It started as a "necessary evil", so that tens of cats that were on the premises of the Monastery of Saint Neophytos stop moving between the café-restaurant customers and the reopened space courtyard of the monastery. Five years since then, however, the Ayios Neophytos Cat Park has been converted into one of the most important refuges for cats and visitor attraction for animal lovers visiting this area of the island.
The park was created on the concession piece of land near the monastery Agios Neophytos by Archimandrite Alexis Egkleistrioti for this purpose and thanks to the voluntary work of dozens of foreigners, mainly residents of Tala. The operation of the park started as a single enclosed space where securely lived about 70-80 cats, but today in the park there are 700 such animals.
'These are cats that no-one wants,' he said, 'and they are all neutered so as not to have a bigger problem with reproduction'. The park is operated exclusively by volunteer residents working in the region from the UK and receives no subsidy from any official body. The only assistance could be considered the assignment of the block from the Monastery of St. Neophytos, free of rent.'
The sheer number of cats now fills the space, placing stress on the volunteers, who provide selfless labour, and provision of supplies and money towards neutering from private animal lovers. Although this offer is commendable, stressing, however, that the space is now too small for the needs of cats, and the work of volunteers no longer sufficient for such numbers.
"That is why we can no longer accept the transfer of cats no longer wanted by their owners into the Ayios Neophytos cat park," said the representative of the British volunteers.
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