Cat lovers in Singapore have come together as a community to do something sweet for senior cat feeders this Chinese New Year period.

Pool cash for selfless cat feeders

One of the cat lovers took the initiative by putting out an appeal requesting other cat lovers in the community to contribute monetary donations of any amount, so as to pool together at least S$500 to give out to 10 cat feeders in red packets (angbaos) as a token of appreciation.

This would have worked out to about S$50 per feeder.

The one-off sum was not supposed to be much, but it is to acknowledge the tireless work of senior cat feeders, who have been putting in time and their own money to feed community cats in their neighbourhoods out of their own volition.

And the community got more than any one of them could have asked for.

Within a day, those who donated gave S$4,451 in total.

Appeal for donations to give to cat feeders

According to a Feb. 10 post in the Cats & Kittens of Singapore Facebook group, one of the cat lovers in the community had identified 10 senior cat feeders whom she wanted to present a small monetary gift to.

In response to the appeal, 65 cat lovers donated varying amounts and raised S$4,451 in total amongst themselves in a day.

As a result of the positive response and having exceeded the S$500 target by a lot, a total of 18 cat feeders were identified to receive the angbaos.

Receipts provided

An update post on Feb. 11 in the Cats & Kittens of Singapore Facebook group said 16 feeders received S$242 each, while one feeder got S$262, and another got S$317.

The reason two feeders received slightly more money was because some of the donors had specifically earmarked their donations for these two feeders.

The post also said that any additional sum collected will be channelled towards Aunty Lim, a feeder in Meiling Street who feeds about 100 cats on her own.

The Facebook post about the disbursement of money was accompanied with screen shots of bank fund transfers to recipients of the cash.

Those feeders who do not have a bank account received cash passed to them via people in the network.

Recipients of the cash expressed their surprise and thanks over text.

How initiative came about

This initiative came about after an elderly woman who has been feeding cats in Hougang and Kovan for more than 20 years, sounded out for help with taking care of one community cat that was going through a tough time due to its poor health.

This cat feeder did not have the means of taking care of the cat by herself as she had exhausted her life savings on feeding community cats and her own health has deteriorated over the years.

This cat feeder's selflessness extended as far as routinely going out to feed cats till she had to take the last bus to get home past 1am.

And this was carried out despite her being ill, as she could not bear leaving the community cats hungry.