Helder Da Silva of Toronto found and rescued a frozen kitten four years ago at his place of work, the compassionate act would become instrumental in changing his life and the lives of many homeless cats.

Da Silva who has six cats of his own has racked up over 140,000 km on his car over the past four years traveling to cat colonies everyday across the city providing about 35 homeless cats with donated food and water he told the Toronto Star.

Helder Da Silva feeds cats daily at four locations in the around the city – Source Sadiya Ansari Toronto Star

“I’ve lost a lot of respect for the human race because this is all done by people — careless, ignorant, uneducated. It shouldn’t be happening,” said Da Silva.

While food is a concern for the cats so is the source of available water  “They’re dying of thirst” he told the Toronto Star, so when the temperature starts to drop, he leaves water in a steel bowl placed in an old cookie tin, which he keeps from freezing by lighting a small candle beneath the bowl in the tin.

Helder Da Silva is doing his part to help and has fixed about 100 plus cats, and like other cat colony caretakers has benefited by the free spay neuter clinics offered through the Toronto Humane Society and Toronto Animal Services.

Unwanted cats are abandoned all the time, they are left in areas with existing cat colonies all over the city, the problem made worse by the fact that people do not spay and neuter their cats.

“If people don’t want their cats, just give them up for adoption,” Da Silva said. There are so many organizations assisting in adoptions now that just dropping off a cat curbside should never be an option, he said. “There’s no excuse for that.”

It is estimated that there are about 100,000  plus homeless cats in the city, anyone wishing to get involved and help should contact the Toronto Feral Cat Coalition a group that offers fantastic resources on TNR.