By Susanna Patari | Project Manager
Finally, after 2 years of covid-life, Gili islands are getting back to normal! Tourists have returned, faster than anyone dared to even hope, businesses are opening and getting busy, people have work again!
For our island cats, this means life is getting a bit easier again. The cats are getting lot of attention from cat loving visitors, and as restaurants and bars are open again, cats can easily find food. Tourists feed them a lot too, and the cheekier cats may even steal some yummy food if you look the other way. For us all this has meant we have been able to finally stop the cat feeding madness, that we started back in March 2020 when the islands first went lockdown. For over 2 years we fed hundreds of cats, every day, and this cost us a fortune. It will take a while until we get back on our paws, but we’ll get there… as the island saying goes: slowly, slowly.
We still continue supporting a few local families and individuals, who have several cats and still struggle to feed them all. These families care for their cats deeply, they stayed here all through the pandemic, and we are happy to support such cat loving humans. We also still continue our PurrItForward-cause, where people can pre-pay for cat food, and we then hand out the pre-paid food to local families needing it.
More tourists, more people… it also means more eyes on the island, and more cats needing help are spotted. On the average we’ve been getting 8 cats or kittens needing help per month, but now the number has been slowly rising. Past 4 months we’ve had 40 cats or kittens brought to us, and all those stayed in our care for a while. Some just for few days, some for several months, and some will be staying forever, it seems. On the average, it costs us about 50.000IDR/3.50USD per day per one “hospital stay” cat. At the moment (beginning of September 2022) we have 3 adult cats and 14 kittens/teenager cats in our care. It is a bit chaotic, yes!
For the coming months we don’t have any major plans. We are still struggling financially, after covid, so we will just take it easy and keep on doing what we have been doing since we started back in 2013: we will continue looking after all the cats and kittens in our care and we never turn away cats or kittens in need. We always try to help the best we can, with the resources we have available. Hopefully, by the end of the year, we are in a much better situation, and can start making plans for next year.
We are very very grateful for the support we have been receiving the past few years and we are sending loud, warm purrs to everyone who has donated to our island kitties.
We couldn’t keep going without your help!
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