It’s been a busy few weeks on a seemingly quiet island! We’ll start by getting you up to speed with how the last few months have put us in this pussy predicament.

Why do we need help? 

Over the last 6 months, Gili Trawangan has been in lockdown, come out of lockdown, and left with absolutely no tourists. It’s been calm and quiet but with no tourists, many of the bars, restaurants, homestays and hotels have closed down. They usually help to feed the cats with biscuits or food scraps. Nifty stray cats would find a free meal in the bins out the back.

Due to the current situation on the Gili Islands, many of the cats have been left starving. 

What do the Cats of Gili do?

The majority of cat donations before lockdown came from ex-pats buying their pet supplies and tourists dropping in with donations.

Nestled next to Gili Golf in the north, it also acts as a feline health clinic, when vets visit to hold a free cat clinic treating and neutering up to 150 cats per event. 

The cute little Cats Of Gili shop is also a gift shop where you can pick up a T-shirt, tote bag, or one of their many kittens that are looking for a cuddle whilst waiting to be fostered into their fur-ever home.

Stay paw-sitive and take action!

We knew that something had to be done. Many islanders that have lived here for years have had to return to their home countries in search of work, many locals have packed up and returned to Lombok where living costs are cheaper. What we have left is hundreds of cats that once had a regular source of food… Now have none.

One evening in a sensibly socially distancing bar, a few of the fellow cat lovers got together to discuss ideas of fundraisers. Many beer-fueled ideas hurtled together to form a collaborative and island-wide effort of the Pussy Fest. A two-week-long chain of local events, so that those remaining on the island could help support in whichever way they fancied.

Flea Market

Always an amazingly fun and chaotic event held on the beach. This time Sama Sama Raggae Bar kindly hosted.

We had heaps of pre-loved dresses and t-shirts, second-hand boardies and T-shirts, even a bargain bikini bucket. Possibly the only positive that came from all our island friends having to leave the island, was they donated so many clothes to this amazing cause!

We managed to sell around 50% of the clothes we had been donated, this raised 3,165,000rp for the cats.

Lava’s Rock n Roll Pussy Bingo

We rocked it at kitty bingo on Friday evening! With a smaller crowd than normal, everyone was safely spread with tables across the dance floor and beach. Raffle tickets had been on sale for a few days, with some amazing prizes that locked down islanders could enjoy. Fitness and food vouchers, villa stays, tattoo vouchers and goodie bags, to name a few! The raffle earned 6,885,000rp! It was announced right after bingo finished and a few bingo-ers had been drenched in the bucket of shame. Along with an additional donation coming from the LAVA bar speciality ‘hot pink pussy’ cocktail that brought in 1,560,000rp.

BYO BBQ bake sale

We finished it off with a chilled daytime event at Pesona Lounge, where Scuba Steve treated us to a coconut charcoal BBQ. Many friends brought their satays, BBQ chickens, and veggie kebabs to grill. With some delicious baked donations from the island’s best coffee shops and patisseries, we raised 2,007,000rp with those sweet tooths that still reside on the island.

How much did we raise?

In total, we raised 14,211,000rp for the Cats of Gili. This will go towards: 

Cat food: A huge sum of money is spent keeping the island cats fed across Trawangan, Meno and Air. Many islanders used to buy cat food from the shop, this made a small profit to aid those who cannot afford food. Many of those people cannot buy food anymore.

Medical supplies: Ongoing stray and pet cat medical assistance. People can bring their sick cats or strays that they find to the clinic for care and treatment. CoG need continual help to finance this.

Cattery: There is space in the cat shop to house up to 12 cats and an additional 7 in quarantine when they are sick. Their upkeep varies if they are boarding there for treatment, or just homeless and looking for new foster parents.  

If you didn’t make the Pussy Fest, or you are internationally missing our beautiful little crooked tail cats, then you can adopt one from afar! All these funds that we worked hard to raise will help the island cats out for another 2 months, but we can’t stop there!

The Cats of Gili have a Paypal where you can donate to continue to help feed and care for the island cats and be sure to follow their lighthearted antics on Instagram. If you are missing out on some island fashion, then be sure to visit their online store to grab some Tee’s, totes and kitty merchandise to wear proudly!