Mira is a 74-year-old native of Serbia living in Bosnia where she wakes up to winter with poverty on every inch of her skin. Years of hardship have made her both strong and weak at the same time. She’s cold and its just so, so quiet here. She looks out on all the hungry animals asking her for help, and for the first time, Mira thinks that perhaps she has reason to believe that she is no longer alone. Due to ethnic tensions, she has been fairly ostracized by her village neighbors, but she has just made a new friend who sees her like a sister who is long-overdue to be loved.
“We stopped by some trash cans where two poor cats were waiting for someone to throw away something they could eat,” rescuer Edina Pasic of the group Andejo Sarajevo explains. “I gave them a can of food and suddenly heard a woman yelling from across the street saying not to give them all the food because there are a lot of cats on the other side as well. The poor woman said she didn’t get a chance to buy them anything, and judging by her appearance and the house that’s barely standing, it really doesn’t seem like she can handle feeding over thirty cats and two dogs. She doesn’t have enough for herself. She’s in a really bad state but she’s proud and does not want to say that she just can’t afford it. I started crying when I gave her two cans of food and she was thanking me as if I gave her a house. She kept on saying ‘You saved them today, you gave them food.’ Those are not her cats. The poor cats come to her from the village nearby cause she’s the only one that does not chase them away”
How We Can Pull Together To Help
Harmony Fund has sponsored a delivery of food for these cats and pitched in to give a few groceries to Mira too. Watch a video of the delivery below.
In March and April we plan to sterilize these cats who could produce several hundred cats without intervention. And just as importantly, we’re collecting funds for Edina to deliver food regularly to homeless animals in deeply impoverished areas. She often doesn’t have enough to give out. Donations to help can be made here.