Cat headquarters for Cats Of Gili

My name is Susanna and I live in Gili Trawangan, a tiny island in Indonesia, about 2 hour speed boat ride from Bali. For past 3 and a half years I've been running our animal welfare project CATS OF GILI for our island felines.  We organize free spay/neuter clinics, look after sick or hurt cats, have stock of medicines and vaccines available. Our goal is that the islands would have maybe less cats, but a happier, healthier cat population.

The cat project is part of Gili Eco Trust, our environmental foundation on the Gili Islands.  



I am now looking for donations to cover at least some of the costs to build us a new CAT HEADQUARTERS building! Our old cat shop (also donated to us) has to move, due to a massive beach clearance project ongoing on our islands: all buildings, shops, restaurants etc located on beaches have to move. Beaches will become beaches again instead of being filled with businesses. Therefore our old shop location is needed for other purpose.

A piece of land (see the photo below) for our new building has been donated to us, but now we need to build on it. Our plan is to have a proper room for a small vet clinic, as well as a charity shop.  We need to get the building up and running as soon as possible.





There are thousads of cats on the three Gili islands - Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. Some cats have homes, some don't, some have a relaxing life as beach bums around the beach restaurants, some prefer the local villages.

Most cats of the islands are healthy and do well, begging food from tourists or even stealing if you look the other way, taking a nap in the shade when the sun is too hot, climbing trees, playing with other cats and chasing small crabs on the beach. But there are problems too: breeding is out of control, and as much as we all love kittens, there are too many. There is feline panleukopenia (number 1 cat killer on our islands!), worms, ear and eye infections, horse carts going too fast and running over cats etc. It's heartbreaking to see sick and hurt cats.



There is no vet on the islands yet, but we organize free spay/neuter-clinics couple of times a year, with volunteer vets helping out. Since the project started, we have organized 9 big spay/neuter clinics, where the vets have treated over 2200 cats, of which nearly 1700 cats have been spayed/neutered. In addition, we have treated sick cows, goats, rabbits and horses during our CAT clinics, and we've even had one rescued monkey and a baby python snake with a wound visit us. Monkey was checked and later sent to bali to a monkey rescue center and the baby snake's wound got stiches. So we help any animals that are brought to us, not just cats.





We have a tiny cat hospital where sick or hurt cats can be taken, and we look after the cats in need there. For kittens, we try to get them adopted as soon as they are vaccinated and ready to leave their mommies, if they had one (we get lot of orphan kittens, unfortunately). We also now have a small cat shop, where we sell cat food, collars, cat postcards, t-shirts etc, to further collect funds to help us help our feline islanders. 100% of the donations and cat shop sales go to helping cats. So far, nobody has been paid a salary, so all is pure charity/volunteer work.

It is essential that we get a new CAT HEADQUARTERS building up as soon as possible, so we can continue organizing vet clinics, and maybe in the future we might be able to hire a vet to be here permanently. Also, having a cat shop is a must, as first of all it helps us get more funds to organize vet clinics and keep our cat hospital stocked with medicines and food. And secondly our shop is the place to go in case people need just advice, or to get their cat vaccinated or dewormed and checked on minor issues. Tourists stop by to buy some cute cat souveniers: postcards, canvas bags and t-shirts. All profits help us continue our work towards happier and healthier cat population on our islands. 

If you love animals, especially cats, please help us to get our new CAT HEADQUARTERS up and running!

More info on the Cats Of Gili -project is on our website: catsofgili.com

Also read our latest newsletter about the new cat headquarters: http://eepurl.com/cAxwgP

Cats of Gili in Facebook: Cats of Gili

Cats of Gili in Instagram: cats_of_gili