​​Christine tells about her volunteer work
with street cats

​  Volunteer Work 2017  

I have a really boring administration job, so . I always wanted to do something more meaningful in my life. This is why I took 2-month time-out from my work in march 2017, to volunteer in South America. As a cat lover I was very grateful that Chileinside found an animal welfare project in Santiago de Chile with street cats for me. This project would not exist without the help of volunteers and it depends entirely on donations. The project runners are very glad to have the support from dedicated pet lovers who come and help to improve the life of the street cats. Chile Inside placed me at a a home for neglected and abused street cats in Las Condes, Santiago. A so called “Cat Café” runs regular adoption events, whare some of the cats even have found a new home. Sadly, at those events, almost only baby kittens are adopted, so most of the older cats spend their hole life at the project.

For me the work was a great, exciting, happy and edicational experience. My duties were to clean up the site, brush blankets, beds, baskets and feed the cats, as well as . the maintenance of the furniture. And of course, giving all my love and care to the animals. With so much work to do, there was little time left to pet and cuddle the catsa. But the cats enjoy it when someone tickle them on their belly or pet their head while they were sleeping and would wake up immediately because they din´t want to miss this by any meansDuring my daily work the cats were always around me, they jumped on my back, when I sat down, three or four cats crawled inmediately on my lap and if I wanted to clean, they just were everywhere, where I was. They always wanted a lot of attention and played with my hair, fingers, the brush or with the bag full of cat’s hair. They stretched out their paws to make me take them up or sneaked around me to be near me. They give so much pleasure that every day is a highlight and something funny always happens, whether they overturn complete feed buckets, fall off the cat tree while sleeping, hide in the most impossible places and get trapped there or just run around and do funny things.

Since the cat shelter runs entirely on donations, they can only feed cheap provender and no with canned food or goodies to the cats. So, I took the decision to bring tuna once a week - like gala dinner for the cats. They loved the cat’s toys from Germany, everyday one of them was playing with those mouses, balls or feather teasers. 

Despite all the work, I had enough time left to explore the beautiful city of Santiago with its parks and Latin america´s highest building “Costanera Center” and also to do excursions to the sea. This exciting and adventurous time will definitely be in my memory for ever as well as all the lovely cats, will forever have a place in my heart!

One little male cat won my heart above all, so after the adoption- and travel formalities, I took little “Barnabás” home to Germany. He now got settled in at his new home on the other side of the world and can enjoy his life without shortage of anything. He is the best souvenir I can ever imagine!

Here you can find out more about the volunteer project with street cats.