Saving a Dream - Tala Cats Medical Facility

My name is Ryan, I am a Qualified Carpenter & Timber Frame Specialist and I want to use my powers for good. I am attempting to raise money to build an additional cat shelter and new medical facility for Tala Cats.

Tala Cats is a charity in Cyprus that has helped and saved countless animals (mostly but not exclusively cats), the whole thing started 12 years ago when one couple (Dawn & Mark Foote) poured their Hearts, Souls and Life Savings into creating a safe haven for the stray cats. Since then Tala Cat Park has grown into something much larger, it currently houses over 700 cats, all of whom get regular food & water, shelter and medical care, they have found forever homes for over 1,400 animals so far since 2011 and continue to find homes for many more.

During the pandemic when times where already harder than before, restrictions stopped some volunteers from coming to help and took others through repatriation back to their own countries due to the uncertainty of the crisis. Visitors who often donated and the potential adopters slowly decreased from coming to visit the park.

Fate then played a cruel hand and struck Dawn down with a stroke, without the strength of the Matriarch that has been a bastion of hope for so many over the years to lead the cause as valiantly as she had done. Now, the running of the park falls more heavily on to her husband Mark, with less hands and the additional demands of caring for his childhood sweetheart and wife of many years, compounded with the fall out of the pandemic, Mark is now thrust into the position of Tala Cats Patriarch, a responsibility too great to not be shared.

All who worked alongside Dawn were ever impressed of her ability to handle the great and harrowing situations that come with animal welfare and her ability to inspire dedication from people. Mark is now tasked to do the same level of work with less hands. The Tala Cats vision becomes blurred with too much sweat in your eyes, that is why we are doing this, to lighten the load of labor and let good people do what good people do.

The work that is done there is honestly incredible, with less than 25 Quarantine cages spread around multiple different sheds in varying states of disrepair, the daily demand could be reduced massively with a dedicated medical facility, with all treatment cages in one area and supplies at least being in the same building.

With this money I intend to use my skills to build a dedicated medial facility, professionally done, structurally solid, built to last, modular, adaptive and properly insulated. All to comply with the building restrictions imposed by the monastery who own (but allow free use of) the land Tala Cats call home, the facility will house 204 Metal lined cages mounted into frames, housing 12 cages each that can be rolled outside to a wash area where the whole thing can be easily jet washed and rolled back into place.

The majority of the volunteers time at Tala Cats is taken up arduously cleaning porous wooden cages that unfortunately harbor bacteria, disease and odor. A less than ideal situation that has arisen from necessity and will easily be eliminated with steel lined cages (that's why Vets do it this way) easy to clean, less time consuming, non porous and sterile. The goal is to achieve better health for all the cats in Tala Cats care and those who will inevitably make their way, due to the saddening current state of animal welfare in Cyprus.

Medication and cleaning supplies will all be stored in a 'built for purpose' storage area within the facility and with this, consolidate most of the 17 structures into one. The then defunct structures could be removed and repurposed to create a more open inviting environment at the park, where people can walk round and meet the cats (hopefully finding more 'furever homes' and more hands to help the cause).

This may be only the beginning of what will be a monumental undertaking but with the infrastructure in place and a few barrels of elbow grease, the droves of people who once filled the park will undoubtedly return. The work to feel good factor and volunteering ratio will drastically improve, bringing in more helping hands and set back in motion the rolling stone that Tala Cats was before the Pandemic and Fate threw haymakers at truly good people.

TalaCats