Foster care and care centers
Our organisation is committed to establish foster care within animal welfare. We want to enhance the bond between people and companion animals and try to keep pets together with foster caregivers or,if necessary, care centers and out of shelters. We promote foster care instead of housing animals in a shelter facility. Animal shelters in Caucasian Countries are often overcrowded. Animals live there under appalling conditions. Shelter staff usually lacks the time to really spend with them.
We support our foster caregivers with pet food and veterinary supplies. This “foster heros” spend lots of their time and their often-spare resources caring for neglected or abused homeless pets. Until they find a forever family, foster homes are loving environments versus a stressful, loud shelter.
In addition, we try to secure financial support to many impoverished pet owners, many of them pensioners, who struggle to feed and take care of their own home pets.
We plan in near future to help our foster caregivers not only with financial but technical support, like animal care education or basic veterinary skills, so they can become more experienced and devoted foster parents.
GeoCatClub is a registered non-governmental local organisation in Tbilisi. Its main goal is to protect and take care on Tbilisi´s cat population in need of help. Cats and kittens are temporary kept at the organization´s small shelter. They are vaccinated, neutered and, once cured or recovered, released or, ideally, placed for adoption. Volunteers take the stray cats to veterinary clinics if necessary. The organisation is largely driven by motivation and engagement. Volunteers are in charge of most activities. These are mainly funded through online donations. GeoCatClub´s Facebook-Community has more than 80.000 followers. Further funding from SPCAI has been recently granted.
It was Initally as private pet care facility in Tsinandali, a village located in East-Georgia. Over the years it has developed into an exemplary animal welfare project. Eliso and Maggie, two devoted animal lovers, feed, neuter and take care for stray animals from the region. Largely financed through their own resources. Both women appreciate any kind of support. However pet food, medication or payment of veterinary bills are mostly needed. They would be also happy to welcome volunteers from abroad to help them with their daily work. Nevertheless visitors can during their stay enjoy the magnificent beauty of the sorroundings.
Over the past twelve years Olia Volkodav has rescued many dogs and cats in need. Around 65 dogs and 30 cats are sheltered in her big house with yard on the outskirts of Tbilisi. She managed until now keeping her animals in good shape. Olia is struggling to get enough food for her beloved pets and get the proper medical treatment and medications for them. Olia has a big heart, but she has scarce funds to feed and meanwhile and due to her efforts in taking care of her dearest, an increasingly poor health
Felicity is the first care center only for cats in Georgia. George and Tamar are two veterinary assistants who care of stray cats in Tbilisi since seven years and on a voluntary basis. They rescued hundreds of kittens and found adopters for many of them. They provide felines with basic or specialized care depending on their health condition. For that reason an to sustain its work, Felicity needs veterinary equipment, medicines and catfood.
It´s been a long time (30 years) that Dodo Kikvidze takes care of stray cats and dogs in Rustavi, a former industrial town 20 kilometres away from Tbilisi. Nowadays Dodo and her sister-in-law Snezena shelter 71 cats and 14 dogs in their house with yard. Animals neutering is an important issue for both women. Consequently all their pets are spayed or castrated. Expenditures are mostly cover by themselves. Furthermore recurring visits to the vet clinic and the daily feeding of so many housemates means hight costs that they struggle to handle and for which they would welcomed financial support.
Nune Guyumjyan is a bold pet lover. She shelters around 108 dogs and 46 cats at two different facilities near Erevan, the Armenian capital,. She saved the animals from being shot, as local authorities in Armenia regularly undertakes mass killing of stray dogs and cats. Nune struggles to pay the monthly shelters rent of nearly 400 euros and the pet food. Largely out of her own pocket. Meanwhile, she had to take a bank loan in order to cover all this running expenses. The dog camp is also in need of houses and fences repair. We appreciate everyone´s support to reduce her financial burden.
Almost every cat or dog that is rescued by our volunteers needs veterinary treatment. Outdoors, stray animals friends are exposed to many diseases. Injuries and open wounds make them highly prone to infections.
Our organisation covers the costs of veterinary treatment for the animals sheltered in our foster homes. We also provide financial support for regular worm, tick and flea prevention. Together with private practice veterinarians, we vaccinate stray dogs and cats against common pathogens like parvovirus, feline leukaemia virus and leptospirosis. With our support, impoverished owners can also have their pets neutered, veterinarily treated or vaccinated free of charge.
We are also planning to supply our foster homes and partner organisations with veterinary equipment.
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are not EU member countries. Their citizens and pets do not enjoy the European Union right to free movement. They are also listed as areas at rabies risk. The regulations on bringing animals across their borders are therefore very strict. Tourists with their pets (including adopted ones) and expats with temporary stays face complex procedures when leaving the Caucasus countries. They feel often overwhelmed with the situation. Many have to leave their pets behind.
Yet taking cats and dogs across the Caucasian borders is manageable. It demands only careful planning. We know how to navigate the requirements, regulations, and bureaucracy involved in pet travel and would be happy to assist you.
