Do you find one or two cats to be a handful?
I know some folks who have 4.
With that many cats, you can expect to find hair, furballs, scratched-up furniture, and the occasional broken vase all around your home.
But I doubt you’ll find someone with as many cats as this woman.
Meet Rachel Kabue, a Kenyan woman who cares for 600 cats and counting.
That’s right 600.
Rachel runs a feline sanctuary in Kenya where hundreds of cats are sheltered before adoption.
Though clearly, adoptions have been a bit slow judging from the number of kitty residents living here.
Rachel’s sanctuary rescues the many strays roaming in these parts of Kenya.
She employs veterinarians to give them the best care too.
95% of the space is for cats.
Rachel doesn’t mind making do with a small personal space if it means the safety of the cats.
The sanctuary is known as the Nairobi Feline Sanctuary, and it began in 2020.
Rachel would take in sick and homeless cats, and the word spread among the cats.
“We rescue a lot of kittens that are thrown out in cartons or are left without a mother, usually three weeks or younger.” said Rachel
Most homeless animals out there are cats.
One reason is that they reproduce rather quickly.
Another reason being that they’re easy to “take in” and equally easy to abandon, given their small size.
In case you’re wondering who funds the sanctuary, it’s her.
The equivalent of 400 US dollars is what she spends every month to maintain the sanctuary and care for the cats.
That goes to 50 kilograms of cat food and 70 kilograms of minced meat per month.
Cat beds and playgrounds have been set up all over the sanctuary.
The number of cats back in December 2022 was just over 400 according to Kenyans.co.ke.
That’s almost 200 fewer cats than the number stated in a recent Inside Edition coverage.
So if those numbers are true, she rescued nearly 200 more cats in less than two months.
But there is such a thing as too many cats.
Rachel says the only thing that’ll stop her from rescuing more is space.
As a long-term solution, she has her veterinarians neuter some cats to keep the population in check.
Her sanctuary isn’t just a home for the homeless. It can also function like a little cat hotel.
Folks who are traveling can temporarily leave their cats with her while they travel and return for them.
It makes me wonder what those cats’ reactions to seeing this many other cats at once.
Rachel is so dedicated to caring for them because they’re just like us, she says.
“They feel pain, they feel happiness, they feel sadness, they get depressed just like us. There’s no difference.”
She’s going to run the sanctuary as long as she’s allowed, which is good news for the cats.
Click the video below to see how she lives with 600 cats.
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