been spayed. So no pussy cat babies here.
So I,m not turning into a crazy cat lady..or am I. OMG....I am aren't I.

Fantastic that they have been neutered. I hope there are enough people to feed them. I can't cope with this sort of thing. That's one reason I rarely travel abroad, and if I do it's to somewhere like Austria.

One of my recurring nightmares is finding myself somewhere overrun with strays and kittens, but I don't have my trapping equipment, nor access to any vets and I'm miles from home. My subconscious is horribly literal.

I have never been abroad, partly due to this & dh is even worse than me.

We can cope with Devon.

In Spain I was sneakily feeding a couple of small ish cats that were begging for food because I though DH would laugh at me. Until we met a bloke who came with a box of whiskers and a packet of worming tablets! Apparently he does it every year. He was so sweet showing his sons how to leave the food and remember they weren’t pet cats. He was so blaze about it I imagine there are thousands of holiday makers doing the same.

We always take loads of dreamies on holiday with us! Especially Lanzarote, Spain and Italy!

One of my favourite things about holidays is making cat friends. It's sad leaving them though, especially when they look especially scrawny.

In Lanzarote we loved all of the Freddys cat houses along the sea front in Playa Blanca, where people top up the food and water for all of the strays. Lovely organisation. freddyscathouse.weebly.com/

Well that’s how we’ve managed to have 15 cats - and have rescued and neutered dozens more (pups too). Last year I bottle fed a total of 5 pups and 7 kittens - we live in the algarve.

It sounds as though those cats have plenty of people looking out for them, but if anyone finds tiny, or ill, dogs or cats on holiday, chances are there will be a rescue centre somewhere - best option is to search on Facebook or google for help - there are lots of associations here - or contact the nearest vet

One of the reasons I won't take my children abroad. They are vegan so very sensitive when it comes to animals. It was hard enough in butlins convincing my daughter that the cheeky cat coming into the chalet was a fat manx and nobody had chopped his tail off

A friend got bit by a cat in Turkey and needed rabies vaccinations.

I am a cat person but still I was shocked by this.

And there's the square in Rome which used to be a public toilet) with all the stray cats. There is (or was when we were there) a charity who cared for them.

In Dalyan in turkey they feed them every evening by the school and they are all neutered. It’s quite a sight to see them when you are going out for dinner there’s hundreds of them scoffing away.

Vinorosso74 - the sanctuary in Torre Argentina is still there, with the cats living amongst the ruins (including the temple where Julius Caeser was murdered)! As well as seeing the cats living above ground, visitors can also take a tour of the underground shelter where they have a nursery and cat hospital. Lovely place, wonderful volunteers and pretty healthy, contented cats. Many reasons to visit Rome but this place was a highlight to me (thanks for the reminder!) www.romancats.com/torreargentina/en/introduction.php

That's it I couldn't think of the name!!! We went to the square a few times and I took lots of photos of the cats

I was exactly the same in August when we were in Cyprus. We had two cats turn up on the second day and I couldn't resist giving them some food thinking they would eat it and disappear. Well they ended up hanging out with us for the whole two weeks. One in particular was desperate for attention but used to swipe us if we tried to touch it. By the end of the first week the nervous cat was sitting on my lap although would still swipe me occasionally if I moved too quickly. I'm not sure if it was male or female but it had been neutered as it had a very precise nick out of its ear and I learnt the local vet ran a trap and neuter programme.

When we came to leave I was heartbroken and in tears. I have never felt so guilty in my life leaving it behind and I do question whether I should have encouraged it. I'm not sure I would do it again to be honest. I kept thinking about returning to Cyprus to try and find the cat and dreamt of bringing it back to England but I know we couldn't afford to do it and my current cats wouldn't have tolerated it but I still think about that little cat 😢

How adorable icequeen

I'm now back home and heartbroken at leaving the cats. If I didn't have one at home already I would have either been making arrangements to bring them here or putting the house on the market and moving to Portugal to be a crazy cat lady.

I sponsor a cat at Torre Argentina, wonderful place.

Definitely no slaps with wet fish for you OP or the other posters - good on you all for letting those cats experience bit of kindness. I'd be heartbroken to leave a stray friend behind too. Maybe if anyone sees locals feeding strays in these resorts (like the OPs maintenance man) you could donate some money or buy extra catfood directly to donate or check if there's a local organisation you could support?

(and now I've been mentally revisiting Torre Argentina I'm on the verge on booking another trip to Rome - if I get there, I shall pass on some head rubs from you all!)

We were adopted by a little cat in Corsica. After a couple of days a little girl came and asked for her cat back. It was a bit embarrassing. Didn't stop the cat appearing at every meal though.
I ate a whole meal in a beach restaurant in Costa Rica with a cat on my knee. I think he was trying to pretend to be a stray but he was glossy and plump and clearly well loved.