Founder & President
I’m Corinna Janiec, the president and founder of the CCCA. I started CCCA in 2013 by looking after street cats and started building the shelter in February 2014, which is now home to more than 200 cats. I’m at the shelter almost every day to lead our fantastic team of volunteers, work with our vets, guide visitors and adopters through the Quinta dos Gatos and manage the many day to day tasks to keep our shelter going. I’m proud to work with the national blood bank, which around 70 of our cats are active blood doners and have saved many lives through transfusions. I also work with the municipality for the work we do in the community. A big part of my role is getting funding to continue the great work we do. I am a volunteer and have dedicated my life to the shelter. What my team and I have accomplished over the past 10 years gives me so much pride. Come visit and see for yourself
Carolyn Maessen
I’m Carolyn Maessen, and I’ve been a board member and volunteer since 2022. My main roles include managing communications, social media, fundraising and coordinating vet students for work experience. What I enjoy most about volunteering is spending time with the cats and being part of our incredible shelter community. Each week, I do both a morning and evening shift at the shelter and assist our vet with sterilisations when needed. One of the highlights for me is fostering kittens, socialising them, and watching them find their forever homes. I’m incredibly proud of the impactful work CCCA does in the community and feel honored to be part of such a special organisation.
Felicity Shuttleworth-Katz
Hi! I'm Felicity and I have been a volunteer at CCCA since 2022. After moving to the Algarve, I noticed the amount of stray animals here and I wanted to help with this issue. I found the CCCA cat shelter and I immediately knew I found my calling! I fell in love with all our shelter residents, with the chronically ill cats finding a special place in my heart. I help several days a week with cleaning, feeding and providing general care. My goals at the shelter are to find forever homes for our lovely cats, and to ensure all our animals feel loved and nurtured, as they deserve. I am super proud to be part of the volunteer team and encourage everyone with a love for animals to come by and lend a hand!
Eileen Henle
Hello my name is Eileen and I have been living in Portugal with my husband since April 2024. We fell in love with the country on holiday 6 years ago and have spent our holidays here ever since. Last year we were lucky enough to meet Corinna and her shelter during a 3 month break from Germany. After that we decided that Portugal was the country we wanted to live in and 6 months later we made it happen. My husband and I help out a few days in the morning with cleaning the cat houses and feeding the cats. I have also taken over the charity's bookkeeping and have been on the Board of Directors since April. I am very happy to be part of such a great team and always look forward to our morning coffee together.
Nathalie McFarlane
My name is Nathalie McFarlane and I moved from Holland to Portugal in 2022. and have been working as a volunteer at the CCCA for over a year now and I really enjoy it! Surrounded by my favorite furry friends, and trying to socialize some of the feral kitties which is a great challenge but so far my patience has paid off with a few. Corinna asked me to join them as a board member of the CCCA, and of course I said “ Yes”. I like to brainstorm with the other members about new ideas or posts for Social Media. You will probably see me in some of the videos, which hopefully help to attract more volunteers, receive more donations and will get more of our kitties adopted!
David Fraser
I am David Fraser and I am a volunteer, sponsor and a member of the Association management committee. My wife and I moved to Portugal in 2005 and after I retired with time to do more, I joined the Carvoeiro Cat Charity as a volunteer, but I also help with different fund raising initiatives. When it was decided that the number of Directors needed to be increased, because Corinna knew me for some time as a sponsor as well as a volunteer, she invited me to join the board, which I was honoured to accept. I work 2 shifts each week at the shelter, plus extra work as needed, and thoroughly enjoy being with and looking after our lovely residents. My original sponsor cat sadly passed away in June aged 13 years so I have transferred my sponsorship to Buddy, a lovely but very feral kitten born in April 2024 who has virtually no chance of being adopted due to a necessary leg amputation.