The Dilemma of the Cat Man

For those of you who have been quietly following my cat saga, it has finally been resolved.

Three of the kittens have been adopted (one by my children). And somebody put us in touch with a fellow who runs a cat shelter called Girgurim. We called him up, and he was willing to take in the mother and two remaining kittens. He wanted to push us off for a few days, but eventually we got him to agree to take them before shabbos.

So Friday afternoon, my family piled into the car with said felines, and drove off to Kibbutz Harel (between Tzomet Shimshon and TzometNachson), where Girgurim is located. Here our host accepted the cats and took us on a short tour of his premises.

They care for around 800 cats in 1 dunam of land that they have enclosed for their comfort. Yes, those figures are correct. We saw it. They never destroy any cats, no matter how sick or feeble; they just take them in and care for them. And I have to be honest, these cats look like somebody is taking the most amazing care of them. They look strong, robust, healthy - as if each one of them was being taken care of individually by a family with 2.4 kids and a white picket fence around their garden. Except that they're all living under one gigantic roof, with tens of discarded sofas, beds and other furniture and toys to sleep on and play with. If I were a cat in Israel, I would probably want to live there.

Anyway, I thanked they guy, and gave him a modest donation - maybe enough to feed the 3 cats I gave him for a month. I thought, I can't take this money out of maaser, and I would much rather donate money to a cause that benefits people rather than cats.

So now, this guy with the big heart is saddled with 3 extra feline mouths to feed. I'm sure it's a big maala what he's doing, looking after Hashem's creatures - but would I encourage my children to follow his path? No way. Frankly, I think he's lost the plot. I think he's wasting his obviously considerable koach of chesed on a bunch of dumb cats, when he could be using it to care for any number of different kinds of people who need it.

Yet I am grateful to him, and I took advantage of him. I think what he's doing is silly and wasteful; I think he is wasting his life on a non-cause - and I went ahead and fed him more of the same drug.

Was that a good thing to do? Should I maybe have looked at his situation and said to myself, "This man says he wants my cats, but I know better what he needs, and that is for me simply to dump the cats on some kibbutz somewhere and let them fend for themselves, rather than be an additional burden to this misguided fellow Yid here, who doesn't know his right hand from his left."

What do you think?