As a child in Britain, Mark Harris used to drive his parents up the wall with his frequent ‘rescuing’ of stray animals, all of which would inevitably end up in the family’s London home.

Today, not much has changed, except it is his wife now who is groaning over his nature.

It was the Englishman’s compassion for animals which eventually led to the formation of the Friends of Felix Street Cats Rehabilitation Programme, organised by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), here last Saturday.

The programme aimed to provide new homes for stray cats by allowing members of the public to adopt them and thus control the problem of overpopulation among felines.

Harris said it all began when a squatter colony near his home along Jalan Mesra, was torn down three weeks ago.

"The families had left the area but I noticed there was a large number of cats still on the site of the former houses, presumably left by their owners when they were uprooted," he said.

He then began feeding them everyday, but soon realised that more needed to be done.

"They needed new homes, so I contacted the SPCA for help. We came up with the idea of the rehabilitation programme," said Harris, who owns four cats and two dogs.

The programme, which was held at Harris’ home in Ampang from 2pm to 4pm, received good response from the public as 15 of the 26 cats were adopted.

Harris sponsored the fees for the neutering or spaying, also vaccination and deworming of the animals.

The programme was named after Felix, one of the rescued cats which has since been adopted as the programme’s mascot. In the 1960s, there was a popular TV cartoon series called Felix the Cat.

SPCA animal inspector Sabrina Yeap said the remaining cats will be sent to the Noah’s Ark animal sanctuary in Pekan Nanas, Johor.

She said SPCA will conduct house visits on the new owners to ensure that the pets have adapted to their new surrounding.

Source: Malay Mail