WHAT'S ON Updated 22nd Febuary 2010 We have split this section into smaller areas. Please use the links below to access your area of interest:   Newsletters Future Events Notices Past-Events 2008 Past Events 2009 Past Events 2010   Visit our shop in La Font Click here for details   Current Newsletter 20, February,2010  P.E.P.A. February, 2010, Newsletter On the 9th of February we had the P.E.P.A. luncheon at the La Cueva restaurant in Oliva. This is the second time we had our luncheon there (previous was December, 2009) and once again it was a full house.  The raffle that day produced 160 euros for P.E.P.A.  We thank Pat Taylor for the hamper she donated for the raffle.  Dorothy Jordan, our new membership is sending emails and snail mail to those who have not renewed their memberships yet.  We hope you renew and support again this year.  The rates this year are 12€ for a single household subscription and 20€ for two subscriptions in a household.  Forms can be found at our website; www.pepaspain.com  See her at any of our events, drop your form off in the charity shop, or snail mail the form and cheque to our address at the end of this newsletter. The financial situation for P.E.P.A. is that we are low on reserve funds at this time, but we are holding off doing any feral cat sterilisations until the reserves are replenished.  The procedure we use is; funds are given to the abandoned animal programme first and the funds not required for that programme are used to pay for the feral cat sterilisation programme.  In this way we use the feral cat programme to control that P.E.P.A. does not go financially in the red. After a sale of reduced prices at the P.E.P.A. Charity shop a great many items were sold and on Monday, February 8th, Jan White and a group of volunteers restocked the shop with more recently donated goods.  Many thanks to them all for their hard work.   So drop in and see what is available and donate any of your unwanted goods for resale.   Remember we no longer sell electrical goods.  Various events were listed on a hand out at the last luncheon and a copy is available in the Charity shop and the information is included at the end of this newsletter.  Be sure to look it over and notify us (96 280 8332) if you want to reserve space.  In the past many of our supporters were not getting enough notification time of events and we had to turn down people asking for reservations.  We hope to let every one know in plenty of time to get reservations early. Our normal monthly luncheon will be on the second Tuesday of the month; March 9 at The L’Irlandes restaurant in Castello de Rugat.  Call me for reservations by Friday, the 26th of February for reservations, 96 280 8332. Every year in March we hold our annual general meeting (AGM) and notify everyone of the activities over the last year and give them a written report on the various aspects ot the P.E.P.A. operations.  Try to attend, as we need to obtain a quorum by Spanish law to be able to live up to the government  obligations.  This year we have had to delay the AGM until the 30th of March.  This is to allow board members who were otherwise on holiday to attend.  So mark your calendars that the AGM will be on Tuesday, 30th of March at the L’Irlandes restaurant starting at 12pm and will be followed by lunch at 1:45pm.  All members let us know by email or telephone if you will be attending the meeting and also everyone that is attending the luncheon should call me at 96 280 8332 by Friday 26th of March so I can notify the restaurant.  Something new in the events on Friday the 26th of March, there is an auction and booksale to be held at the Hotel La Falconera in Marxuquera.  This is a beautiful hotel in a wonderful setting not far from the Ermita area of Marxuquera.  You can look at their facility on their website of www.lafalconera.com  Be sure to mark your calendars as the hotel and the gardens are very interesting.  There is more information available on the attached event list giving information on  how to list any item you may have for auction.  There is one event previously listed and which has now been postponed – mainly due to the uncertain weather.  That is the car treasure hunt.   We hope to be able to hold this later on in the spring, so we will keep you posted.                                    Joe Goodwin                                                                               President, P.E.P.A.   Click here for the Past Newsletters Archive

Future Events

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Notices

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

We are asking you to give us just a few hours of your time - from 10.00a.m. until 5.00.p.m. just one morning a week to help find good homes for abandoned dogs. Because every day we are receiving more and more calls about abandoned, starving and often cruelly treated dogs, we need to expand our Homing Team.

Just a few hours of your time – for this very rewarding work – is all that we ask!

Another area where we need your help is for you to become a P.E.P.A. Foster Carer. To create a temporary, warm, loving haven of safety for some terrified dog who has been endeavouring to live off its wits for weeks in a never ending battle to survive, can be very rewarding.

Have you always had a pet in the past, or lost a favourite friend? Do you now hesitate about permanently having your own dog? Fostering an abandoned dog for a few weeks, could help fill this gap.

If you are able to help us, please call 650 304 746 (10.00a.m. - 5.00p.m.)

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Another way we desperately need YOUR HELP

Is in raising money! In this, we need all the help we can get to help us pay for our feral cat programme which is expanding all the time and to pay for our dogs whilst they are in foster care. To pay for their vaccinations, medications etc. etc. All these expenses are continuous and so we continually need to raise money!

Thoughts how you could help is by organising just one event, for example ....

Would you like to organise a coffee morning on behalf of P.E.P.A.?

Would you like to organise a market sale?

Would you like to organise a Fun Run (perhaps with dogs and/or fancy dress)?

Would you like to organise a car rally, or a lunch with a guest speaker?

Perhaps a line dancing or other type of competition?

Or how about a picnic, or a barbecue, or even a marathon?

These are just some of the ways in which you could help. If you don't want to do the actual organising can you help in other ways?

If you can, please telephone Janet on 96 280 8332.

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OUR FERAL CAT PROGRAMME

We are looking to expand our feral cat programme and need your help!

Being a cat lover, you will know just how heartbreaking it is to have kittens dumped on your doorstep, or to find them tied in plastic bags having been callously thrown into a basura bin. Or finding them writhing in agony from a dose of poison. In this part of Spain, all along the eastern coast, it is almost a daily occurrence to find abandoned kittens, alive and dead, during the months of April/May and September/October. In other words, breeding time for the feral cat population!

By sterilizing both males and females we are able to save some of that terrible suffering.

To learn how to trap feral cats is neither difficult, nor time consuming. We will give you full instructions and supply you with the traps. All you will need is a bit of patience along with the satisfaction that you are really doing something to help. I assure you it can be very rewarding because you are allowing the adults to live quietly in their own environment. The females not being constantly attacked by randy males and the males themselves not having to prove their 'manhood' by fighting with other males. And helping to put an end to the suffering of all those kittens.

This non-lethal method of controlling the feral cat population is the recommended procedure by all leading countries who are concerned with animal welfare. It is a procedure known as TNR (Trapping, Neutering and Returning).

Please have a think about it and if you are interested,
please telephone 628 206 193.

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P.E.P.A. 2010 CHARITY CALENDARS

Click here for a preview

Only a few of these calendars left!

Available from the P.E.P.A. charity shop, rastros, the book sale
and Quiksave shops.

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Volunteers

We are hoping to increase our Help Team by recruiting volunteers to ‘staff’ a telephone for seven hours a week on a Sunday (from 10.00 until 5.00). By sharing the task between seven people means nobody is overburdened.

So, again, we appeal to your good nature – just 7 hours on a Sunday would mean so much to us and could be really rewarding for you knowing that you could be saving some poor creature! Please call 650 304 746 if you can help!

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Membership Subscriptions

All memberships are now due for renewal, with the exception of those members who joined in either November or December

Please see Sean Hall-Smith, at the next luncheon or mail to PEPA, Apartado de Correos 298, 46700, Gandia. The subscription price is €12 for the year.

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Past Events - 2008

S.P.A.M.A Dinner Dance

In November 2008, there was a dinner dance held by S.P.A.M.A. (Sociedad Protectora de Animales y Medio Ambiente).

This was a very successful evening, with everyone having a wonderful time, and raising money for the S.P.A.M.A. organisation into the bargain!

During the evening, the P.E.P.A. treasurer, Sean Hall-Smith, presented S.P.A.M.A. with a cheque for the tickets sold in the P.E.P.A. shop.

P.E.P.A. are proud to support S.P.A.M.A.!

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P.E.P.A.’S FIRST COFFEE MORNING

It is always a worry when you do something new and P.E.P.A.’s very first coffee morning in September 2008 was no exception!

Recently, Kathleen Huber, a member of P.E.P.A. offered to open up her home in Playa de Daimus for a Bring and Buy coffee morning. “I don’t suppose we will collect much money,” she said, “but every little helps!” She was definitely right with the last part of her sentence, but definitely wrong with the first!

There were fifteen of us who enjoyed the really delicious homemade cakes and coffee, all supplied by Kathleen and friends. Many of us brought along gifts for ‘Bring and Buy’, plus prizes for a raffle. It was really a fun morning, as you can see from the photos below; all enjoying a great get-together and gossip, as well as going home with some good bargains! This was made even more fun when we counted up and found we had collected 136€ which will all go towards helping the animals!

So a very big ‘Thank You’ to Kathleen and her helpers!

Needless to say, as this first coffee morning was such a success it is something we would definitely like to continue to do on a monthly basis. Christine and Mike Clunes, living in La Barraca de Aquas Vivas (96 258 9173), will be holding the next coffee morning on Tuesday, 22nd April, and Ron Gaffney, who lives in Marxuquera, has very kindly offered to hold a coffee morning in May – the date to be advised. So, we would like you all to come and give them – and P.E.P.A. – your support.

If any of you would be able to hold a coffee morning in your home in the coming months, we would be most appreciative. Please telephone Kathleen on
96 280 2205 who will be delighted to liaise with you about dates etc.

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GRATEFUL THANKS FROM THE P.E.P.A. WAIFS AND STRAYS!

We, the abandoned dogs and cats who have been taken into the care of P.E.P.A., are shouting from the chimney tops to say

A BIG THANK YOU

to all those wonderful people out there who have spent many hours during this past festive season on our behalf! 

We would like to thank Marie Evans and Amanda for all their efforts at their recent, very successful, Simply Natural Fayre which was held on 8th December at the Balcón de Montroy Urbanisation raising 200€ for P.E. P.A.

We also wish to say thank you to Chris and her family who run the Bed Rock Bar in Lliria. On Friday 15th December they put on a really good evening with lots of prizes (including a draw for a free Microlight Flight which was presented by Benicolet School of Microlights), food and drink – their stew and dumplings is delicious! Through their hard work, effort and kindness they raised 780€ which was split between Lliria Macmillan Cancer Support Group and P.E.P.A.

We would also like to thank everyone who took part in our Christmas Concert, which was held in the Casa de Cultura on Monday 18th December. The excellent Marina Alta Choir, who, despite, sore throats, coughs and colds, once again, put on a splendid performance! 

Think of it, twenty-six lovely ladies and gentlemen singing all those beautiful Christmas songs just for us abandoned dogs, not to mention the feral cats who will now be able to be castrated and sterilized! Imagine the fun all those girl cats will now be able to have with the boys without the fear of becoming pregnant, and all us dogs who will be able to continue to live the ‘Life of Riley’, being cared for by our foster carers until we find a new home!

Of course, apart from The Marina Alta Choir, we owe a debt of gratitude to all those who took part in such a successful evening. Santa and his helpers! The twenty-nine local businesses who supported us by advertising in our programme, and The Benicolet School of Microlighting who, once again, donated a free Microlight Flight! In all a magnificent 1680€ was raised!
 
So you can see why, not only us dogs and cats, but all the P.E.P.A. volunteers are ‘over the moon’ with the tremendous amount of support received during this festive season.

If you would like to become part of the P.E.P.A. team of volunteers, and have fun like the people below, please call 650 304 746 (10.00a.m. - 2.00p.m)

Joy from P.E.P.A. and Marie and Amanda from Simply Natural

Loads of fun at the Bed Rock Bar

The Marina Alta Choir

Santa and his helper

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WHENEVER YOU SEE A P.E.P.A. COLLECTING BOX DON'T FORGET TO DROP IN A COIN, HOWEVER SMALL.     EVERY CENT YOU CONTRIBUTE GOES TOWARDS GIVING SOME WRETCHED ANIMAL A BETTER LIFE.   

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PLACE A COLLECTING BOX IN YOUR AREA PLEASE CONTACT 96 285 2869

P.E.P.A. ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS

CAN YOU PLEASE HELP???

WE URGENTLY REQUIRE FOSTER CARERS FOR DOGS.

We have foster carers in many areas from Valencia down to Torrevieja, but we always need more in order to cope with the increasing number of abandoned dogs.

If you are interested in participating in this very rewarding work, please call the following number: 650 304 746

Click on the FOSTERING button at the top and bottom of each page for more information.

Click here to email us

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PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP US IN OTHER WAYS?

We are looking for someone who is bright, intelligent and wanting to have something to do other than sit in the sun! Why? Because we urgently need someone who is able to look after P.E.P.A. fund-raising. Preferably someone who lives in the Gandia area and someone who has a computer. Ideally, that someone would be able to recruit volunteers to help with the organizing of fund-raising events, such as Fun Day, Petanca competitions, Lunches with talks, Concerts, etc. Car Rallies, Treasure Hunts etc.

It is hard work, but it is also very rewarding and a lot of fun and all the time you are meeting lots of people with the similar interests.

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We are also looking for volunteers who can help with our Feral Cat programme, with a view to actually running the programme after a suitable training period. If you are a cat lover this may really interest you.

The work is not hard, or difficult, mainly taking and making telephone calls, keeping updated sheets and organizing the placements of traps up and down the coast. At the moment we have traps in several areas from Gandia down to Murcia, so there would not be too much running around.

This, like all our work, is very rewarding and you would benefit from the knowledge that you would be doing a really good service to the community.

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Would you like to have a P.E.P.A. stall at any of the large weekend markets in your area? P.E.P.A. will give you full back-up.

Would you like to take part in setting up our education programme? There is so much to be done and this could be a particularly rewarding pastime, especially if you have experience with children and can speak Spanish.

Do you have experience in journalism and would like to write short articles about animals for our website?

In order to expand our activities we need volunteers in all these areas. Please telephone 96 280 8332 to find out more. Click here to email us

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