Where’s The Aloha? Oh, There It Is… Kitties of a Lesser God: Can You Share a Little of Your Aloha?

Can You Spare Some Aloha for the Kona Kitties?

Five things you can do to help are listed below. The simplest way you can help is by filling up water bowls when you go to the dump.

Some people call them the ‘Trash Kitties.’ I call them the ‘Kitties of a Lesser God.’

Why Are There So Many Cats?

People Have DUMPED Their (Former) Pet Cats, At The Dump. Most people think the cats are feral. They are not feral cats; they are abandoned cats!

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Even more accurately than “abandoned cats,” they are ‘discarded cats’ — unwanted pets that people have discarded like other pieces of trash at the Kona dump. 

These cats are not trash… They are living creatures.

These cats need food, water, shelter, and love. They need food and water every, every, every day. They hide in any shelter when they can find it. They desire love as often as they can share it. 

Many of these cats have been house pets in the past and are very friendly toward humans, desiring pets and affection. 

People dump their cats there because they see other cats there. This is similar to the broken window theory of crime: If other people are doing it, it’s okay for me to do it too.  Do you know what is truly broken? The spirit of the cats. One day they are living with a person, the next day they are abandoned, tossed away, left to somehow survive on their own, with no one to feed, shelter or love them,

Have you gone to the Kona dump and noticed all the cats? You may have seen a cat or two, but if you go before 8 AM or after 5 PM (when the traffic dies down), you’ll notice somewhere between 80-130 cats across multiple small ‘tribes.’ Some cats are alone while others are in eight groups of five to thirty cats.

 

No feral cat would leave wherever they are and decide to walk to a place that doesn’t have food, doesn’t have water, and doesn’t have shelter.

There is no water source.  When you go to the dump, you can bring water and plastic bowels for the kitties. 

The temperature is typically hot. The ground is rough lava and all the pads on their feet are rough and/or cut up. 

There is noise all day and the nearby heavy traffic frequently runs over one of their friends or family. This cat was hit by a car.

Where’s The Aloha? Oh, There It Is…

Liz rescued the two kittens above, plus two more kittens this day. A family took all four kitties home and now have four wonderful additions to their household.

Liz is married to Phil. Phil has dementia and rides with her every day as she feeds the cats at many various places: the dump, at the Old Kona Airport, behind the Petco store (ironically), and more.

Liz and Phil both live on social security. Well, more accurately, they live on Phil’s small social security check and Liz spends her monthly check on cat food. She receives small donations from people who see her feeding the cats and occasionally stop to give her $5. On those rare days that amounts is about one-sixth of what she spends per day, in addition to her time, gas, and love.

Liz and Phil feed cats every, every, every day. They feed cats when the weather is bad, when Liz and Phil are sick, when they barely have enough money to pay for their own food and rent. Every day. They feed the cats.

Liz also captures cats for spaying. A local vet ‘fixes’ the cats for free – you can tell the sex of the cat –  left ear for male cats, right ear for females.

Why Are Cats Abandoned at the Kona Dump?

Until recently, the Humane Society was located on the same road as the dump. People would utilize some form of guilt-relieving logic whereby they would drop their unwanted home cat or kittens near the front gate of the Humane Society and tell themselves that either:

• Their unwanted cat would find a way to the front door of the Humane Society.
• Someone from the Humane Society would walk out the front door, say, “Hey kitty, kitty,” and somehow the cat would ‘be saved.’

It doesn’t work that way.

The cats are frightened and the employees at the Humane Society only work with animals that are brought inside their facility. (Sadly, the Humane Society is overburdened with dogs and cats, many of which are euthanized either due to overcrowding or the animal is just not suitable to being adopted.)

Can You Share a Little of Your Aloha? What You Can Do To Help!

There are a number of ways you can share your Aloha with these abandoned kitties:

• Without Cost: You can add water to water bowls anytime/every time you go to the dump or old Kona Airport.

• You can donate food and feed cats at a location one day a week. Liz can coordinate with you.
• You can donate money to directly to Liz to help offset her personal expenses.
• You can save a cat. While most of the Kitties of a Lesser God are now habituated to living at the dump or at another location, many cats can be rescued, by you. While it isn’t as easy as just showing up and selecting a cat, some of the cats, after interactions with you over a number of days, can result in the purr-fect match! Liz understands which cats can be saved and whether they would be inside or outside kitties.

Contact us here for details on how you can help.

Here is how Aloha looks in action.

Pele, Keiki, Koa, and Makai were all abandoned at one time. Now, they all live with us and bring us joy every day!