Papá Gato Animal Welfare Bocas Del Toro

13/08/2025

We have so many kittens! 13 at the moment! Here are photos of the ones ready for adoption now. And yes, each of those orange kittens is a different one, we have lots of orange! Send us a message if you want a new snuggle buddy.

12/08/2025

Our dear friend Mariela is having a birthday party at her Empenada shop! And she chose to make it a benefit for our work at Papá Gato! Some please come join us, celebrate a beloved community members birthday and raise money to help animals as well!

11/08/2025

Another animal gets a home! Inti was originally spayed by us awhile back, but the owner could no longer afford to care for her. She was surrendered to Cecy, who then left her in our care to find a home. She was featured on The Bocas Breeze as Pet of the Week. She is going to a home with children, cats and lots of love! Also with fitted out with brand new gear from Embark Pets, including a harness, leash and an adorable doggie rain jacket.

We have many more animals for adoption, send us a message if you need a new family member!

11/08/2025

Busy morning , new born kittens found abandoned, bandage changes on a cat and some adoptions in progress!

10/08/2025

08/08/2025

Swampy is a special dog with a story.

Back before Papá Gato was an organization beyond one man helping animals, this dog became one on the animals being helped. During covid lockdowns, this goofy dog with short legs would show up, covered head to toe in black sticky mud due to the path she had to take to get there , to get much needed food. Hence the name Swampy.

Swampy would come and go, but would sometimes be gone for a month or more. She was being bred , she was after all an attractive dog , with cute features like her short legs and unique black and white coat. She was one of our first stealth spays, just spay her, after all she roamed free and had no collar, and we certainly fed her more then the owners did.

Eventually she spend more and more time with us. And she got fatter and fatter, so diets were tried and finally a thyroid test, and she did have a thyroid issue, and some PG volunteers took on the task of getting her veterinarian care and medication.

Then she vanished. We didn’t see her anymore. A couple years passed and we all assumed her dead. The volunteers who had taken on her care, had a dream about her just a few days ago, and decided to go deep into La Solucion to look for her. And to everyone’s suprise, they found her. In horrible condition due to the untreated thyroid condition, massively overweight despite starving, hair falling out in clumps and swollen joints from her short legs dealing with the weight.

The “owner” could not afford to feed her and had not been properly, and certainly was not giving any medication for her condition. The reason she stopped coming to visit is is that she was so overweight, she can barely walk 100 feet anymore, she got stranded by her condition.

Swampy was willingly surrendered and is now home forever with the amazing volunteers who tried so hard to help her years ago. We drew blood today for a fresh blood test for her thyroid condition to start on a path to treatment.

07/08/2025

Another kitten gets a home! We have many more ready for adoption, send us a message!

06/08/2025

We saw a couple sick new born kittens today, thankfully nothing serious. Don’t forget we always have kittens for adoption! Currently about 14!

03/08/2025

We want to give a huge thank you to the Bocas community, from us at Papá Gato, and also from Eve at Native Chocolate. The donations to help her cat have exceeded the immediate need and he is fully taken care of. Extra monies will be used to buy canned cat food that will help with the constipation caused by the pain medication, and kitty litter, which Eve does not normally have since the cats do their thing outdoors.

Taking an animal involved in an emergency situation, identifying the problem, getting it on an airplane to Panamá city for care more advanced then we have here, surgery for two areas of issue, then back to Bocas on an airplane, and finally a month of confined recovery. This takes a lot of logistics, knowledge and preparedness that we at Papá Gato are set up for. It also took the communities generosity to make it happen. Thank you everyone .

31/07/2025

We could use some help for a cat that needed to be urgently sent to Panamá city for x rays and surgery after an accident. Negrito is owned by Eve, the owner of Native Chocolate. Eve is a Bocas native, who is a hard working entrepreneur to support herself, her daughter and her animals. She also gives back to the community on anyway she can, donating her chocolate for instance for fundraiser prizes, selling Papá Gato shirts at her shop to help our spay and neuter program, and of course adopting animals in need and helping us save animals off the streets.

But being an entrepreneur , and it being a tough low season, the bill for this emergency is beyond her means, she has dug deep to pay the portion she can. We also have raised some money from among our volunteers here at Papá Gato, but we could use a little more help.

There is an envelope for collections at Pane e Vino, if you would like to lend a hand, for a wonderful hard working Bocas woman’s beloved rescue cat. We currently need about $300 more.