When There Is Love, Everything Is Easy

Cat Sanctuary Pictures

The following pictures were taken of some of the cats and kittens in my small cat sanctuary, that I operated for 2 years in the Philippines.

Unfortunately, not everyone was a nice as me towards the cats, especially my neighbor who, whenever I would leave, would kill a few cats. This is the reality of life in the Philippines — most just don't care. Of course, the neighbor did not know that I knew he had done this but I did. He thought we were friends but really, he was anything but a friend.

Before I started my cat sanctuary, the wild cats would eat just about anything — literally. This is because while in starvation mode, the brain just said eat. As a result, I witnessed cats eating everything from coconut meat, rice, vegetables, pasta, cooked chicken bones, fruit, geckos, cockroaches, cooked meat, cooked fat, fish bones and even plastic. Yes, even plastic. I once saw one of the cats in my sanctuary with some plastic stuck to her anus. Thinking it was just stuck, I began to pull it loose only to realize she had eaten the small plastic bag — there was probably something it, I really don't know. But before I knew it, I was pulling the plastic bag out of her anus. I saw a lot before and during the operation of my cat sanctuary. What I saw most was the power of wholesome nutrition and how much healthier the cats became.

All of the pictures were taken during the operation of my cat sanctuary rather than before. As a result, you can't see how the cats looked before I took care of them.

I'm holding Cleo — that's the name I gave her because she was like Cleopatra. But instead of being an Egyptian Queen, she was more like the Queen of the Cats in my cat sanctuary.

Cleo was semi–domesticated when I first met her. She was cautious and always remained cautious, but she would come inside my house and let me hold her (but not all the time). Cleo was a real cat burglar. She would break into my house whenever she could. She was amazingly intelligent. She would look for the small hole or crack in the mosquito netting, make it bigger and if the glass shutters were partially open, she would open them all the way. Then she would break into my house.

On more than one occasion, I would arrive home only to find Cleo inside my house without me knowing how she did it. She would even climb to the top of the shutters to get in. Everytime I fixed a hole, she found a new one. She destroyed all of the mosquito netting by herself — in fact, she did a lot of damage.

Cleo is the mother of my current cat, Tiger. As it so happenned, I went for a swim one day and when I opened the door, Cleo went running in. Not unusual and so I left Cleo inside the house. But when I came back, there was a brand spankiing new kitten in my wardrobe.

When I had to move and close down my cat shelter, I really wanted to take Cleo with me. But she was too wild — there was just no way I could tame her enough to be fully domesticated. Alas, I had to leave her and my heart still feels sad about it too.

But I have Tiger, her daughter along with another rescued cat named Chink. Ironically, Chink looks like Oogly, another cat in my shelter. Both Cleo and Oogly were arch enemies yet Tiger and Chink are best of friends.

Tiger has the eyes and face of Cleo and everytime I look at Tiger, I see Cleo — thankfully, Tiger is not as smart as Cleo was and so my current home is not too damaged — yet.

Cleo was the reason why I started a cat sanctuary. One day, Cleo was outside my house with a kitten but she was not feeding the kitten due to a lack of food. I tried to help but the kitten did not survive — which is, of course, Mother Nature's way. But after that experience, I decided to help the cats and give them sanctuary. Cleo will, forever be, the cat that inspired my joy of having a cat sanctuary.

Meet Oogly — she was so ugly when I first started to help that I wanted to call her Ugly but that would have been too cruel. So I called her Oogly instead. Thankfully, after she began eating a wholesome raw meat diet, her looks began to improve, but she was still rather ugly — but a great cat.

Oogly eating her fish.

Here I am feeding the cats. There is Cleo, Oogly and the son of Oogly.

Cleo always had personality. Sure, she clawed me a few times, but it was all worth it. When looking at this picture, you can see Cleo was pregnant again — or full — or both — most likely both. One of the things I wanted to do in my cat sanctuary was to also do population control. However, none of the vets were really interested and so I just continued to help the cats have a good life.

Cleo would take the fish right from my hand but none of the other cats would as they were all very nervous.

The cat in the background is one of the male cats I fed. This cat reminded me of Morris My Cat from my childhood. But this cat was long and leany and a very good jumper. In fact, one time I opened the door and subsequently I scared the cat. He jumped high in the air, bounced off the wall, did a 360 in the air and landed on the ground.

I also saw this male cat one night trying to kill a snake. The truth is, the snake did not stand a chance. It was only a matter of time before the cat was going to kill the snake. But my neighbor came outside, scared the cat away and the snake was free to go. Of course, I don't like to see animals be killed but I must say, it was interesting to watch a cat hunt a snake. Also, at first I didn't realize it was a snake. I thought it was a toad which are poisonous. So I tried to get the cat to leave the toad alone but since it was dark, I couldn't see clearly. So I walked closer and then I realized it was a snake! It looked like some sort of python — it definitely was not a cobra or anything like that. But the cat was way too fast for the snake and the cat kept clawing the snake on the head.

The cat knew the dangers and was very cautious in its attack — sometimes striking and missing but sometimes hitting. Either way, the snake had nowhere to go and no way to defend — it was only saved by the neighbor — ironic since the neighbor is the one who also killed this same cat while I was away.

Oh look what we have here — kittens in their den. Cleo gave birth to these cats in a den that was on my sanctuary. Sad to say, the neighbor ultimately killed these two kittens also while I was away. But still, the joy these kittens provided was immense.

Cleo was comfortable with me around her kittens and so every now and then I would hold them. The actual plan was to domesticate these two kittens but sad to say, I never had a chance.

The kittens enjoyed their ear massages.

A picture showing the kitten eating her first fish with her mother's approval. This little kitten was a fighter. He would have done great if the neighbor had not killed him. This kitten was excited about eating fish and went straight for it. At first, the kitten would only eat the meat and leave the fish bones. But by the third day, the kitten was eating the whole fish — from head to tail, eyes, bones, guts and all. As you can tell by this picture, Cleo is getting close to being fertile again — her hind in the air tells us this.