Imagine a beautiful place, with warm weather year-round, where cats can roam free in nature, but have cozy beds to come back to take their famous naps while being taken care of, are well fed and receive lots of love. Rejoice cat lovers! This place exists and is nothing short of paradise!
It is called the Lanai Cat Sanctuary, located in the Lanai Island in Hawaii and it holds approximately 500 cats!
When Kathy Carroll moved to Hawaii, she started noticing the large number of feral cats in the island, roaming around and looking for food scraps around restaurants.
She knew that something had to be done since feral cats that aren’t fixed can reproduce at a very fast rate and can put the bird population at risk.
With the help of friends and volunteers, she started a small TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) program. In the early days of the project, they had to set up shelters in a temporary location for the cats since they could not go back to their natural habitat for fears they would put in danger a new endangered species of a bird that had just been found in the island.
In 2009, the Lanai Cat Sanctuary was relocated to a bigger plot of land with lush greens and access to clean water.
The shelter sits on multiple acres of land. It is open aired, where cats have access to a feeding station, nice comfy beds and a giant litter box filled with mulched pine needles.
Visitors are welcome to spend time with the cats and bring them treats. They don’t charge admissions and their lovely kitties will be ready for a cuddle and purring session!
Since the opening of the shelter, many cats have been adopted by locals and visitors from the mainland. For visitors that can’t bring their new favorite purry friend home but would like to help somehow, the shelter has a program in place where you can sponsor a cat for $20 dollars a month.
Like many community volunteer projects, the Lanai Cat Sanctuary relies heavily on donations to keep helping those kitties in need.
We can’t imagine a better way of meeting and hanging out with new furry friends. Like the saying goes, ”Cats are like potato chips, you can’t have just one!”
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Via theplanetd
