Whilst working abroad, Myself, Sarah and Milena were all staying at the Hyatt Regency Kotor Bay Resort. After getting our bearings of the hotel and the grounds, we came across the stray cats strutting their tails with a promise of some food.  The stray cats on the hotel grounds are all cared for, well fed and nourished and the best looking strays I have seen in a while.  One feline friend caught our eye as he was exceptionally friendly, however had a deformed leg in which his paw hadn’t developed properly which meant he had no pads on his feet with what looked like an open wound.

Everyday we would go and find our feline friend, and noticed that as time went on he would come and sit on our laps, purr, snuggle in and want full on human attention.  This meant we could create a bond and really get a close up look of his foot which at this time was bleeding and full of debris.

I had this deep instinct to do something for our feline friend.  After some research I came across Kotor Kitties and immediately got in touch via Instagram where they were full of advice and support.  We decided the best action was to get him to the vets, to get him sterilised and look at his open wound.  With the support of the amazing volunteer Margot who lives locally, came along, collected and took him to the vets and liaised with us at all times keeping us upto date with any news.

We all decided this feline friend needed a name, Olé he became, this was homage to his hunting patch next to the hotel bar named Olé.

That evening we were all on tender hooks waiting to hear if Olé was ok after his operation and if his foot was going to be an ongoing issue for him.  The weather had turned into an all day thunder storm/lightening with extreme amounts of rainfall and really was unsure if he would be ok but as a stray he had no option but to be returned back to the place he was found.

Olé was fine, wobbly on his legs after the operation and was returned back to us at the beach.  He immediately fell asleep in Sarah’s arms whilst I headed to the shop to get pouches of cat food and Milena creating a bed in the bushes near the Olé bar to protect him from the thunderstorm.  Sadly, the next day we had to all head back to the UK, all of us getting up early to do the rounds at the beach front to check in on Olé.  We couldn’t find him and left with a heavy heart for our little feline friend.

On my return I was determined to raise awareness of the amazing work Kotor Kitties do and wanted to raise more funds and share the story of Olé and see if we could get someone to adopt him. I was in constant communication with the brilliant Armin at Hyatt Regency Kotor Bay Resort who was as keen as us to make sure the welfare of Olé was of his best interest and continued to support me in this quest.

Then this week I received the most wonderful news from Armin, that Olé had been adopted by a local man who has also adopted other stray cats! It means Olé gets to stay in his home country, as I am sure my cat in the UK, Queen Bea would not be impressed with me bringing home another cat. Happy endings do happen, for these adorable feline friends, we call Cats.

So this blog is a massive thank you to everyone involved, Kotor Kitties, April and their social media team, the vets, Margot the volunteer, Armin at the Hyatt and of course my dear friends with a soft spot for felines, Sarah and Milena!

These last three pictures are him happy in his new home!

Enjoy, Jo x