When it rains, when it snows, and even when it’s freezing cold, Willie Ortiz is out on the streets of Hartford, CT feeding homeless cats. He hasn’t missed a single three and a half hour night in 22 years.
“I’m always looking for who’s hungry,” Ortiz told the Hartford Courant.
The 75-year-old retiree makes his way around the city every night to put out food for the local feral cats. When he sees a pregnant cat he makes sure to take them to a safe place where they can deliver their babies.
When a cat needs to be spayed or neutered he takes them to get the procedure done.
Ortiz collects scrap metal and sells it in order to pay for cat food and other things his cats need.
But Ortiz won’t have to struggle as hard anyone to feed his furry friends. His longtime friend Kathleen Schlentz helped him to start a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his efforts.
“I thought ‘sure, why not,’ ” Schlentz told the Hartford Courant. “I figured every little bit helps.”
The original goal was $5,000. However, after a story on Ortiz was posted in the Hartford Courant and on Reddit, he ended up raising $26,000.
Donations came in from all over the world, including India, Portugal, and Germany.
“I thought it was a mistake at first; I had never seen anything in my life like that,” Schlentz said. “When I called Willie to tell him, he was practically in tears.”
Ortiz was adamant about only spending the money on cats but Schlentz convinced him that he should buy a used truck, which would be a replacement for the one he uses to haul his scrap metal. Right now, Ortiz has to fill the truck’s radiator every time he makes a stop.
Aside from a new used truck and cat food, he’s going to put the rest in a savings account that he hopes will be used to continue his legacy after he’s gone.
His family already has instructions on what organizations the money should go to when he dies, which are of course organizations that help abandoned and stray animals.
“I do this because I love it,” he said. “This is gonna help me keep doing it until I die, and maybe keep it alive after that.”
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