To Catch A Cat

With my second and final furniture move to the UK scheduled for early October, we still have a slight problem with two of our cats. They simply won’t let us catch them to be blood tested by our vets. Our three other cats (Boy Boy, Little Fairy and Smiley) are all done and dusted and half way through their ‘quarantine’ period with us here in Peymeinade and will be ready to come to the UK by the end of November. So we’ve decided to get some capture cages.

For these we turned to Leslie Frasier who runs Les Chats du Mercantour Association. I’ve known Leslie for quite a few years now and actually created her current website a couple of years ago (yes, I also create websites). I’ve never known someone so hard working or as dedicated to the welfare of cats. This week she started their sterilization campaign in Roquebillière, trapping stray cats until 2am Wednesday morning then again at 6am. 24 adult stray cats captured/sterilized/released, 14 kittens taken off the streets. And summer has just started.

And so today we drove the two hour drive up to St Etienne de Tinée located within the famous Parc national du Mercantour, one of the seven natural parks of France. The village, sitting low in the valley just beside the fast-flowing Tinée river, is hugged by high mountain slopes covered with pine and larch trees. In winter it is a much sought-after ski resort (with a cable car operating directly from the village across to the mountains) while in summer it turns into the perfect retreat from the hectic bustling of the Riviera.