MARSAXLOKK, Malta — In the Maltese fishing village of Marsaxlokk, even the stray cats have homes.
Along a quiet stretch of Triq tas-Silġ near the harbour in Marsaxlokk, a row of intricately constructed wooden boxes sits in the sun, their elegant details gleaming under the light, each with a doorway just large enough for a cat to slip inside. Nearby, an old fishing boat, once painted in bright luzzu colours, rests on land with its hull divided into small compartments. These aren’t decorations or playhouses. They’re shelters, part of a community project led by local resident Natasha Gafá.
For years, Gafá has cared for the town’s street cats — more than 40 in total. Twice a day, at dawn and again in the evening, she walks the neighbourhood feeding them. She spends about €200 to €250 a month on food, a cost she covers herself.
Gafá considers the cats her pets, even though they live freely on the streets. She talks about them with a mix of affection and duty, knowing where each one sleeps, which have been neutered, and which still need to be trapped for the procedure. It’s part of her ongoing effort to keep the population of strays under control.
She says she hasn’t left Malta in years because there would be no one else to feed them.
What began as a few makeshift boxes has become a small landmark, a kind of feline neighbourhood known locally as the Cat Houses. The sign above the shelters says it plainly, but the place represents more than that. It’s a quiet act of humanity, built board by board for the lives that share her street.
Around the shelters, cats roam between fishing boats, market stalls and limestone walls, unbothered by the rhythm of daily life. They bask in the sun, return at dusk and sleep in the wooden houses Gafá built for them.
In a town known for its seafood market and fishing fleet, the cats of Marsaxlokk have found their own kind of harbour and a guardian who never stopped showing up.
