and fr
piece of paradise, animals are loved and free to roam without any fear of danger knowing they are safe. This is the home of The Langkawi Animal Shelter and Sanctuary Foundation (LASSie).
ANIMAL SANCTUARY
I am at the resort of Bon Ton in Langkawi
island where clients
are treated as house guests and informality and friendliness are the order of the day. It is like no other resorts I have ever visited and I make a pilgrimage to this amazing sanctuary year after year to see my furry friends. It is also an excuse to feast on the slurpingly scrumptious Nonya Laksa and the sinfully delicious dessert at their restaurant, Nam, the best eatery on the island.
iends e to feast on
This is the crusade of one woman whose compassion for animals is what Mother Teresa was for the poor in Kolkata in India.
through the wetland lagoon that is festooned with aquatic plants. Their evening birdsongs echo through the marshes. With a chilled lime and soda in hand, I savour this idyllic scene while a ginger cat with a crippled paw wraps itself round my legs purring and meowing softly to say hello to me. A black cat saunters up to join us and the three of us, woman and beasts, stand on the verandah of a restored antique Malay house at the edge of the wetland admiring the fading sunset. As a feline lover, this is pure bliss – a stunning sunset vista shared with two furry friends. The tropical sky slowly turns into inky darkness punctuated with twinkling stars while the moonlight cast an eerie glow on the lagoon. My feline companions take their leave to go on their nightly adventure as cats do. Here in this
P 60 FENGSHUIWORLD | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011
icture this - a vermillion sunset in the horizon with the silhouette of a flock of birds flying into the amber glow. A water fowl and its feathered friends are getting ready for the night wading
Unlike conventional hotels, here guests are accommodated in individual antique Malay houses equipped with modern facilities and beautifully decorated in Asian heritage chic. It is a resort with a mission statement to preserve and showcase ASEAN traditional style (Southeast Asian countries in the region), while at the same time to give shelter to stray and neglected cats and dogs. This is the crusade of one woman whose compassion for animals is what Mother Teresa was for the poor in Kolkata in India.
Na relle McMur trie, an Australian who has made Malaysia
her home for over thirty years, came to Langkawi in 1994 to open Bon Ton restaurant and resort having sold her business in Kuala Lumpur. She brought along a few street dogs that she had rescued in the city. She found the problem on the island was the numerous number of stray cats roaming the streets and markets. She decided to set up the first veterinary clinic on the island on a charity basis to spay and neuter the cats and releasing them back to their original habitat in an attempt to control the population. Soon, more and more cats and dogs were rescued or brought to the resort, some are badly abused or injured.
NO-KILL POLICY As an animal lover, Narelle sees the potential of this safe haven as the ideal place for an animal shelter. Waifs and strays are brought in – the lame, the one-eyed, the sick, the injured, the three-legged or one-eared moggies and mutts – no animal would be turned away. The sanctuary has a ‘no-kill’ policy. Six years ago, the project had grown so big
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A Furry Tale Lassie -
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