Well you know I like to help island charities and send them some donations, and Easter is always a good excuse for giving.
I was recently sent some lovely photos of St.Thomas's "Cat Lady" Dellia, wearing our Starfish Tunic while she was doing her rounds of feeding and checking on the feral animals around St.Thomas. Meet Dellia Holodenschi....
Dellia relocated to the island of St.Thomas in 1978 from NYC to be the Director of the St.Thomas School of Dance. Over the years she has served as a Board member of the Humane Society of St.Thomas, where they instigated major policy changes to spay and neuter every animal that was adopted from the shelter, to try to control the population of feral animals on the island. Here she is with her own car, full of the necessities to help the wild animals.
A change in careers from Dance to luxury skincare and make-up companies, saw Dellia traveling across the Caribbean region for her work. During her travels she saw one common denominator between the islands..... stray animals! Dellia was determined to find a solution to stop the neglect, abuse and overpopulation of feral animals which filled up shelters and created a surplus of animals which were then eliminated by euthanasia. How horrible!
After much research Dellia and the other board members came up with CAT CAFE PROGRAM, which they put into place in 2007. Look at this photo of one of St.Thomas's cat cafe's.... those cats look pretty healthy don't they!
From the Lucky Paws website I learnt that "The Cat Café Program is based on the fundamental belief that our feral, abandoned, or stray free-roaming community cats have as much a right to live as any other creature."
Volunteers Trap-Neuter-Return-Maintain the feral cats through the Cat Cafe's, to control overpopulation, but to also make sure the cats are well looked after, rather than feral cats being dumped into overfull shelters and eventually euthanized.
Even after the destruction of the hurricanes, cat cafe residents continued to be fed and watered.
Click here to follow Lucky Paws Foundation on Facebook.
Click here to visit the Lucky Paws Foundation website - and there is a DONATE button at the bottom of this page.
Click here to shop our website.... For all purchases made between now and 30th April, I will donate 10% of the proceed's to Lucky Paws Foundation, AND you will get a FREE Dancing Starfish Scarf in either Coral or Turquoise. (the other 2 colors are sold out sorry). If you would prefer one or other of those 2 colors, please put that info in the SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS box of your order.
One love to the island kitty cats & doggies x
POST SCRIPT : Message received from Dellia....
Sometimes quite unexpectedly a blessing comes our way; you delivered that unexpected blessing when you took the time to put together that wonderful write up about our work on the island!!
I forwarded to many of my friends hoping that they will indeed support us and purchase some of your lovely designs.
Devastated by two major hurricanes, we nevertheless continued our work to feed over 500 community cats daily and to assist pet owners in need to spay and neuter their pets. We also raised funds and contributed significantly to airlifting over 270 shelter animals to safety to stateside animal rescues.
On behalf of our all-volunteer staff, I’d like to extend my sincerest thanks and appreciation to you for making our important work possible. Your support will help us to continue to offer the only solution to the senseless killing of healthy adoptable animals which is FREE and low-cost spay/neuter assistance. Animals were abandoned daily and it was and still is a mental and physical struggle to provide food and help to so many in need with such limited resources.
Animal overpopulation is a problem faced by thousands of communities throughout the world. Locally, we are the only organization which assists and teaches the community to manage the surplus through TNRM, the only effective means of humane overpopulation control.
We have a vison for a better more compassionate future for our island’s animals and your faith and support of our work will indeed bring it to fruition.
2019 its going to be a busy year and a turning point for our islands animals; If you would like to stay informed of our progress in remodeling the shelter’s cat house and acquiring a staff veterinarian I can keep you informed via email.
With gratitude,
Dellia Holodenschi
Founder/Executive VicePresident
Prevention Not Destruction: Spay & Neuter
PS: I LOVE MY TUNIC AND ORDERED MORE!
Message from Island Friend Doris....