Helping cats at the local temple in Krabi, Thailand

Krabi is home to one of the most popular and famous temples in all of Thailand. It is the Tiger Cave temple and it is home to the Buddha's footprint at the top of 1500 or so stairs leading to the top of the mountain. This unique complex has a lot of land to it in the shadows of the karst mountains, and this makes for a perfect refuge for stray animals who can stay out of the intense heat of southern Thailand. It also keeps them away from the roads where many dogs and cats are struck and injured or killed every day.

People most often notice the dogs when they come in, as around 1 hundred of them live here. What they don't notice is the dozens of cats that also live here. We have been very careful to make sure that all the females are sterilized because the population can quickly grow out of control if this is not done.

Lately there has been a new danger that has popped up in recent times and that is the demolition of old buildings to make way for new structures that have been in the works for a long time. Many of these unused houses and buildings were the hidey holes for the cats that live here. It was a good way for them to stay out of the rain and to hide from the punishing sun during the day.

When they were tearing the buildings down, it was common to see cats fleeing from the destruction, often at the last minute. The cats were very confused, walking around and mewing as a sort of call for help. We have been doing all that we can for them by giving them attention and food, but at the end of the day they are going to have to search and find a new place to lie down.

This is not a good situation but it cannot be helped. These cats do not have a home and even with their hiding places being torn down, they are in a much better situation than the thousands upon thousands of completely homeless cats that are all over the place in Thailand.

All we can do at this point is hope that the construction workers will take some care to ensure that the cats are not trapped in buildings that they are tearing down as best they can. We have spoken to them and found out that many of the workers are donating their time to the temple, so we can't really press the issue too much.

I have been visiting more often than usual to offer as much help as I can to the animals while maintaining a distance from the construction and deconstruction efforts. We worked for many years to establish a good relationship with the people in charge of this temple and the last thing we want to do is annoy them and burn that bridge.

We're here to help when the cats and dogs need us!