In December 2019, Sonica Fritz picked up a very frail ginger kitten. He was immediately rushed to the vet, but there was no happy ending.
“I named him Charlie. He fought like an absolute champ, but sadly lost the battle four days later. My life was shattered. I realised that: We all have had a Charlie in our lives who absolutely broke our hearts and made us want to get up and fight for all the other Charlies out there. This was how The Charlie Project started. I registered a non-profit organisation in honour of Charlie and together with a group of very dedicated and passionate people, we vowed to help all the animals we can possibly reach in our region.”
The dream started with one woman and grew into a group of many others sharing the same love. Just like myself, they believe that animals always come first. Even though their passion is cats, all animal lives matter.
“We are a cat rescue group with a common problem. This project is only just beginning so all the money we raise are used for the cats that are currently in foster care. We hope to be able to raise money so that we can build an official shelter. Currently the cats are in foster care, as there is no shelter yet. For now it is fantastic, but the ideal is to have a shelter and not to work from people’s homes forever,” Sonica says.
The current expenses are for medicine, vet appointments, treatment, food, cat litter, litter boxes, blankets, sterilisations or castrations. The official bank account details will be shared within the next few days on the project’s Facebook page.
Readers are welcome to contact Pietersburg Dierekliniek or Wolkberg Animal Clinic and make a donation that can be allocated to the project’s account.
“Those contributions will be a huge help. All the cats we have now are younger than a year, so kitten food are in big need. The food are distributed among foster parents. Blankets are always a must-have. Summer or winter they need it. Everyone who have cats will know that a cat cannot resist a super fluffy blanket. This is the biggest comfort for them. They sleep soft, knead it and suck on the blanket until they fall asleep. From time to time there are many nice bargains at retail stores” Sonica explains.
There are quite a few colonies in which some of the members are involved. They help to catch and sterilise the cats and place them back in the colony. They are fed on a daily basis and for this ordinary adult food is perfect.
“There are so many people who just dump cats. If we are lucky we will soon enough hear about it and pick them up wherever they are. They will then be taken to a vet for an examination and placed in foster care until we can get them a home. If there are people who cannot get homes for all their kittens, we even offer to help pay for a portion of the mother’s sterilisation if we can.”
