And they keep coming

Picture this: two young girls, tourists enjoying their last full night on the island of the gods, walk by a river. They encounter three miserable, crying, tiny kittens. Without a second thought they scoop them up and put them into a tote bag. They search for help. There are locals standing by. Here is the suggested help, delivered with laughter: “swing the tote bag high around your head and toss it into the river.” Welcome to Bali.

Can you imagine the terror these infants felt? Where was their mum? Clearly they had been ripped away from her loving care and thrown away to die. How long would they have survived the snake infested river bank? How long before marauding dogs ripped them apart? How long before their quest for food saw them crushed beneath the wheels of a speeding motorbike? And how did locals become so hardened and callous when faced with the suffering of a sentient being? Evidently the children in the group crept closer to caress the babies. How does care turn so totally into cruelty?

Thanks to the girls who couldn’t turn a blind eye, the three kittens are safely housed in Villa Kitty’s Nursery. We can’t help but think of their mum, who will doubtless churn out more and more litters of kittens. And their dad, who will continue to father babies to be flung onto rubbish dumps, into drains and rivers. It’s a horrible cycle endlessly repeated. If the girls hadn’t found our desperately overcrowded facility, these kittens would have been caught up in the same relentless cycle, doomed to a life of danger and despair.

Villa Kitty steps up the program of free sterilisations to the very limit of our resources. It’s never enough, but we are breaking records every year. Since 1 January 2023, we have sterilised 1,001 cats and dogs. That’s huge. We have vaccinated 1,186. Sadly we have received 956 kittens, cats and puppies over the same time period, which is a record we didn’t want, and our adoptions only number 271. We are doing the very best we can, but, like Oliver Twist, we are always begging for more. More awareness, more education, more understanding, more compassion and from you, our stoic and stalwart supporters, always more financial support.

With the ever increasing number of vulnerable animals seeking sanctuary within Villa Kitty, our reserves are drained, both of money and energy. The pleas for help, requests for pick ups, calls for rescue never end. Night brings no cessation. WhatsApp proves a lifeline and a heartache in equal measure. “My villa won’t allow me to bring the kitten in”. “There’s a cat with a broken leg in the market and she’s being kicked out of the way by the people”. “I found two kittens in a plastic bag”. “A cat is crying on the roof of my hotel and the staff say he’ll be fine, just to leave.” “This kitten appears to be covered in glue, where can I take her?” All of these calls, all of these distressed, mistreated animals and Villa Kitty is the only registered cat foundation. Villa Kitty is vital in the lives of Bali’s most fragile citizens. We mend lives, we save lives and it’s because of you we can continue in our mission.

So what do we need? As ever, it’s money. Money will enable us to expand our sterilisation and vaccination programs and to send our staff out into communities to educate them about these essential, and free services. Money will enable us to build our new operating theatre and buy medical equipment so we can optimise our efficiency and professionalism. I’m not afraid of begging. I won’t apologise for asking for help to maintain Villa Kitty’s vision. I’m asking now. Every single dollar goes directly to the welfare of our beloved animals.

Please, will you find it in your heart to support Villa Kitty now?

Thank you for your compassion and commitment. And please, join us here so we can all thank you in person.

With warm regards,

Elizabeth Henzell
Founder
Villa Kitty Foundation