CatsofDurban

21/09/2025

In South Africa, thousands of animals suffer daily due to outdated laws, lack of enforcement, and limited access to veterinary care. The Durban Animal Welfare Network (DAWN), supported by concerned citizens, calls on the eThekwini Metro Council to urgently amend municipal bylaws to reflect the reali...

03/09/2025

My Great Big Cat-Package Adventure:

It was an interesting-looking parcel: large, flat, square, padded and packaged. I could not wait to get it home from Postnet and unwrap it.

The cats were also intrigued... what was this large square brown thing, sitting on the dining room table? They all gathered round with long necks and active whiskers.

Firstly I removed the plastic bag and a few layers of bubble wrap, with all the cats paying the closest attention. The first few strips caused great excitement - as the bubble wrap peeled off the cats would grab a piece and start to jump on it, giving a little start of surprise at every pop.

The best thing about bubble wrap is that it rustles... and this rustle obviously calls up deep tribal memories of little things scurrying in the grass.....

It was very difficult to even pick up a piece of bubble wrap to fold and put aside as it was immediately grabbed and shaken or carried off.

The sticky tape caused some panic and consternation - one cat got tape stuck on her paw and went streaking through the house, trailing bubble wrap like a scarf. I had to catch her and unstick her before she galloped into the garden.

Sticky tape and cats seem to have an unholy attraction. No sooner had I disentangled one cat, than another got attached.

After that, all hell broke loose. One cat would burrow under the heap of packaging while the other ones would attack from the top. One would grab a piece of plastic and trot off with it, with the strip dangling like a very long beard, with another cat in hot pursuit.

The cats also have cardboard fetishes, and they attacked pieces of board, killed them comprehensively, and then tore up the carcase and scattered the bits.

Once the floor was carpeted with exhausted cats and shredded packaging, the gift was revealed: a stunning framed artwork by Jonathan Handley, the Edendale Feral Cat Club cartoonist who is a master of snark. This was the original of the cartoon that is featured in our Cats of South Africa 2026 diary.

It was a gift from EFCC to Cats of Durban, and it will occupy a place of pride alongside our other cat paraphernalia.

The EFCC has just had their annual Art Auction to raise funds for the feral cat feeding programme (only the best food will do, according to the pampered pussycats), and they have put together a stunning Annual full of jokes, news, cartoons and sass. At R150 a copy, it's a giggle-a-minute read and funding for an excellent cause.
Get yours from [email protected]

PS - Just so you know....all that packaging goes into the recycle bin, and the bubble wrap will be used to protect our wonderful diaries when we start to send them out....

28/08/2025

Good morning, our fabulous supporters. It is really heartening to see the outpouring of comment and suggestions when we post about the challenges we face.

Like all animal welfare NGOs, we rely on public support to keep going. And because we don't simply want to ask you for money, we would like you to get something in exchange. So, every year, we sell our diaries and that money is used to pay vet bills for strays and ferals that would otherwise go untrapped.

We are about to order our 2026 diaries. Every diary you buy provides a sponsored sterilisation for our dedicated team of trappers who work across Durban and do TSR for a most astonishing number - approximately 2000 cats per year!

If you would like to show support for what we do, please order a diary. We have a loyal customer base who buy diaries every year, but the more we sell, the more cats we can help.

If you would like a diary, please send a mail to [email protected] and you will receive the order form in the auto-response.

Our pre-orders close this Sunday.

26/08/2025

We were absolutely outraged today to find out that Silveray Stationery (a company in Jacobs that manufactures stationery for Croxley) hired a pest control company to trap cats for euthenasia.

This is after we discussed and had decided on a management plan last week to get the cats out of their warehouse and into a safe space at the perimeter of their property.

When I asked them why they were trapping cats to kill them - after they had agreed to TSR - their reply was that we had not yet started trapping the cats for TSR, so they were going to continue trapping them for euthenasia until we took over.

Where do I even start?

First of all, for successful trapping one does not just start trapping, you have to first establish a feeding regime with a place for them to go after sterilisation.

Secondly, pest control companies do not trap cats humanely. In fact, pest control companies should not trap cats at all. Those cats were panicked in their uncovered traps and would have died in a state of sheer terror.

Thirdly, trapping and removing cats for euthenasia does not work, because new cats come in and the remaining cats simply breed faster to fill the gap. The most frustrating thing is that companies around SSC have successful TSR projects in place... SSC even commented on them. So why undermine us by trying to run two mutually-exclusive projects at the same time?

Cats of Durban has withdrawn from this project at Silveray Stationery Company as we cannot continue to work with people who deal in such bad faith. How do we know they will not simply carry on trapping and killing cats while we are trying to Trap, Sterilise, Release?

We are trying to identify the pest control company in question so that we can report them to SAPCA.

All cat lovers... next time you are tempted to buy a Croxley stationery item, just think: a cat died to bring me this product.

20/08/2025

‼️Preorders close on 31 August ‼️

Order your cats of South Africa diary now

Fill out the Google form to place your order:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeeYZiXlxft1rgk-HDy35X86lP_Ru1iBgrmHgJVvnlslOrirQ/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0

11/08/2025

‼️ THREE WEEKS LEFT ‼️

There are only three weeks left to pre-order your 2026 Cats of South Africa diary.

Pre-order on our Google form link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeeYZiXlxft1rgk-HDy35X86lP_Ru1iBgrmHgJVvnlslOrirQ/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0

04/08/2025

I’ll take 10 please 😸

03/08/2025

Dear Cat Lovers,
Our last post - the white kitten on Amanzimtoti Beach - went viral, with more than 28 000 views. There appears to be a large consensus that more people would sterilise their pets if it were more affordable.
Cats of Durban is a feral sterilisation agency, and we often sponsor sterilisations for the pets of people who cannot afford it. So, here's the deal....
If everyone of you who forwarded the last post forwards this one, and if every one of you pays a donation towards a sterilisation for a homeless or indigent person (which is R500), It is very likely we will be able to sterilise almost every stray and feral in informal settlements and public areas in Durban.
We have stray cat populations in all of our informal settlements. None of those residents can afford to sterilise their pets.
From our side, we undertake to ring-fence your donation for a cat sterilisation in a township or informal settlement and we will send you a a photograph of the person whose cat was sterilised, with their cat.
If you like this idea, send a mail to [email protected] with Sterrie Drive in the subject line, and we will send you the details.
If we got enough funding to sterilise 28 000 cats in Durban, we will no longer have a stray cat problem!

29/07/2025

This is what it looks like when cats are not sterilised... this stray kitten on Amanzimtoti beachfront was so cold last night that it cuddled up to a homeless person sleeping on the pavement. The sleeping person did not even know the kitten was there, but it was so desperate for warmth that it approached a stranger for a bit of comfort. The sleeper had a blanket, the kitten had nothing.
This is one of the fortunate ones... a kind person went out, found the kitten, picked it up and took it home, it was little more than skin and bone.
How many more tiny kittens are out there, starving and freezing, because people don't sterilise their pets?
PS - I was reminded that one of the biggest problems we have, is people who do not neuter their male cat, because they don't see the need. So we have these male cats, roaming the streets and impregnating the females. It is a real problem. So, don't just spay the females.... get the males done as well.

28/07/2025

Our 2026 Cats of South Africa diaries are now available - order yours now!
We still have our popular page-a-day, week-to-view, and notebooks - we sold out last year within months, so don't delay.
Companies can personalise the diaries for their employees.
We also have special bulk orders for organisations that wish to sell diaries in order to raise funds for their own organisations, as we did last year. If you are interested, send a mail to [email protected] and ask for the bulk rate for 20 diaries or more.
Get your Cats of South Africa diary, and now that your diary is helping to support cat welfare - every day of the year!

26/07/2025

Random Cat Fact Saturday!!

23/07/2025