SASHA LAUNCH
SASHA, the Sunnydale Animal Sterilisation & Health Association, held its very successful launch party on Thursday July 27th at its headquarters in Francolin Road. The aim of the evening was to say thank you to all those people and companies that have supported our efforts in the South Peninsula, previously as PUPP South, and who are continuing to support us as SASHA and also to welcome new supporters.
Neil Taylor, (vice-chairman) and his wife Hazel, (board member), gave short speeches to inform the guests of our vital work of sterilising animals and educating people on the importance of animal health, specifically in the poorer communities, and requested that anyone who can help SASHA in any way, whether by giving their time as field workers or by fundraising, (either corporately or individually), would be welcomed. They also thanked Wine Culture, Slivers, Lithotech, Pernod Ricard, Woolworths, Mrs Marais and all the volunteers, for all their very generous donations of food, drink, printing and, of course, their free-time to the cheese and wine evening. If you feel you can help SASHA please 'phone 021 785 4748

Doc's report: Regular Health Checks - Just Do It!
I check my own dogs and cats regularly for signs of disease or ‘lumps and bumps’.  If you find anything unusual about your pet I suggest you take him or her to the vet to get it checked out swiftly. SASHA’s official launch was held on 27th July, but unfortunately that was the day that I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Hence SASHA has been rather disrupted over the last few months.After undergoing surgery I have had a lengthy course of chemotherapy, due to finish shortly.  Whilst I have still been able to do some sterilising I have concentrated on getting everything in order to continue more work next year, and we hope to employ a new staff member very shortly, to continue the ‘door-to-door’ work and to collect animals for sterilisation.I will still have to undergo radiotherapy for 6 weeks in the New Year but hope to be able to work more normally.  However, I really could do with some help in the office to free up more time for sterilising – if anyone would be able to take over the administrative chores for a few hours a week I would love to hear from you.
Dr Yvonne Robson

School Report:
Yvonne, Hazel and Karin visited Pets' Club at Sun Valley Primary School in November, accompanied by Vicky the dog (seen in front of the picture). The class was told the importance of proper care of their pets, and they looked in Vicky's ears through an auroscope and listened to her heart with a stethoscope, then they listened to Java the rabbit's heart - which beats much faster than Vicky's! They also used a scanner to check Vicky's unique identity number - so her owner can be located if she is lost even if she has managed to lose her collar and tag. The children certainly seemed to enjoy being with the various animals there on the day - including a rat, a rabbit, a house snake, an Indian Ringneck and a tortoise. Vicky was quite happy to say hello to all of them.

Fundraising News
BAY PRIMARY CIVVIES DAY
Very many thanks to Bay Primary School which, once again, held a civvies day on our behalf. R1,230 were raised.
It is with great relief that I am pleased to say that Bay Cat still lives happily at the Bay Senior Campus. Volunteer students feed her on a roster basis and she is apparently very friendly to some of the older girls. She still does not show herself to me or any of the teachers. She has been joined by another Mom and her 3 surviving kittens who have all been trapped and sterilised. One of the females had to be put to sleep after Yvonne operated on her and discovered that she had internal abnormalities.
The caretaker was extremely reluctant to maintain this colony, but the principal (and the kids) were on my side. The cats are supported by donations mainly from the children. The cats are doing very well and are keeping the surrounding area mouse free. Esme

THE SHAVATHON
Always try and get some good out of bad, I say. And, when friends are there to give support, something good will always come.
So it was when I lost my hair due to the chemotherapy. A couple of friends decided that they would shave their heads in support, and so the 'shavathon' was organised - to be done as a fundraiser for SASHA.
With the Cape Argus, the False Bay Echo and the People's Post attending the function held at the Fish Hoek Athletic Club in September, we knew we needed a few volunteers for the snip. Cheri from Oshun in Noordhoek came with her clippers and the shaving commenced. Altogether 6 women, 7 men and several juniors sat in the chair and, with K J Stone also selling some of her CDs with all proceeds going to SASHA, over R2,500 were raised. Special thanks to K J and Cheri and also to Chris Deroo for organising the event.
Dr Yvonne Robson

Feral Cat Report
SASHA answers a call for help!
A couple of months ago I had a call from a local supporter to enquire about who I knew who could help her with a rapidly expanding feral cat problem at her chalet & camping park.  After giving her all the contacts I had who were capable of dealing with this situation, I rang off and thought no more about it!
After a few days, our supporter rings to tell me that none of the people and/or organisations contacted could help with this problem as the caravan park is located in Citrusdal - (many kilometres from any veterinary practice or the SPCA)!  She is now desperate as the cats are in season and she really doesn’t want hundreds of unwanted kittens being born.
Although our Doc is in the middle of chemotherapy she agreed that this problem must be solved before new kittens are born.  Therefore, in between the Doc’s treatments, we arranged to go up to Citrusdal for three nights, taking traps and equipment to sterilise and treat as many of these ferals as possible.
So it was that the three of us (the Doc, myself and my husband, Neil), headed off into the unknown… well…unknown for Neil and myself as we had never trapped feral cats before and didn’t quite understand the procedure - but that was about to change!
Citrus Creek chalet and camping park we were informed is easy to find, just before the main road of Citrusdal.  So at lunchtime on a Sunday we load up with all the equipment, the Doc’s 3 small dogs, (going for the jol!), plus traps on the roof rack and the three of us and off we go!
Hmmm… before we had gone very far it was obvious that the alternator on our vehicle was not working.  Where to get another on a Sunday in the middle of the N7?  Would we get to Citrusdal today?
Fortunately, we had a spare battery on board, (having had this sort of problem before!), and just as we left the N7 to turn into Citrusdal, our car died!  A quick change of battery and we had enough charge in it to get us there!
As we entered the Park, we espied many cats, so we knew we had to get on with the task immediately.. no rest for us until we had spoken to Benjamin, (the employed handyman who stays there), and we had set the traps.
Benjamin, a delightful man, was only too happy to have us there as he said that there were many unsterilised cats, and they were fighting and breeding constantly - and also that although there were only 11 cats a short while ago, now there are 19 and many more will soon be born.  He told me that generally any kittens didn’t survive as the big tomcats were killing them.  A very sad situation. But he looks after one tom, which he calls ‘Sokkies’, who disappears for days at a time but when he is around, Sokkies follows him everywhere and please could we sterilise him!
By midnight we were all exhausted from setting traps, (large wire crates with food inside that close automatically when a cat goes in to take the food) all around the Park and checking them every half an hour.  Any cats trapped were taken to a dark room and covered with a blanket to calm them and usually they hungrily ate the food inside!
Early next morning, (5.45am), we were up and checking on cats and traps, and sterilising the caught ones….sometimes quite a scary procedure as I think a few thought they were small lions!! 

As always with feral cats, unfortunately, there were some who were in an appalling condition, very sick or badly injured, and in these cases it was best to humanely euthanase them… a very upsetting experience for all of us, but ultimately best for any animal who has no hope of any quality in its life.  The cats that were sterilised also had de-wormer administered.
I have heard it said that ‘Vets are so used to this that it doesn’t upset them’… I assure you that Vet’s, who vow to preserve life, are extremely upset every time they have to put an animal to sleep.. I have witnessed it many times.
We had a quick braai, then off to check traps half hourly, check on recuperating sterilised cats every 15minutes, resetting traps where some clever cats found a way of stealing the food without setting the trap off etc etc!…  It had been 40° during the day and the night wasn’t much cooler, so we were all completely shattered!  But we did manage to catch the manager’s semi-feral cat and were happy to sterilise him as well!
By midnight I was the only one awake, (doing Suduko!), when there was a knock on the chalet door!  It was Benjamin being followed by Sokkies!  Never before had I seen a cat running next to someone riding a bicycle!  I asked Benjamin if Sokkies would follow him to a trap….. and blow me! Benjamin calls him and Sokkies goes straight into a trap where there is food awaiting him!  I then staggered with the large trap complete with Sokkies, back to the spare chalet, covered his temporary bed with a blanket and said goodnight to Sokkies!  Boy, was I ready for bed now!
A similar routine was followed the next day and Benjamin had been hovering all day to see how Sokkies was faring. When we finally released him, he ran to Benjamin and followed him home!  A very rewarding sight, particularly when so much of our work is normally with neglected and / or abused animals. Benjamin was such a help to us and we would like to say ‘baie,baie dankie Benjamin’!
 By evening we had treated 15 cats, 11 of which were female… do the calculation - if every female had kittens every season and those kittens survived and had their own offspring, etc, etc, we would end up with thousands of unwanted, probably sick, feral cats within a very short space of time.  In fact, just the cats here could easily have numbered over 40 by Christmas!
Next morning, having managed to get the car fixed, (R770!), we were packing up to go home, when the local people were asking if the Doc could treat all their animals!  Unfortunately, it was not possible, but if there are any vets out there who want to set up a practice…Citrusdal needs you!
Hazel Sayer
Incidentally, we were not paid to do the work - our supporter paid for all of the direct expenses incurred and SASHA funds were not used.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to Turtle Creek Computers
for their help; for help with your computer 'phone them on 021 789 1195 or 084 669 9114


THANK YOU AND THANK YOU AGAIN TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED WITH OUR RECENT 'GARDENING DAY'
- all the grass was cut and the weeds cleared, and thanks also to South Peninsula Tool Hire.

Untill next time.....