This gallery will contain the strays we are currently looking after. After fourteen days, we put the strays up for adoption, and they get moved to the regular adoption galleries.

Please try and regularly look at the Stray Gallery to see if there are any animals you know!

We got a nice long letter from Sonet, who is obviously thrilled to have her new kitty! Here’s what she has to say…

We visited DARG on Saturday, 01 August to visit the cats and kittens and to choose a special one to take home with us. Tiger was a favourite that we spotted on your website, specifically because I have a soft spot for older cats (who have little or no chance of being adopted, especially when there are cute kittens around).

Glenda was extremely friendly and helpful and introduced us to all the cats. We immediately took to Tiger, but still visited the gardens to have a look at the other children. Our first decision was final and we happily loaded Tiger into his basket and drove back to the Northern Suburbs. Tiger wasn’t very happy sitting in the basket, next to me on the backseat of the car and was relieved when we finally reached our destination.

I took him to our bedroom where we put a litter-box in the en-suite and some water & cat pellets next to the bedside table. When my husband wanted to take something from his closet, Tiger immediately decided the bottom shelf with some warm sweaters looked like a nice place to hide and he stayed there for the next hour.

We checked on him every now and then (obviously there was nowhere to go, as he was too big to fit under the bed and the windows and doors were all closed) and I finally managed to lure him out with a plate of mince pilchards…. From that point, we were best friends!

Tiger slept on the bed for the rest of the day and finally decided he wanted to venture into the rest of the house when he started scratching on the door. He had a quick inspection of the house, greeted our 4 year old female cat Pixie with a kiss on the nose, and returned to the bed.

Sometime during the night (Saturday night), Tiger decided that he wanted to go outside. My husband took him outside and he took a leisurely stroll through the garden (at around midnight!) and returned to bed. At about 2am he managed to jump onto the windowsill in the en-suite bathroom and scratched on the window. We opened the window for him and he went outside and didn’t come back!

After about 15 minutes we went out to look for him, but couldn’t find him and decided to wait until the morning. First thing next morning we found Tiger happily snoozing under the leaves of the Delicious Monster in the corner of the garden. We picked him up, fed him and he went back to sleep on our bed. He remained there for the rest of the day… and basically it is his favourite spot in the house.

Our two daughters love him to bits….. They take turns between Tiger and Pixie to gently scratch their backs! He has now settled in well, with a definite preference for pilchards!!!!

I definitely think he is older than the 2 ½ years that you indicated on his record (Please note, this is not a complaint, we specifically wanted an older cat to love and take home!). He has a bit of trouble jumping and his nails seem to “stay out”, but he is very comfortable and happy and he snuggles up to us when we get into bed.

So Glenda, we are taking very good care of Tiger. He is receiving a lot of love and attention and we are very happy with the new addition to the family.

My brother, Juan, is adopting Viking. He is looking forward to collecting her after the long weekend and I am sure their adoption story will have an happy ending as well!

Please remember that what we charge is still cheaper than what you would pay to get sterilization, vaccinations, etc. at a vet.

Plus the money helps towards the upkeep of our other animals.

The new prices are as follows:

• R495 per dog – Includes up to date vaccinations (including rabies), deworming, frontline anti-flea spraying, ID tag and sterilization.
• R395 per cat – Includes up to date vaccinations (including rabies), deworming, frontline anti-flea spraying, and sterilization.

Sadly, this seems to be attracting many people who want to abandon their pets. Many people are emigrating, or find that their animals were cute as puppies and kittens, but “a bit of a hassle” once they become adults.

We at DARG would like to strictly state that we support responsible adoption of animals. If you are the sort of person who has an animal and then decides to throw it away, we do not wish to support your endeavor. However, and sadly, we do understand that this is not going to magically stop people from deciding they no longer want their pets. For this reason, we will now be charging a fee for any advertisement of this nature.

To advertise the re-homing of your pet on our Notices page, the cost is R100 per animal.

Temporary re-homing of your animal at the DARG premises is a separate fee.

If anyone feels offended by this post, or the way it has been stated, we ask you to please take a moment and consider how your pet must feel when you decide that you no longer love it enough to make a home for it. Please remember our primary mission is to support the animals, not the people.

Naturally lost and found notices are still free to all.