Stray cats in Taiwan’s capital have recently received an upgrade in their dining situation with a project called the Midnight Cafeteria.
Launched in September, 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 feeding them less messy.
It began in maths teacher Hung Pei-ling’s neighbourhood, where about 20 neighbours are helping stray cats in addition to 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.”
Ms 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 neighbourhood who buy the cats food, help clean the houses and co-ordinate with residents who may have complaints.
Ms Hung also helps capture injured cats and cats that need spaying, takes them to get veterinary attention and then returns them to their haunts.
The wooden houses in Ms Hung’s neighbourhood were hand-painted by a local artist, Stefano Misesti, and feature smiling felines as well as street food that is loved in Taiwan such as stinky tofu.
In addition to food bowls, one houses basic medicine for the cats.
Neighbours have brought small cushions as well as decorated cardboard boxes to add to the houses.
Started by Chen Chen-yi, a researcher at the Taiwan Animal Equality Association, the cat houses help ensure stray cats get fed well and local residents do not have to deal with a mess.
They also raise awareness about the spaying programme and the condition of stray cats.
“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.
Mr Chen applied for a grant from the Taipei city government to fund the project, and then connected with a local ward leader as well as volunteers to carry it out.
On a recent Sunday, Pipi, a plump black-and-white street cat who lives near a night market, and two of his friends were enjoying attention from Ms Hung and another volunteer who came to feed them.
After eating at the cafeteria, they settled in for a lazy morning nap.
