It is hard but this charity is the cat's whiskers

The Life: Anita Signorino, a teaching assistant at The British School Al Khubairat, has helped rescue injured street cats in Abu Dhabi for more than a decade. She speaks about why she has remained involved for so long.

Anita Signorino has three cats of her own. Sammy Dallal / The National

Anita Signorino, a teaching assistant at The British School Al Khubairat, has been a volunteer for Feline Friends Abu Dhabi, a cat welfare charity, for more than a decade. Here she talks about what has kept her involved in the non-profit organisation for so long.

When did you first volunteer for Feline Friends?

It was 12 years ago, when I first arrived in Abu Dhabi. I came from Kuwait and I knew even before I arrived that I would be involved because I checked out one of the books about Abu Dhabi and read about Feline Friends. I came to Abu Dhabi and pretty much got in touch with them straight away.

Does Feline Friends have any paid positions?

It is completely a voluntary organisation. Nobody gets paid; we don't have premises, so everything is done in our own homes.

How many volunteers do you have?

We have a long email list but the reality is that the core people, the people that are constantly doing stuff, [number] around 20. That's not counting foster 'parents'. But I am talking about the other parts of Feline Friends, the homing and fostering team, the trapping team, the emergency and general phone team. It's not enough and we do need a lot more people. I think a lot of people think it's a huge organisation but it's not. That's why we get so many burnouts. A lot of people join up in the beginning, but when they realise the load, a lot of people walk away.

But you have remained a volunteer for 12 years. Why?

My love for cats is the biggest thing. The support from my husband is another, because I wouldn't have been able to do a lot of things if he wasn't so supportive. It has always worried me that if I walked away Feline Friends wouldn't go on, which is not true at all. I am actually moving to Dubai soon and it will go on and get stronger.

What do you do for Feline Friends?

I became a trapper [when I first joined]. That involves trapping cats to be neutered and rescuing injured ones. Four or five years ago I became the trapping coordinator and my husband became the coordinator and treasurer, so it was pretty much a family thing because the kids got involved too.

Do you foster cats as well?

I did for a little while but I have three cats of my own and as they got older they just couldn't cope. We did enough rescuing and trapping, and we did a lot of fundraising as well, so I left the fostering to others.

How much of your spare time does it take up?

For 12 years it was a lot of time, probably too much. Pretty much I used to trap at least two nights a week and once you trap you have to release the next night after the operation, so I was pretty much out four or five nights a week. But it's my passion.

* Gillian Duncan

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