Hathef Khazvini (HATCH)
Homeopath, musician and philosopher, Hatch co-founded Cattitude with Devika. He fed a large cat colony for many years, every single night without fail, often facing threats and abuse, carrying a veritable buffet of food and beverages with him to indulge his little ones! The reins (or basket!) have been handed over now to a carer in the colony, supported by us while Hatch feeds the cats in their own building. He helps Devika run the Trust assisting with feeding and accounts, treating tricky cases with homeopathic remedies and calming his wife down when people tell her they want to give up their cats.
Sweta Narayanan
Sweta Narayanan is an education professional and a trustee with The Prajnya Trust, that works extensively in women's rights, peace education and women's history. She is also a formidably accomplished Kalari teacher with a grace that she probably learned from the many cats she feeds and cares for 😀 When Sweta isn’t feeding her many street dogs and cats, and rounding them all up to be neutered, she volunteers a chunk of her time visiting the cat home and coordinating adoptions with single-minded determination and dedication and never hesitates to lend a hand to innumerable animals and animal lovers who need help.
Hema Sheth
When Hema Sheth quit the corporate world, wanting to do something more meaningful, her son Sagar (a passionate animal lover ) suggested she volunteer with Cattitude. Perfect timing, as we were looking for a human ‘mother’ for our cat home; someone who lived nearby and was not too busy to visit regularly. To say that Hema was ‘the perfect person for the job’ would be understating it! Her bonding with the cats and staff, and her able and diplomatic assistance in the running of the cat home have made a huge difference, while her husband Manoj has been an invaluable source of help in maintaining the house the cats live in, and helping us with the odd crucial project to create cat spaces for underprivileged cat caretakers!
While Hema has many favourites, one cat at our senior cat home decided he owned her - Sangha. He would closely monitor her time with the others, making his displeasure felt when she exceeded her limit! Hema’s soft heart has led to her shedding many tears when our darlings depart and when Sangha also left us, she lost a soulmate she will never forget. But she - like our entire Cattitude family - has helped fulfil our ultimate goal that no cat in our care will ever go uncounted or unloved.
Raghav Sundararajan
Raghav finds his way into the heart of even the least interested cat. That’s his superpower! He loves football and can spend an entire weekend eating his favourite food and binge-watching a good show with his fur-babies, Arya and Dexter by his side. (Basically, a community cat fell in love with him, led him to her kittens and immediately negotiated adoption terms with her caretakers!!)
As generous with his heart as he is with his time, Raghav has been a significant participant in some crucial Cattitude projects. While he loves to spend his free time cuddling our cat home kitties, he also takes their comfort and wellbeing very seriously and has made invaluable contributions to shelter enrichment, working closely with Devika and the caretakers, to ensure our kitties’ environment is constantly improved and upgraded. When he isn’t serving the needs of local and far-out kitties, he is an IT professional.
Priyanka & Aamir
When a tiny calico rescue swept Priyanka Shyam into our lives we couldn’t believe our good fortune - Priyanka didn’t just adopt Jenga but began to foster delicate little kittens for us and proved to be a uniquely attentive and gifted nurse and foster mum with an undistilled love for cats. Priyanka is the creative half of a brilliant, much-in-demand Digital Marketing and Advertising company and her insightful and beautiful design work has lent great style to our animal work 😊
The OTHER half is the incomparable Aamir Khan, cat rescuer, dad to several overfed neighbourhood cats, and the level-headed marketing strategist of the company he co-founded with Priyanka: Braket
Together they bring a whole new perspective to our animal welfare work with their cool ideas, beautiful photography, amazing talents and dogged determination to Get Things Done. (That includes this beautiful website)
Of course it figures: you need four legs (and some whiskers), to make Aamir and Priyanka your undisputed slaves.
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Gayatri Sekar
Gayatri would, in her ideal world, adopt every cat (and dog) she sets eyes on. A total softie at heart, Gayatri's life is run by her pet cats (Cattitude rescues, no less!) Minor and Malala, whose terms and conditions state that she must help other needy cats as long as she doesn’t bring them home :D
Gayatri’s work life is spent as a knowledge management professional in the international disability rights movement. Her quirky, ever-present humor has helped Cattitude create an engaging Instagram presence, with her canny and hilarious captions and memes. Always assisted by her wonderfully supportive husband Prasanna, Gayatri is happiest spending her spare time feeding community animals, helping out with several Cattitude projects, taking thousands of pictures of her cats, and decorating her charming home with cat-friendly decor.
Rasika
When Rasika moved back to India with her two cats, Moca and Safa, she already had a background of fostering cats for Blue Cross International in the UK and was keen to continue helping animals in India. For a few years she was a dedicated foster mum for Cattitude, and even now, while being known for her helpfulness to many rescuers, she is ever ready to volunteer for various Cattitude activities, counselling people on cat welfare, and coordinating spay/neuter projects. A seasoned HR consultant, Rasika is an invaluable part of Chennai's animal welfare network.
Lakshman Vijayaraghavan
An architect and interior designer by profession and a car and cat aficionado by passion, Lakshman is a devoted cat daddy who never misses a day feeding cats at various places, or dashing off somewhere to help someone rescue a cat in trouble. Lakshman has given generously of his time and many talents to help Cattitude with a hundred and one things from shelter management and repairs to helping people design better cat spaces for their homes. Eccentric (like most cat people) and fiercely independent, the only purrson he listens to is his spirit cat Chutki who shares his daily kanji and rules him with a velvet paw.
JP & Magdalene
John Osborne and Magdalene Tewes - better known as JP and Magda - are never happier than when they are covered in kittens and puppies (they wouldn’t mind hippos and pandas too but city life has its limits). Over the years, they have opened their home and hearts to a large number of rescued cats and dogs and fostered several kitties for Cattitude, providing a loving bridge for rescued animals to find new tomorrows.
While Magda works at an NGO serving underprivileged youth, JP is an ESG Consultant, but their skills don’t stop there! Magda is a gifted artist and interior designer and JP’s talents include driving a train, surfing, animal rescue and care. He is also studying to become a Chartered Accountant, which allows us to seek his invaluable help when our accounts make our hair stand on end!