March 21, 2006

The Poezenboot (cat boat) : two barges moored on Amsterdam's Singel Canal are cat houses. No, real cats.

One houses strays (spayed/neutered by Poezenboot vets) waiting to be adopted, while the second barge is home to elderly and sick cats. The story began with a woman named Henriette Van Weelde, a "cat lady" who started sheltering abandoned and feral cats in 1966. Eventually a boat was found to help with her feline crowd, as well as volunteers to help care for them. Now, 40 years later, this is a major tourist attraction in Amsterdam. All is not well in puss-in-boats land, alas. On March 20, 2006, city officials had one of the boats towed away. The boat is open to the public from 1 to 3 p.m. Bring tuna!

posted by fish tick 18 years ago
  • any owls?
  • or dogs in shawls? I have a dog, you know...
  • Yeah...where's the dog boat....(other than Carnival Cruises of course).
  • . ./\~~/\. . . ( O . O ) . . .\ ~V~/. . . ./~~~\. . . |~~~~| . . /~~~~\ . .(~~~~~). . \~~~~/ . ---~ww~---
  • Woot! Unplumbed bee talents!!
  • Owl boat ye cann'ah bee' tha'!
  • Cats with sea legs! Myarr!
  • The boat is open to the public from 1 to 3 p.m. Bring tuna! ...and a runcible spoon.
  • ...intolerable pussycution by the city after 30 years of allowing the catboats to operate.
  • don't you mean purrrsecution?
  • Ooooooh, kittieeeeeees!
  • ... see, wrack-kitties ...
  • on March 20, 2006! City district Amsterdam Centre got what it wanted. They didn't listen to 20.000 autographs, hundreds of emails and letters. Nobody wins with this decision to refuse the catboat their permit. And that makes it even more incomprehensible and useless. Monday March 20, 2006 the 2nd Catboat was towed away. But our fight continues, we will try to ensure the return of Boat 20. In a related story we are still trying to raise 200.000 euro to buy another boat that is for sale on the Singel. There is not a lot of time (untill 31 march). Is there a millionaire among you who loves cats and can help us out? Or is there someone who knows how to raise a lot of money? Please let us know! Ah, would any of you lurking lot happen to be very wealthy?
  • Wow, thanks for the link. I can't believe these are being towed away. This pic is adorable.
  • I am not a lurker. I am simply not all here. Or at least, not all the time.