Pipi already dines well. The plump, black-and-white street cat lives near a night market in a Taipei neighborhood where volunteers have fed and taken care of strays for years.
However, Pipi and his fellow street cats have received an upgrade of their dining situation with the “Midnight Cafeteria” project.
Launched in September last year, the “cafeteria” is actually 45 small wooden houses painted by Taiwanese artists and scattered across Taipei. The idea is to give the cats a place to rest while making the process of feeding them less messy.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
It began in math teacher Hung Pei-ling’s neighborhood, where about 20 neighbors are helping stray cats in addition to working their full-time jobs.
“We want to push forward this philosophy that you don’t have to be part of a very top-level association or something that takes up all of your time,” she said. “You can just be one person doing something a little bit at a time, a little bit, and taken all together, you can achieve a lot.”
Hung began volunteering after a good friend rescued and raised a stray cat. For five years, she has worked with other cat lovers in the neighborhood who buy the cats food, help clean the houses and coordinate with residents who might have complaints.
Hung also helps capture injured cats and those that need spaying, taking them to receive veterinary attention and returning them to their haunts.
The wooden houses in Hung’s neighborhood were hand-painted by local artist Stefano Misesti and feature smiling felines as well as popular street food such as stinky tofu.
In addition to food bowls, one houses basic medicine for the cats. Neighbors have brought small cushions as well as decorated cardboard boxes to add to the houses.
Started by Chen Chen-yi (陳宸億), a researcher at the Taiwan Animal Equality Association, the cat houses help ensure stray cats are fed well and local residents do not have to deal with a mess. They also raise awareness about the spaying program and the condition of strays.
“In Taiwan, there are a lot of people who feed strays, but often they leave a mess, and then the public becomes annoyed by it and they become annoyed with strays as well,” he said.
The cat houses were a multi-team effort.
Chen applied for a grant from the Taipei City Government to fund the project, and connected with a local ward leader as well as volunteers to carry it out.
On a recent Sunday, Pipi and two of his friends were enjoying attention from Hung and another volunteer who came to feed them. After eating at the cafeteria, they settled in for a lazy morning nap.
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