Natalia Voznyuk
I am often asked how I decided to create a shelter. I’ve been thinking about the answer to this question…and I haven’t found it. I loved animals since childhood, shared treats with them, took care of them, they slept with me. Like most people, I graduated from university, worked at a prestigious job with good prospects for career growth, business trips, meeting interesting people. One day I saw a kitten… small, surprisingly beautiful and at the same time sad and unhappy.
I stopped, took him in my arms and took him home. It was a pity for those who are watching from the basement, freezing, curled up in a ball, in a pile of leaves, sitting on the porch of the store and waiting for pieces of food. I had a desire to help them. This is not for pathetic speeches, but I began to feel their pain… their pain literally pierced my whole body and my soul and heart were squeezed inside with hellish pain. That’s how I started helping those who need help. A very large number of animals were found loving families.
Unfortunately, the flow of homeless animals does not stop in our country. And not all animals find their home – some have health problems, some have a plain appearance, some have their own character that people do not appreciate. That’s how I was left with those that no one needed.
Until 2017, I lived in an apartment with rescued kittens, but then animals from the shelter of my deceased colleague were added to my animals – because her relatives demanded that they all be removed from the territory. There was no way out, and I had to take all her animals. Of course, I understood that we could not survive in the apartment, looked for options, looked for help… but help did not come. The situation escalated and threats began, and I could not risk the animals, their lives and health – and a decision was made to sell the apartment and move.
That’s how we moved and now we live in our own little world called “KotoKhatka”. We moved into an old house, without water and the benefits of civilization. But we found peace. First of all, a fence was made so that the animals did not run out. In the beginning, we collected water from a well, which had to be brought and heated. But over time, with the help of benefactors, we were able to carry out all communications, and not run to the well anymore. I sincerely thank everyone who has been with us all these years, who helps and sincerely cares.
And this year we got to the barn where the cats live. All these years we have been improving their habitat. but the barn is old, the roof began to leak, the beams were rotten and could fall and there would be trouble. Thanks to the benefactors, we replaced the roof, insulated the walls and floor, renovated the rooms, made another aviary for the kittens and made a real KotoHata … that I dreamed of.
You know that construction is difficult and hard process … but I survived it. A micro stroke suffered almost on the legs, a lot of nerves and worries, not decent thieving contractors, male builders with curse words and the desire to look into the glass … and when you are face to face with all this, you also had to include a man, a foreman and deal with all this, with people, with estimates.
