By Diane McCarthy of Local Democracy Reporting
It all started a couple of years ago when she knitted a novelty Christmas present for a friend. The distinctly phallic-shaped, catnip-filled cat toy was indicated as a joke, and her friend, and her friend’s cat, believed it was such a hoot that she was asked to make more.
“She paid me to make another one for her other friend. Then that friend posted photos of her cat playing with it on social media and next thing I knew they were getting quite popular. I thought, ‘hey, this might be a way of helping fund my cat rehoming project’. People think they’re funny and cats absolutely love them.”
It was something she might perform in her downtime, while not hectic at her fulltime task or taking care of, or out saving, cats.
Lewis offers the toys, primarily on trading website Trade Me, for $20 each and puts the funds towards feeding, desexing and veterinary take care of the lots of cats she rehomes, likewise, primarily through Trade Me.
Though she charges $150 to adopt a cat, this doesn’t go far to recovering the expenses of neutering, looking after and rehoming the animals, which come out of her own pocket.
She grows her own natural catnip which she dries and sprays through both the stuffing and the double lining of the toy.
The “cat willies” are not the only shapes she knits. She likewise has a popular line of ping-pong sized balls that offer a little much better than the todger-shaped toys, which, she confesses, need a specific type of sense of humour.
Lewis said she “accidentally got into cat rescuing” through embracing the roaming, hurt and ignored cats that roamed into her life or that she found on the streets. She began actively rehoming cats when their number ended up being expensive for her to offer them a home herself.
While this uses up a great deal of her time, looking after and discovering houses for the cats all over the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, often as far as Wanganui and Wellington, she said she was lucky that her companies were really helpful, and she worked together with other regional saves to help take on Kawerau’s roaming cat issue.
Kawerau no longer has actually an SPCA based in the area and organisations such as the Kawerau Alley-cat Trust (KAT) and Ktown Community Animal Welfare Society (CAW) do their finest to keep the stay cat population in Kawerau in check and rescue those that are ignored, hurt, ill or starving.
Lewis runs her cat rescue individually to these organisations, moneying it herself, and through her cat toys and periodic contributions.
On its website the Bay of Plenty Regional Council said the council “supports accountable cat ownership that includes microchipping, de-sexing and keeping cats included during the night”.
It likewise discusses the advantages of microchipping cats.
“Unlike cat collars, which frequently come off, microchips are dependable. Microchipping makes it simple for veterinarians, animal shelters and councils to determine cats, and return them to their owners if they end up being lost or separated, or caught throughout insect control programs.”
Anyone wanting to acquire Ms Lewis’s cat toys or contribute money and even wool can call her by email at [email protected].
Public Interest Journalism moneyed through NZ On Air
