The Cats of Arecibo Observatory

Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is home to the second-largest radio telescope in the world. It's also home to quite an impressive collection of cats. Yes, this is an astronomy story with a twist.

Cats have called Arecibo home for a long time. But after Hurricane Maria struck the island last year, many people moved off the island, leaving their pets behind. Some of those cats have made their way up to Arecibo. This is when we start getting into problem territory. While it certainly wasn't a problem for the observatory staff to have all these cats around, the concern was that these cats would eventually start breeding. A few cats weren't a problem for local wildlife, but an exploding population would definitely cause problems. The cats would hunt the wildlife, the wildlife would disappear, the cats would go hungry... obviously this isn't an ideal scenario.

So, to handle this, the observatory staff have set up a fundraising page so that people can donate money to handle the catching, spaying, and neutering of these cats. That is a neat cause. And yes, several of the cats do have astronomically themed names. Of course they do.