Hi everyone, Katie here.
There's been a lot of buzz around the blogosphere about an amazing initiative and event that's focusing the spotlight on our outdoor feral brothers and sisters. It's called Architects For Animals – Giving Shelter. This clever fundraising and awareness initiative is in its third year and benefits the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals.
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FX FOWLE
photo by Lucio Santos
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Some of New York City's most prestigious and talented architects are designing and donating creative outdoor winter shelters to provide homeless cats with refuge from the season's frigid temperatures. At the public event, these amazing structures are on display to see, touch and marvel at. They are not only functional, but beautiful works of art. At the end of the event all the shelters will be donated to care givers that work paw in paw with the NYC Feral Cat Initiative.
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THE SHAG
photo by Lucio Santos
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Tens of thousands of free roaming and homeless cats live in NYC. Many live in groups or "colonies." The winter months create particularly harsh conditions for these cats. Finding food, water and shelter can be a life or death challenge.
There are literally thousands of dedicated volunteers that care for these animals, many of which are part of organizations that comprise the NYC Feral Cat Initiative. They make sure the cats in their care are spayed/neutered, vaccinated and left-eartipped to identify them as having been spayed/neutered. Every single day, these care givers provide food and water for the cats and if medical care is needed, they are there to find help.
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CAT-I-TAT
photo by Dana Edelson
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Giving Shelter is a competitive event which creates an opportunity for the architectural and design communities to showcase their talents while improving the lives of NYC's outdoor and homeless cats.
If you live in the area, this is an event you won't want to miss!
Thursday, January 10th from 6:00pm to 8:00pm
The Steelcase Showroom, NYC
>DETAILS
>TICKETS
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CAT SH3LTER
photo by Lucio Santos
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As much as we all love great design, our feral friends don't need anything fancy. NeighborhoodCats.org has a great how-to article on building your own shelter. Not only that, our blogging friends at The Chronicles of Zee & Zoey wrote just this week about the event and linked up to a GREAT demo on making your own shelter out of a simple Rubbermaid container.
>Neighborhood Cats DIY Shelters
>eRubbermaid Roughneck Homes
We want to give a special shout out to our friend Tamar from I Have Cat for letting us know about this event and asking for help in getting the word out. You can bet she'll be there trying to crawl inside the shelters herself!
