Stray cats in Taiwan’s capital have recently received an upgrade in their dining situation with a project called the Midnight Cafeteria.
Launched in September, the “cafeteria” is actually 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.”
Ms Hung began volunteering after a good friend rescued and raised a stray cat.
For five years, she has worked with other cat lovers in the neighbourhood who buy the cats food, help clean the houses and co-ordinate with residents who may have complaints.
Ms Hung also helps capture injured cats and cats that need spaying, takes them to get veterinary attention and then returns them to their haunts.
The wooden houses in Ms Hung’s neighbourhood were hand-painted by a local artist, Stefano Misesti, and feature smiling felines as well as street food that is loved in Taiwan such as stinky tofu.
In addition to food bowls, one houses basic medicine for the cats.
Neighbours have brought small cushions as well as decorated cardboard boxes to add to the houses.
Started by Chen Chen-yi, a researcher at the Taiwan Animal Equality Association, the cat houses help ensure stray cats get fed well and local residents do not have to deal with a mess.
They also raise awareness about the spaying programme and the condition of stray cats.
“In Taiwan, there are a lot of people who feed strays, but often they leave a mess, and then the public becomes annoyed by it and they become annoyed with strays as well,” he said.
The cat houses were a multi-team effort.
Mr Chen applied for a grant from the Taipei city government to fund the project, and then connected with a local ward leader as well as volunteers to carry it out.
On a recent Sunday, Pipi, a plump black-and-white street cat who lives near a night market, and two of his friends were enjoying attention from Ms Hung and another volunteer who came to feed them.
After eating at the cafeteria, they settled in for a lazy morning nap.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here