Someone get me to Amsterdam! I gotta visit de Poezenboot (the Cat Boat) a floating cat sanctuary for stray and abandoned felines.

This houseboat on Amsterdam’s Herengracht canal was founded in 1966, when a woman named Henriette van Weelde began taking in stray cats into her home. Eventually, she found that she had too many meowskis for one house and decided to expand her horizons onto the water. She bought an old Dutch barge in 1968, decked it out to be cat-friendly, and began moving kitties in to this home on the waves.

The barge was replaced in 1971 by an ark, and then replaced again in 1979, by an actual houseboat. In 1987, it was officially registered as a charity, Stichting de Poezenboot – the “Cat Boat Foundation.”

 

Today, de Poezenboot is not only a successful cat sanctuary, but a popular tourist attraction. The Cat Boat is looking for feline-loving volunteers and donations, but in case you were wondering, adoptions are only for Dutch residents.

Thanks John for the head’s up!

Images: hlehto, Kundabadtz, Verity Borthwick, gripso_banana_prune