Taipei’s stray cats dine out at the Midnight Cafeteria with the help of Taiwan’s animal-loving volunteers
- A programme that helps feed street cats while keeping residents happy is enhanced by 45 small wooden houses decorated by Taiwanese artists
- Project is built on philosophy that a little effort by many people can achieve a lot
Pipi already dines well.
The plump, black-and-white street cat lives near a night market in a neighbourhood of Taipei where volunteers have fed and taken care of strays for years. But Pipi and his fellow street cats got an upgrade to their dining situation recently with the Midnight Cafeteria project.
Launched in September, the “cafeteria” comprises 45 small wooden houses painted by Taiwanese artists and scattered across Taipei. The idea is to give the cats a place to rest while making feeding them less messy.
It began in maths teacher Hung Pei-ling’s neighbourhood, where about 20 neighbours are helping stray cats in addition to their full-time jobs.
“We want to push forward this philosophy that you don’t have to be part of a very top-level association or something that takes up all of your time,” she said. “You can just be one person doing something a little bit at a time, a little bit, and taken all together, you can achieve a lot.”