Sports journalist Puleng Sekabate and this beautiful ginger cat bonded. She spent a lot of time pampering him.
The Germiston City News kicked off its community project, City News Caring for the Community, at the Germiston and Bedfordview SPCA, on Wednesday.
The project will see the GCN’s staff visiting charity and community organisations throughout the city on a monthly basis.
The idea is to give care where it is needed and the team will spend two hours helping out at one organisation per month.
Wednesday’s visit to the Germiston SPCA was an extremely humbling one.
The team was saddened by the number of animals forgotten or unwanted by their owners and saw that all they wanted was love.
We were tasked with spending time playing with and interacting with the animals.
The perfect job for us.
Although some of the dogs were scared and shy at first, they soon warmed up to the attention and enjoyed themselves immensely, getting lots of hugs and strokes from the team.
We tried our best to give as many dogs as possible attention, but found that a whole day would have been needed to get to everyone.
The cats enjoyed the attention, too, showing how much they appreciated it with purrs and snuggles.
Chairman of the Germiston SPCA Michelle Falgate said that, by walking and spending time with the animals, we were helping to prevent kennel stress.
“This enables us to keep them longer, giving us a better chance of finding the perfect home for them,” she explained.
“It also helps prevent boredom and makes the animals happier and healthier and ultimately more able to be homed.”
The GCN team enjoyed the time spent with the animals and, although a few tears were shed, we felt that we made a small difference in their lives.