IN PERSPECTIVE

We began this interview with a face-to-face after having our previous two conducted via email exchanges. However, Susan was busy – incredibly so. We contacted her online and managed to call her, only to discover that she was the Rosia Vets with a malnourished, incredibly ill and abandoned cat they had found by Laguna Estate a few days ago.

We assure our readers that said cat is being treated and recovering well.

Given the circumstances, we enquired if someone else could be contacted. Unfortunately, Julie Watson, the adoption coordinator for the charity, was even busier and in an even more alarming state. “Sorry, Julie can’t at the moment!” Susan gasped through the phone, “she’s taking care of Munchkin who’s been having fits all day”. Munchkin, by the way, being a kitten the charity had fostered earlier last week. She too, we assure, is in safe hands.

And so, understand her and Julie’s situation – and to not put her on the spot – we decided on a compromise: we’d send the list of questions and she would send voice notes as a response. That way she could chew on the questions, and answer them in her own time.

This was at around two o’clock in the afternoon. By quarter-to-three we had received over twenty five recordings as answers to our questions. “Tell me if you need further clarification on things”, she wrote; thankfully, we did not. In fact, Susan was very extensive with her answers.

As always, we began with the more simple questions: how long has SGSC been in operation for, and what they do. “We’re into our sixth year now... our main issue was to trap, neuter, and return/release. That’s a very popular, TNR, programme used worldwide. It means to trap the cat, neuter them, and release them back into their environment.” She continued by giving details on the number of cats this had been done to, at the moment standing over 650, all of which are maintained in healthy colonies. “They have not grown, they have remained the same. And, in some cases, some of them have even gone down in number.” Susan sent this voice note again with an extra touch to the end: “Now that we’re in our sixth year”, she laughed, “we’re finally seeing the fruits of our hard work.”

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07-05-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR