How older cats enjoy retirement in South Africa

Africanews (in English)

How older cats enjoy retirement in South Africa  Elderly cats whose owners have died are often abandoned and left to fend for themselves. Some are finding a relaxing retirement at a cat sanctuary near Cape Town.  READ MORE : http://www.africanews.com/2025/04/04/how-older-cats-enjoy-retirement-in-south-africa  Subscribe on our Dailymotion channel and receive all the latest news from the continent.    Africanews is available in English and French.  Website : www.africanews.com  Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/africanews.channel/  Twitter : https://twitter.com/africanews

Transcript

00:00In South Africa, elderly cats whose owners have died are often abandoned and left to

00:07fend for themselves.

00:09Some are now finding a relaxing retirement home at a cat sanctuary near Cape Town.

00:15The Lucky Lucy Foundation Retirement Home houses over 391 cats.

00:21We saw that some of the older cats struggle in the main population.

00:26Cats that are on chronic medication, especially with arthritis and illnesses like that, where

00:33they get agitated with the younger generation cats.

00:38And that's when we decided when we do get the funding, we would like to start a retirement

00:43home for these cats, where they can come.

00:46It's not as many as in the general population, and here they will have all the comforts from

00:52a home and where they can stay out their life.

00:56One of the retired cats is Alicia, who has a chronic health condition.

01:01Volunteer Kerry John Green explains her traumatic history.

01:05So Alicia joined us, she came to us, we received a call to say that she had been poisoned.

01:15And when she came into Lucky Lucy, she was unable to walk, she was treated for poisoning.

01:24And we rehabbed her here at the foundation, and obviously the poisoning caused her to

01:31have diabetes insipidus.

01:33And so she has her special medication every day.

01:37The foundation is involved in outreach work for cats and dogs in four nearby low-income

01:42neighborhoods.

01:43The foundation provides services like medical treatment, sterilization, and also provide

01:48pet food to those communities.

01:50To rehome an adult cat is difficult, whereas Lucky Lucy is geared towards these kind of

01:55elderly cats, and they live the good life there.

01:58Sometimes I think they live better there in the retirement home than my own cats do.

02:06Running the Lucky Lucy Foundation costs about $12,000 per month, which is raised through

02:11private donations.

02:13The foundation also rescues and rehomes dogs.

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