88-Year-Old Woman Living in Nursing Home Feeds 14 Stray Cats Every Day

Illustration - Shutterstock | Esin Deniz

Each Saturday, Rita Rama would head to a certain park in her hometown of San Jose, California, with her family to spend some quality time together. And each time they went, they would see the same elderly lady toting a walker strewn with plastic bags, which were filled with supplies as though she were about to have a picnic.

The elderly lady’s bags contained paper plates, bottles of water, and provisions—cat food to be exact. It turned out that the picnic she was planning wasn’t for herself at all. She would put out the dishes and serve the food and drink as 14 cats, who were living in the park, would wander over to enjoy a meal.

After observing this woman’s behavior each time they went to the park, one day Rita decided to approach her and ask her what the story behind the cat picnic really was.

The woman introduced herself as Evan, an 88-year-old resident of a nearby senior’s home. Each day, she came to the park to feed the 14 cats who had been abandoned in the park by her neighbor. She felt it had been irresponsible to have left them with no consideration for their well-being.

“I was raised to follow through with commitments, including those to our pets,” said Evan.

Evan would go to the park to feed them every day, rain or shine. She would pet the cats when they came over to eat, and then she would go back to her senior’s home, which was located beside the park.

Although it was clear that the cats depended on Evan, she knew that this could hardly be a permanent arrangement. She hoped that she could find someone to take them in and look after them; at the very least, she hoped that they could be spayed or neutered.

When Rita learned the whole story behind the homeless cats, she realized that she had the power to help them by sharing their story on social media. She took some photos of Evan and the cats enjoying a meal in the park and shared a few words to go along with them, and soon, literally hundreds of people were commenting and offering services to help the cats.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find out what became of the cat community or whether they found forever homes yet, but with so many caring people on social media having chimed in, we have high hopes that some kind soul will come forward to take them under their wing.

Here are just a few of the heartwarming messages of compassion from internet users offering help after hearing Rita’s story: