Retirement Village Where Cats Live out Their Golden Years in Style
Hidden away in the rural town of Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, England, there is a one-of-a-kind retirement village made up entirely of cats! According to Yahoo, Moggies Retirement Village provides aging homeless, stray, and abandoned cats a safe and loving home.
Helping elderly cats thrive
Newsfare reports that the village was founded in 2009, in response to a growing awareness of the heartbreaking plight of the many elderly and stray cats who did not have homes to go back to. Moggies Retirement Village was created by those who understood that older cats have a more difficult time finding homes and even if they are adopted they often do not get the care needed to help them thrive.
A refuge for felines
Today there are 17 cats who were either abandoned or were living as strays that are living comfortably in this special community, Upworthy reports. The village is a refuge for the cats who are given proper nutritional food as well as medical supervision and treatments when needed. At the heart of the village are the dedicated volunteers who are on site to give the cats love and attention as they settle into their new surroundings.
Susie, a volunteer vet at the shelter, told Upworthy “The shelter was intended to create an area for cats who were too elderly or had ongoing health conditions that needed regular treatment and monitoring to live out their days in comfort.”
Older cats can be very rigid and tend to fear change. To try to alleviate the stress of adjusting to their new living arrangements, the cats are kept inside the safe space of a cottage for a two week period. This helps them acclimate more successfully.
“It also opened the door for people who had elderly cats and were going into a nursing home and couldn’t take them with them. It gives a different option and eases a stressful upsetting time by finding somewhere the cats could live out their final days,” Susie added.
The volunteers have also created a unique program for local children to pay monthly visits to the village where they spend time with the cats, patiently reading to them and giving them personal attention.
This utopia for felines provides the cats with outdoor space for exploration, scratching posts and toys and most importantly with safe and loving homes for the aging cats to live out their golden years in comfort and peace.
