Momoko

Momoko Kawakami - Forest Hills, Queens

Donate to support Momoko: venmo @MomokoNYCcats

I came to New York City in 2003 from Japan to go to school. I live in Forest Hills, Queens in a one-bedroom. I used to live in Jamaica where I met Clelia feeding cats in front of my apartment in March 2020, as the pandemic was beginning. I donated some food and money to her and then I started helping her feed some cats on my block. A couple of blocks away she was having problems feeding cats because of hostile neighbors and I was able to move some of them to my block. I started feeding them at midnight or 2am to avoid the neighbors who didn’t like the cats and I kept moving the food closer to my block. It took a month to move them! It was a group of 7-10 cats. Clelia fixed all of them and several of them have become tame and I have taken them off the street to foster and find homes for them.

People in Jamaica don’t understand why Clelia is feeding the cats and they don’t like it. I try to help them understand so they won’t be mad at Clelia. Some people started cooperating and one even let me trap in her backyard. But many of them hate cats and don’t support Clelia feeding them. We have so many problems with people dumping cats too, hoarding cats, mentally ill people.

We need spay/neuter appointments that are nearby, we need holding space for large projects. I can hold one cat in my bathtub, but when you have many cats to spay/neuter, then you can’t do a large project that way. People in Jamaica are very poor. Many people live in one apartment. They don’t have space to hold cats before and after surgery. 

I spent more than $30,000 over the last two years on cat rescue work. Some cats are sick or injured and need extra vet care. The costs add up when you foster and feed many cats too. I am a part-time massage therapist with no health insurance. 

Cultural differences contribute to problems with cat rescue in Jamaica. People who don’t have pet cats in their culture and they think a cat is no different from a rat or other pest. And even if they want to keep a pet cat, they can’t afford vet care. I know people who adopted a kitten who later died because they didn’t know they need to take the cat to a vet.  We have problems with bodega cats who are not spayed or neutered as well.