Karen O ’ Brien
With the death of Karen O ’ Brien in November , the Costa Animal Society ( CAS ) has lost one of its longest-serving and most active members . Karen and her husband Mike joined CAS not long after moving to Spain from the UK and volunteered their time to the charity for ten years , much of which was spent serving on the committee .
Despite having three cats of their own , Karen became known as CAS ’ s “ Cat Lady ,” always willing to take in any waif or stray who needed a Karen O ’ Brien home . Many a time , she and Mike were called out at all hours to rescue a family of kittens which had been cruelly dumped . The feline lodgers were then cared for until they were ready to go to a new , permanent home .
Karen was also involved in many of CAS ’ s fund-raising events , in particular the annual dinner dances which raised so much cash for the charity . While Mike went out to find sponsors , she was left with the huge task of pulling it all together . From booking the band to choosing the balloon table decoration , her attention to detail ensured that each event was a success . Even after she handed the reins over to new volunteers , Karen was still willing to help organise and advise .
Karen ’ s forthright input to the running of CAS will be sorely missed . She will also be greatly missed by the members ... and by the cats .
Happy Tales
Tim is growing up fast in kennels but he will be meeting his new family in Norway this month as soon as a flight can be arranged . Tim was rescued from the Nerja campo back in October but it took nearly three months to get him prepared for his journey due to strict regulations in Norway .
He had to receive two rabies vaccinations 21-28 days apart and then had to wait another month for a blood test , which took another two weeks for the results to come back . If all goes well Tim will be in his forever home by the end of the January .
Tim
Nina ’ s story is an all too common one for Podencos in Andalucia . She had been abandoned or lost in the campo and was found by a Good Samaritan who brought her to CAS over a year ago . As usual CAS was overrun with rescues and foster places were hard to come by so she has been housed in a local kennels until a home could be found . Unfortunately , there are literally
Nina hundreds of Pondenco dogs in pounds and shelters in the Málaga province making it very difficult to find places for these types of dogs . As is often the case , when it came to adoption Nina has been overlooked and passed in favour of younger , cuter pups that were chosen ahead of her all year . Thankfully , our sister charity in Norway decided to take Nina on as a Christmas project and has arranged a foster home for her once she is ready to travel .
Rosie is a young pup who was found in a rubbish bin back in November by two holiday makers just before they returned to England . She was only six weeks old at the time so the manner in which she was dumped was particularly callous . Fortunately , these circumstances also worked in her favour as our Swedish sister charity advertised her story and she was quickly chosen for adoption by a Nordic Rosie family . However , being so young she had to wait two weeks for her first rabies vaccine and then 30 days for her second before she can fly to her forever home in the north later this month .
Millie was part of a litter of five puppies found abandoned early in 2017 . She spent many months in kennels waiting to be adopted and her wish finally came true when a lovely local family took her into their home just before Christmas .
Tinker the fat cat has a happy end to her story . She is an eight year old female who lived all of her life with her elderly owner in a house with a large garden . Unfortunately , the owner became increasingly ill throughout the year and eventually had to move in with her son ’ s family back in England . Alas , they could not take in Tinker as well .
Tinker
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