Help us care for cats on Gili islands, Indonesia

Greetings and purrs from Gili Trawangan, Indonesia! The island is super quiet at the moment, touristy high season ended in October, but busy Christmas holiday season is fast approaching.

Let’s have a look at some rescue stories that are not cats but something else totally! And it’s also a good time for a little summary of 2025, since this is our last report this year.

We love all animals - chickens, ducks, goats, cows, we love them all!

It feels like this year especially we’ve had so many other animals needing help that occasionally cats have taken the back seat while we’ve been dealing with other island creatures. We’ve rescued several injured chickens, some ducks in trouble, injured pigeons, a blind baby bull and a very sick goat. We’ve helped local families with sick goats, and we’ve donated medicines and medical supplies for treatments.

In September our GrumpyOldCatLady found, and took home, a poor blind baby bull, who was alone, lost and in panic. Everything was done to help the little bull, named Baby Moo, and at first things looked promising. His eyes were slowly healing, we were getting papers done to have official ownership of him, we built him a nice little Bull Mansion at the back of our GrumpyOldCatLady’s garden, and we found him a lovely foverever home in a rescue farm at Lombok. But unfortunately, after just 2 weeks, one day Baby Moo's conditions suddenly crashed and in just a blink of an eye, he died. This little bull touched so many hearts around the world, and he is in our minds every day still. You see a group of cows somewhere, with young bulls, and you cannot help but think how Baby Moo would look like today, how big would he have grown up to be, what kind of personality he would have had. Losing him was such a heartbreak.

Luckily, lot of the rescue stories have those happy endings. These animals keep us going and get us back up after those heartbreaking losses. Very recent example is Halla The Goat. Halla was first seen walking around and looking like a nightmare from hell. She had very very advanced mange/scabies and was covered in gray layer of scabs, pretty much from the tip of her nose to the tip of her little tail. After first sighting it took a couple of days to find and catch her, but finally we did. And right away we gave her medication, to get her healing from the condition she was in.  Luckily, medication helps fast and as of this writing, Halla’s skin is almost completely healed. She’s naked, having dropped most of her fur with the scabs, but she’s happy, eating well and making new friends at our Grumpy’s garden. Halla will stay with us for good.

More happy, and funny, stories: One day we got a message from a gym resort. Group of young ducks had casually walked in, possibly had seen the brand new fancy swimming pool, and wanted to go for a swim. As much as all the guests spending the day by the swimming pool liked the ducks, having resident ducks was not something the resort was planning to have. So off we went to help! Got the ducks to a cat carrier box and moved them to – where else – our Grumpy’s garden, where several ducks already live.

We are a cat rescue, but maybe we need to start saying we are MAINLY a cat rescue. We love all animals, and we don’t look away when we see an animal needing help.

SHORT SUMMARY OF THE PAST 4 MONTHS (August-November)

• We’ve received 20 new cats and kittens. Some stayed only for a few days, some are still in our care and will possibly stay for good.
• We’ve received several ducks and baby chickens, one blind baby bull (died) and one goat (doing great!)
• Our charity shop has been pretty busy and we are slowly doing little updates here and there.
• We decided to postpone our spay/neuter clinic until January 2026. There was not urgent need for a clinic, and we had difficulties to find dates that were good for the whole team.
• Our website was redone and moved to a new service provider

WHAT WE ACCOMPLISHED IN 2025

• We’ve had 81 cats and kittens in our care (by the end of November)
• We spayed and neutered 54 cats during our free spay/neuter clinic in May
• We’ve received several rescue chickens and ducks and pigeons, and one goat. We had one poor baby bull, who unfortunately died.
• We kept our cat café closed but we took the café space to a good use and opened a little flea market
• Our website was redone and moved to a new service provider
• GrumpyOldCatLady was able to have a proper holiday in July and our old friend Doni came over to keep the show running while Grumpy was away. This was a game changer and the main reason why this year has been mentally much easier than the previous years

Plans for the beginning of 2026:

Free spay/neuter clinic

We postponed our spay/neuter clinic plans a bit and our first cat clinic of 2026 will be held at the end of January.

Our clinics are always free of charge for everyone who brings their cats to get spayed or neutered.

Cat rescue work continues, and other animals are welcome too

We continue looking after cats and kittens that are brought to us, and we never turn away a cat in need of help. Cat rescue work is the core of what we have been doing since 2013 when we started, and it still is what we are and what we do. Everything else (charity shop and flea market) is just to support our work with cats.

And we will continue helping other animals too.

Cat shop upgrades

We will slowly do little updates on our charity shop, since it really needs a little face lift. New paint, new furniture and such. But all will be done slowly, when we have time and money, for these extras.

IF YOU READ THIS FAR: THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING US IN 2025

Another year gone! THANK YOU everyone who has supported us in 2025. We could not do what we do without your help. The support and donations from all you cat loving people around the world means a lot, so from the bottom of our heart: THANK YOU! We wish you a very happy holiday season and all the best for the coming new year. May 2026 be a good year for everyone!

Links:

• Our brand new website
• Follow us on Instagram