Would you like to own your own cat? Perhaps you would like more than one? Two, three, or even four? Four does seem rather a lot, but not for everyone. Let’s meet Lynea Lattanzio, the woman who has dedicated her life to caring for hundreds of feline friends.
Lynea was not allowed to keep a cat when she was young, so she decided to make up for it later on. In 1983, she bought a large piece of land in California, four hours’ drive north of Los Angeles, close to the Kings River. In 1992, her father asked her to help find him two pet cats. She ended up taking home a box of 15 kittens. By the end of the year, she had rescued a further 96 cats, and in 2004 there were 500 cats and kittens living with Lynea. Today, she has an astonishing 700 cats under her care.
The Cat House on the Kings has become the largest cat sanctuary where no cat is killed unless it is seriously ill. People who no longer want to keep a cat can bring it to the sanctuary where, for a monthly payment, it will be looked after into old age. The Cat House is a charity and is able to survive on donations from cat-loving supporters around the world.
Managing 700 cats is an enormous undertaking. It’s like managing an army. Food is prepared twice a day, and it takes six people two hours to prepare and deliver it to ten different feeding stations. When new cats arrive at the Cat House, they are kept in a special area. Some are ready to join the other cats within a few days, while others take longer to adjust to their new surroundings.
Surprisingly, there are even some dogs who live harmoniously with the cats at the sanctuary. These canine residents were usually brought to the Cat House when they were very young and have no problem living and making friends with the feline population.
Since 1992, Lynea has rescued and cared for over 19,000 cats. Many of them have been given loving homes through the sanctuary’s adoption programme, while some of them remain at the Cat House for the rest of their lives. For someone who was not allowed to have a pet cat as a child, it would seem that Lynea has certainly made up for it, and then some, by devoting her life to providing a safe and loving haven for hundreds of cats in need.
Cat House on the Kings:
QUESTION:
VOCABULARY:
