IamA person who loves and rescues cats i Sweden AMA!

I don't have any questions but thank you for what you are doing.? (Question mark for fun)

Thanks. I love these little creatures so much that I sort of can't not help them (if that makes sense).

Close, but we understand. Can't help them sounds like you can't help the cats, since they're the subject. Can't help it would mean can't help your love for them. Them cats, not them love.

I probably just confused you more than anything, sorry lol.

*Oh, and thanks for what you do over there. I'm in Canada and I set food and shelters for my local strays in winter.

Cheers!

What would life be without some delicious confusion?

What color is your toothbrush?

Red at the moment.

That's a Nice color, thx for answering :)

Thank you for asking the REAL questions ;)

Is animal abuse a significant problem in Sweden, or are most of your rescues just lost or stray cats?

It is a problem, but most of the cats we deal with are strays and ferals.

We have a word in Swedish, Sommarkatt. It directly translates to summer cat. People go on holidays, get a cute kitten from a nearby farm and then just leave it there when summer is over thinking it will be fine on it's own. That has been a huge problem for the last decades, but thankfully it's declining.

People do the same thing with rabbits at Easter and it's so disheartening :(

Thanks for doing what you do

It's both sad and infuriating when people treat animals like toys or accessories.

That’s great what you’re doing & we need a lot more people who help animals!

What do you do with the cats when you caught them? Where do they live & are there some cats that you wanted to take home with you?

When the cats are caught we bring them to the vet for a check up, vaccinations, to get spayed/neutered and so forth. After that, since we don't have a shelter, we place the cats in what we call Stödhem in Swedish which roughly translates to support home. Private families who take the cat in, give it love and care and socialize it. When the cat is ready we look for a forever home unless the support home wants to adopt the cat.

I have taken in cats myself when needed. Some have stayed, but most of them have been adopted to other homes.

How can you pay all these costs? In Germany it’s usually expensive to bring your pets to the vet. You keep in touch with those foster families to give some tips on how to handle those cats? I’m sure some are very scared and not used to human beings.

And is it your full time job or do you do this in your free time?

We rely on donations from the public and money we get from selling things on fairs and flea markets and such. The vets in our area usually gives us a discount of around 10 % so that makes it a bit easier, but to spay/neuter, chip and vaccinate an adult cat still costs around 200 Euro.

I do this entirely on my free time. None of us are salaried.

That’s tough & expensive 😖 Are you guys on FB? I know some shelters who ask for donation there and it works well! Like with PayPal many could donate for you.

It’s really good to know that there are people like you! And you do it for free!!! That’s really rare these days!

Yes, we have a homepage and a Facebook page. We usually ask for donations there and so far our supporters have been fantastic. 2019 we had veterinary bills totalling over 60.000 Euro, but we managed to pay it all and rehome almost 200 cats.

That’s great! Could you give me the name or a link so I can like the page & share it?

Just search for Hemlösa Katter Kalmar - HKK and you'll find it :)

Thank you so much for taking your time to answer all my questions! I’ll do my best to support you & hope more people will appreciate the things you guys do!

Thank you for asking and for wanting to support our cause :)

Is TNR a thing in Sweden, or is the aim to put all trapped cats into homes? What differences do you feel from rescue organizations and shelters around the world (for example, I believe in the UK, they prefer owners allow their cats out, but US shelters strongly prefer cats to stay indoors unless they are working cats)?

TNR exists, but we prefer to get the cats into homes if possible.

Regarding differences I think Sweden falls somewhere in between the US and the UK. Depending on where people live (distance to major roads for example) we usually don't have a problem with people letting the cats roam, but we don't actively encourage it either. There are always a few individuals who absolutely have to have access to the outdoors to live a complete life, but the majority seems to be fine with living indoors. The individual cat is always at the centre when we make those calls.

Thanks for replying, and thank you for all the work you do for these lovely creatures.

:3

Hi HowlingBeaver, your post has been removed because:

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Pic with me holding a sign with my user name added.

Is it hard to part with certain cats? I’d imagine you take care of a lot of cats and some of them are just to special to let go.

A few of them I have adopted myself, but I have 5 cats of my own now and reasonable balance in the "pack" so I don't plan on keeping any more myself (but hey, who knows...).

Certain individuals do get stuck in a special place in my heart and it's hard to see them go, but I know that they move to something better and a place of their own and that I subsequently free up space and time to take on new cats. Not gonna lie though, it's very bittersweet at times.

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Because I love food son

Edit: Hey! My first silver. Thank you kindly :)