Hello everyone and a Merry Christmas to you all
We just thought that we would let you know how we are surviving in this new world we are living in during the Covid 19 pandemic.
As the TRNC is an island the lockdown arrangements that were put in place early have managed to keep all of our staff and volunteers safe from the virus.
However it meant that there have been no visitors or tourists which, as you can imagine, has had a tremendous impact on KAR. No food from hotels and restaurants, no visitors bringing donations or walking dogs etc, no money in our collection boxes, all of fundraising events cancelled etc.
All of this whilst we were all also worrying about family and friends near and far.
We re-opened our charity shops with much reduced opening hours in June under the new covid regulations. Gone (hopefully not forever!) are the days of happy smiling faces of customers calling in for bargains and a chat. Instead we are all masked up like Batman’s Babes!!! But we, and our customers (like you we expect) are making the best of a bad situation.
As if we were not struggling enough at the beginning of October vets fees were increased once again by over 30% along with other increases in pet food, medical supplies, cleaning materials etc. We can ignore (quite happily at times!”) the housework at home but not up at the Centre – cleanliness is so important in disease control.
Our annual Christmas Bazaar was cancelled ( At least Father Christmas got to have the day off! !!) and plans were put in place to hold mini Christmas Bazaars and open a Christmas shop to try to overcome the loss of funds. Christmas/New Year dinners for the dogs and cats at our shelter at £5 each went on sale – we cannot promise Turkey and all the trimmings but it is nice for them to have a treat – if you would like to purchase a dinner for one of our cats/dogs please use “Dinner” as a reference when paying any monies into our account.
Elaine and the staff at the centre have been producing regular videos of dogs and cats that are waiting for new forever homes particularly introducing some of our elderly inmates that have been in our care for many years. Just like us – they want a nice quiet happy loving place to spend their twighlight years. These “oldies” have been shown on our Face book page and Website..
Whilst there have been no visitors to help with any building and repair work at the centre members of the staff have been busy concreting compounds, laying drainage ready for the rain water that pours down the mountain during the winter months and replacing damaged and chewed wooden kennels using second hand pallets. Thank goodness for the “men – and women – who can “ And DO !
Fold up beds and camping equipment is now kept in readiness up at the Center – not for sneaky naps – but in the event of any new lockdown regulations.
As we approach the end of this unprecedented year we want to thank you all for your fantastic help with donations and lovely words of support. Please keep it coming as you are the reason that we are able to continue to do what we do and thank you for helping us to help all of the wonderful dogs and cats.
Please stay safe. We wish you all a very happy Christmas and we hope that we will all be looking forward to a much better 2021.
The pictures are of just some of our very lucky adopted ones (apologies if your “furbaby” is not on this selection but there are so many that we cannot include them all) – they, and their TRNC friends, are the reason Team KAR continues to care.
Love from us all at K.A.R
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