We’ve been rather housebound the past couple of days and have not gone on any adventures, other than walking below the esplanade on the rocks one evening. Christine has had to work on some problem-solving with her new customer, thereby needing to do lots of GoToMeetings, emailing information and files back and forth and re-jiggering the software (I know, technical language). But hopefully tomorrow we’ll do a little adventure. And then on Saturday evening, we’ve scheduled a BIG adventure on board a ship to see the International Fireworks Festival finale in Valletta’s Grand Harbor. So be on the lookout for that post.
Since we haven’t been anywhere the past couple of days, I thought I’d share with you an interesting item. In Malta, most of the stray cats here are looked after not by one owner, but by the whole community. These colonies of stray cats can be found all over the island. One such place is in St Julians, just across the bay from our flat near the Cavalieri Hotel. Here you will see an array of beautiful apartments and next to these apartments is a cat village.
As the story goes, an elderly lady started feeding the local stray cats in her area. Every day she would place food away from her house for the animals. When the rain came she started making shelters, donating old blankets and soft toys, and then making sure that the cats had their vaccinations and were neutered. With time the area grew to an almost unsightly cat village. When developers came to build new apartment blocks in the area, they wanted to remove the cat village. This outraged the whole community, with many protecting the stray cats and their village against the land developers. Today the cat village still stands. At the entrance you will find a donation box and a sign saying that the cats are all neutered and fed daily by Roza.
As we look across the bay from our balcony, we see a different cat park. You’ll notice the large ceramic cat sculpture on the square building in the lower right of this picture.
Although this park along Tower Road is also a kid’s park, a place for sun bathers, a place to sit on a bench and read, etc., at the end on the left, under the green and yellow umbrellas, there is a cat village here as well. A few people are involved in feeding the cats and in the evening you’ll see mostly women filling food and water bowls. The cats are all over this park and most people seem to enjoy them. They are all fairly tame so they will come up to you to be petted. And, as in the cat village, the cats are neutered and a tag placed in the ear so neutered vs. non-neutered cats can be identified.
Here are some pictures of other cats.
There are lots of programs for cat adoptions and for taking care of strays in Malta. I imagine it is virtually impossible to neuter enough cats to limit the population growth, though. But, at least there are folks around wanting to take care of these strays. All along the streets as we walk through Sliema and other places, you’ll notice cardboard boxes with a towel or blanket in them for shelter and bowls of food and water, all for cats. In a bookshop we stopped at, there was even a bunch of calendars with photos of the Cats of Malta. The cat village in St. Julians even has a Facebook page! You can find it at Cat Village Malta.
And would you believe a Duck Village, too? Well, that’s a story for another day.