How did I visit Amsterdam and miss a boat full of rescued stray cats???
I wish I'd known about De Poezenboot sooner. The name means Catboat and refers to Amsterdam's floating cat shelter. The owners describe it as the only floating cat sanctuary in the world. Now my question is: why are we tourists visiting the Van Gogh Museum and not this shelter? I would have gone straight there if I knew about it. The works of art are of a different kind, but still, I bet tourists walk out of the place equally astonished by the cuteness.
According to its official history, it all started back in 1966 when a woman named Henriette van Weelde found a mother cat and her kittens beneath a tree opposite her home. She took them in, and more cats followed, including animals whose owners could no longer care for them. She was soon recognized as the "cat lady" in the neighborhood. Two years later, she was running out of room for the animals, so she came up with the coolest idea ever: buying a boat for the cats so they could live there. Yes, she bought an old Dutch sailing barge and turned it into a cat shelter. If people can live in boats, why can't cats? Some volunteers joined her, and the Catboat Foundation became official.