Feral Cats Give Baby Jesus the Boot in Brooklyn
As holiday season nativity scenes pop up, it’s not unusual for pranksters to steal baby Jesus from a creche. In Brooklyn, it’s a different story. For the past ten years on an empty lot, a creche is set up with the usual animals but a few extras show up. They’re feral cats and they’re not there to see Jesus. These homeless cats consider the creche with the cozy straw and warm lights, their turf and as soon as baby Jesus arrives on Christmas eve, they’re the first to boot hIm out. According to Rafael Lopez of RLJRnews.com there are six or seven ferals who sleep in the creche and are cared for by two sisters, Annette and Susane Amendola who own the vacant lot on Van Brunt St. in Brooklyn. Every winter they move the creche/feral cat shelter near the street and create their annual nativity scene. No one seems to mind that there’s a cat in the manger instead baby Jesus. After all, it is the season of peace, love and goodwill. Gold, Frankincense and Purr anyone?
Special thanks to Rafael Lopez for providing us exclusive photos of the feral cats and creche.
Bales of hay make excellent insulation for feral cat shelters. I’d love to see more hay surrounding the figurines for more warmth and I hope after Christmas they add a plastic wind barrier or other tips from our post on how to help feral cats in winter.
And speaking of goodwill, our friends at Friskies are making their biggest donation ever, half a million cans of cat food! Visit their If You Feed Me Wet campaign for info and funny photo memes. For something more to sing about, five celebrity cats Colonel Meow, Nala Cat, Hamilton the Hipster Cat, Oskar the Blind Cat, and Grumpy Cat, the official “spokescat” of Friskies are promoting the event with this adorable special holiday video. For EVERY view, Friskies will donate one can of cat food!
22 Comments
Austin Towers
What a great story! Warms the cockles! 🙂 xox
Flynn
How heartwarming. That is what goodwill is all about.
Kjelle Bus aka Charlie Rascal
Pawsome story about the cat´s who lives in the creche <3
Me have watched and shared Friskies CATmas video and I hope we hit the roof of 500.000 cans of wetfood soon 🙂
XOXO
Sue Brandes
Wonderful story. What a great way to help the kitties with the video.
Skeeter and Izzy
We know the baby Jesus is glad to have the kitties in the creche. We are so glad to hear that these kitties have shelter from the storms of life. There is good in this world and it is so nice to hear about it. As Tiny Tim said “God bless us every one” and God can be of many names and forms.
Just one note about Hay…it isn’t recommended for cats due to allergies. Straw is the best product but of course anything is better than nothing when it is cold and you have no home! We just thank everyone for loving and caring and reaching out a helping hand!!!!!
Luvs
Skeeter and Izzy and the Feral Gang + Twig and Peanut and Romeo >^..^<
Layla Morgan Wilde (Cat Wisdom 101)
That’s true about allergies. I wonder how common that is?
Skeeter and Izzy
It seems to be fairly common and just like people can cause the itchy eyes,sneezing,breathing problems,trigger asthma and cause skin problems as well. I think that there is a lot more pollen and dust in hay than straw due to the mixed grasses in most hay and also mold tends to occur more frequently in hay even when kept dry.
Luvs Skeeter and Izzy and the Feral Gang + Peanut and Twig and Romeo >^..^<
Glogirly
What a GREAT story!!!
I absolutely love it.
Go Kitties!!!
: )
meowmeowmans
I saw this story earlier today, and it really made me smile.
da tabbies o trout towne
we haz it on good authoritee that Jesus iz knot mindin de kittehs is sharin the creche XXXX
dude K RB cloud 777313
sauce of fishbone RB cloud 777315
Layla Morgan Wilde
I agree 100%
Nerissa's Life
Baby Jesus loves cats. He would be happy to share his cradle with a little kitty or two. I know in my heart of hearts he would. So do my peeps.
Purrs,
Nissy
Chris Davis
This is so special – truly what Christmas is all about.
easy rider
That’s the spirit of christmas ( or catmas), just beautiful!
Cindy
I love that the ferals are embraced at the creche. I just hope that they are cared for after the creche is taken down…
Layla Morgan Wilde
Cindy, they are taken care of. After the holidays, the creche is moved to the back of the lot.
Viki Worden
What an awesome story! I’m glad they let the feral babies stay! They need love and compassion too.
Sammy
I love the crèche scene….saw one with a little homeless puppy lying next to Baby Jesus yesterday online….I think it’s really the true Christmas spirit that the animals find shelter there…..it’s heartwarming. As for the video – what a bunch of sweet “stars” showing us how much fun Christmas can be for kitties no matter WHAT!
Pam and Sam
Matt - Live Music Photographer
Merry Christmas to all the cats out there! haha
Sparkle
I read about the Nativity ferals earlier today! And my human got to go to the Friskies event since it was local to us! Can you believe she did not pose with Grumpy Cat? She went a different route and actually, I am kind of proud of her…
Tillie and Georgia
We think Jesus would approve of the kitties
seeking shelter there. It’s what Mary and Joseph did 🙂
Purrs Georgia and Julie,
Treasure,Tiger and JJ
Kathryn
Oh my, the most adorable creche story I have ever read. Simply adorable.