Our current four are the latest in a long line. Mary emigrated from the UK with us. Eduardo was our first Spanish cat. His mum wandered into a friend's house to give birth. Beatriz and Teodoro we got from a woman who rescues mistreated and abandoned animals. We got another kitten from her later, Samuel, but I killed him when reversing the car in our yard. The rest have been squatters, okupas. Some have style and manners and settle inside the house - they are given proper names and taken to the vet for jabs and potions and inspections. The ones that never get further than stealing food from us are identified by other sorts of names - Bad Cat, Mr Big Balls, Hissy Missy, Mr Stripy Pants etc.
Britons often say that Spaniards are cruel to animals. I suspect that's as true as saying that cars are red. Some are. I've seen figures from the RSPCA that suggest Britons are no strangers to animal cruelty either. It seems to me that most Spanish people who have animals, as pets, behave in much the same way as their British counterparts. The people who use animals as the means to an end, sheepdogs, hunting dogs, farm animals etc. see that utilitarian side first and are often complacent about the state of the animals. That laxness is, possibly, more marked in Spaniards.
Although some Spaniards keep cats as pets the majority of Spanish people don't see them as house pets. They may feed cats on their property but generally there's a Spanish belief that cats can take care of themselves and only need minimal help from humans.
There is also a widespread opinion that sterilising or castrating a cat is on the wrong side of civilised. Newish legislation doesn't agree. It says that all pet cats, well those that can mix with other cats, have to be sterilized before they reach six months old. Obviously there are exceptions but the general idea is to avoid herds of cats scrounging from bins, taking up space in the animal shelters and messing up the bodywork of passing cars. There are, supposedly, initiatives to sterilise the cat colonies in cemeteries, around the bins etc. but lack of funding seems to be the hallmark of such schemes.
The whole of this legislation is posited on the responsible care of pets. It involves control of the actions of an animal's keeper - microchips to identify keepers and animals, passports to demonstrate that the animals have received certain treatments and medication etc. The legislation came into force in September 2023. Like so many laws that are introduced to great fanfare, there were as many detractors as supporters. The shortcomings of the rules, the difficulties of policing the law and the like were the stuff of hundreds of articles, news reports and bar room conversations. The exclusion of hunting dogs smelled of vested interest. I suppose it's like so much legislation that has gone before it. The rules about wearing crash helmets were flouted for years. The procedures to counter dodgy black money were seen as basically flawed. Nowadays it's difficult to spend wodges of cash and nearly everyone on a bike has a helmet. The legislation is slowly but surely implemented, amended and policed. People forget that it was ever controversial or innovative.
So our cats are legal. They have names that are bilingual, after a fashion - Federico, Fred, Teodoro, Teo and Isabel, Issy. The last cat to cross our threshold, and settle on our sofa, Jesse, is the exception. It's all to do with Postman Pat having a black and white cat. When I first took him to the vet I suggested the name Yésica, the Spanish version of Jessica, as his official passport name. Rocio, the vet, laughed and suggested it may do him psychological harm. So Jesse, as in Jesse James, it is.
Teo, as mentioned above, came from a local charity. Issy just insinuated her way in somehow and then gave birth in our garden. Fred was one of Issy's kittens. Jesse just turned up and refused to go away. The cats, however they got here, are a constant presence in the house. We have sofas and tables protected from their claws, their secretions and their their dusty bodies. We have cat furniture clogging up our house and it's not unusual to find a couple of them shoulder charging the bedroom door at daybreak if they consider that we are a bit tardy with their morning feed.
Jesse hasn't been too well lately. He has a urinary tract problem. The first time it was sorted out by rummaging around in his urethra, the second time he required an operation to remove a stone in his bladder. The operation was relatively expensive, the veterinary diet he's on now will be more expensive. As the four cats are confirmed food browsers we could think of no way to feed them all other than to allow them all access to the same food.
Maybe we should have taken out that anti squatter insurance.
