Whanganui's Little Critters stocked up with cat food after sizeable donations

Amanda Meltzer with her dogs Pippa, left, and Marty, and 765 cans of donated cat food. Photo / Joy Clark

Whanganui health improvement practitioner Amanda Meltzer and SuperValue Gonville owner Sagar Patel have joined forces to give local animal shelter Little Critters a special, and sizable, delivery - 606kg of cat food.

Meltzer said the idea started when she was looking around for $500 worth of cat food to buy and donate.

"Joy [Clark, owner of Little Critters] is always literally bankrupting herself buying cat food, and she always makes sure the cats eat before she does," Meltzer said.

"I was looking for 10-kilo bags of cat food but you really can't buy it in bulk, and despite contacting a bunch of places it didn't really go anywhere."

Meltzer said she eventually went to SuperValue Gonville supermarket, which was across the road from the Gonville Medical Centre where she worked.

"I found these big jellymeat tins and talked to Sagar, who agreed to split the costs 50-50 behind the scenes.

"SuperValue delivered it straight to Joy's door, and even went the extra mile and delivered half of it to the other cat rescue in town, Precious Paws Paradise.

"There was so much cat food that volunteers started coming and taking four flats each home to store it."

Meltzer said that when it came time to settle the bill with SuperValue she was presented with an invoice for $0, with Patel covering the cost of the entire donation.

"I went in after work in tears, and I used the original money to buy another 99kg of dry cat food and delivered it myself.

"There were 765 cans, and they ended up with 606 kilos that day.

"I don't think I've ever seen people cry about cat food before, the whole thing was pretty heartwarming and amazing."

Patel said that every month SuperValue donated $200 to local causes but because of Covid-19 there was a "bit of a suspension".

"I thought I'd do one big one instead," Patel said.

"Without the community there's no store, and we exist and have a job because of the community.

"If there are ways we can reach out and give back, we're keen to do it."

Little Critters owner Joy Clark said that her policy was "we say no to nothing", which meant there were a large number of cats and other animals to look after.

"We go through about 80kg of cat food a week," Clark said.

"At the moment our vet bills are pretty high, so something like this frees up money to try and pay them.

"The best-case scenario for each cat is about $200 in vet bills, and yesterday alone we were approached with five."

Clark said she wanted to give a special thanks to Meltzer and SuperValue, as well as to the team of volunteers that helped her feed and look after the cats.

"The volunteers go out every single day and feed the dumped cats, and it's a terrific commitment to make."

Meltzer has set up a givealittle page for donations to Whanganui animal rescue organisations at https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/marty-the-super-dog