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CatPals is a small non-profit volunteer organisation caring for the feral or street cats of Pretoria and Centurion in Gauteng, South Africa.

For more on our activities, see "What does CatPals do?" below.

Our history and philosophy

CatPals was born about 15 years ago, when three intrepid women began to work among the feral cats of Pretoria, South Africa, calling themselves "Cat Rescue". They were remarkable women, working long hours in addition to their full-time jobs and spending many thousands of rands of their own money. From these small but determined beginnings, the organisation grew to its present size of around 60 members, eventually changed its name to CatPals, and was registered as a welfare non-profit organisation. Like other volunteer organisations all over South Africa, what it lacks in size and means it makes up for in enthusiasm and dedication. If asked to explain in one sentence what we are about, we would say: "Everything we do, is aimed at caring for the homeless and especially the street or feral cats of Pretoria and Centurion."
Our Cat Lover's
Manual contains all
the information
you need to
care for your
beloved feline.
Click to download
PDF manual
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or
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The plight of the homeless

CatPals strongly believes that our country's estimated 7 million feral cats should be enabled to live their lives in freedom and dignity. At present, though, most of them live desperately in drains, basements and under bushes, scrounging for food wherever they can find it, threatened by the elements, by other cats, by dogs and - especially - by humans. We need to recognise them as the result of our own irresponsibility, and as pets who never had the opportunity to be tamed as such. Now, however, they are performing the essential task of keeping our streets rodent-free, and we should help them by providing them with the following:

  • A safe place to live - for example an unused garden shed
  • A regular, dependable source of food and clean water
  • Sterilisation

What does
CatPals do?

We try to provide in the above needs. Subject to capacity and funds, our members do as much as we can of the following:

  • We feed as many feral cats as possible in the streets - at present around 700 per day!
  • We advise members of the public on feral cat management, and where possible help to trap and sterilise feral cats. (We have already aided in the sterilisation of around 3 000 cats. If you need help, call Anneke – see "Contact".)
  • We home the tame kittens in our care. Our adoption scheme includes inoculations, deworming, microchipping and sterilisation at 5 to 6 months through designated vets approved by CatPals. (If you would like to adopt a kitten, call Doreen – see "Contact".)
  • We run two shelters for non-adoptable cats, the one a small shelter for about 10 cats at the home of one of our members, the other a shelter for a colony of about 80 feral cats that had to be rescued from their previous location, where their lives were threatened. (Unfortunately both shelters are filled to capacity, and cannot accept any more cats at present.)

CatPals has no permanent source of funding, and we are dependent on our members and on donations we receive from the cat-loving public. In addition, our members collect secondhand goods (especially bric-a-brac and household goods) that we sell once a month at a fleamarket – please call Lorna Kolver (see "Contact"). We also regularly organise special fundraising events.

What
can you do?

Anyone who might be interested in getting involved in our work, will be welcomed with delight. We are always in dire need of any and all of the following:

•Good adoptive homes for the beautiful kittens in our care (call Doreen – see "Contact")

•Financial help, or secondhand items for our fleamarket table (call Lorna – see "Contact")

•And, if you live in the area, volunteer help! (call Anneke – see "Contact")
As part of our effort to inform people about cats, we have compiled a Cat Lovers' Manual, which appears here. We would really like you to read it, because even if you know cats very well, you might find something new in it to help you make the life of some cat somewhere a little easier, or just to spoil it a little more!