Furry Calendar: How Ukrainian shelter rescues and rehomes cats from war zones

What's the problem?

The war has left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without homes. Their pets have suffered the same fate. Some animals lost their owners when their homes were destroyed, others were displaced by shelling, and many were abandoned during evacuations. 

More and more stray animals from front-line areas need to be rescued and sheltered, but the situation is becoming critical, with shelters already stretched to their limits.

What's the solution?

To raise awareness of this crisis and support homeless animals, Ivan Minenko from the Sumy region, which borders Russia in the north of Ukraine, has been creating the Furry Calendar for three years. This year's edition is dedicated to displaced cats from war-torn and front-line communities. All proceeds from calendar sales go toward helping these animals, cared for by the nonprofit organization DimPets.

How does it work?

The Cat Dad — that's how Ivan Minenko refers to himself. He's a lifelong cat fan who's always tried to help strays. Even as a teenager, he turned his home into a temporary shelter for rescued street cats.

After Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka Dam, causing massive flooding in the Kherson region, volunteers started bringing displaced animals to Sumy. Ivan says he wanted to take them all in, but it was simply impossible to manage alone. That's when he officially registered DimPets as an NGO and put out a call on social media that he was looking for a building for a new cat shelter.

It took a month to find a place, and within another month and a half, an abandoned building was transformed into a safe and cozy home for rescued cats.

"I'm officially the only one running the organization, but in reality, there's a whole community behind it — friends, acquaintances, and volunteers who help with transport, medical care, temporary foster homes, finances, and spreading the word. We're all united by one goal: helping these animals," says Ivan.

After working full-time as an advertising manager, he runs the shelter in his free time. Today, it houses around 80 cats, three degus, and three rabbits. Some of the animals are local, but the majority are evacuees from Ukraine's border regions. The shelter's mission is to find each cat a loving home while raising awareness so more people consider adopting these animals.

According to Ivan, DimPets is the only cat shelter in Sumy that operates on a free-roaming system. The facility has special shelves, a communal area, and a play space, allowing the cats awaiting adoption to live comfortably.

Before joining the shelter, every new arrival goes through a mandatory quarantine, which includes parasite treatments, vaccinations, and sterilization. If an animal requires extra medical care, they receive treatment at a veterinary clinic or stay in inpatient care.

Like many other shelters, DimPets struggles with a constant lack of resources. More volunteers are needed to help care for the animals, and funding is always in short supply for food, medical treatment, and daily operations. These essentials keep the shelter running and save lives.

Ivan came up with the idea for the charity wall calendar after he saw the famous Australian firefighter calendar, in which first responders pose with rescue animals. That's why, three years ago, the first edition of his calendar also featured men. The photoshoot brought together locals — doctors, animal rescue volunteers, entrepreneurs, and artists — posing alongside their pets, Ivan's cats, and shelter animals looking for homes.

The 2024 edition of the calendar focused on animals with disabilities. This year, Ivan and his team decided to highlight another vulnerable group — pets who had become refugees.

"These animals have it the hardest. We need to draw attention to them," says Ivan Minenko.

The Furry Calendar isn't just designed to raise funding for medical care and food for homeless animals — it's also about changing perceptions. Ivan wants to show people that adopting a pet from the streets or a shelter isn't something to fear. He believes every cat and dog is beautiful and photogenic — it just takes the right mindset to see it.

Ivan's close friends help bring the project to life. During the photoshoots, they entertain and comfort the animals, ensuring they feel safe and relaxed. For the third year, professional photographer Yurii Volk, who shares Ivan's passion for helping animals, has been behind the camera for the project.

Every star of this charity project has a story, and the team at DimPets is eager to share it. Each tale is briefly told on the calendar's pages.

One of this year's featured cats is Yara from Chasiv Yar. Just one day after arriving at the shelter, she gave birth to a litter of kittens.

The cat in the photo above came from Sloviansk. She gave birth to four kittens right in a soldier's bed. With a cat family suddenly taking over his sleeping space, the soldier reached out to volunteers for help. He couldn't care for the kittens because he constantly needed to move between locations on the front line. While waiting for the UAnimals rescue mission for several days, he and his fellow troops cared for the cat and her babies. Then, she traveled for four days with other animals evacuated from the combat zone before finally arriving at DimPets.

"Now she's Kava, and her little ones are her Coffee Beans," Ivan Minenko shared on the shelter's page. "She's incredibly affectionate, an amazing mother! She loves it when I scratch and praise her — she even lets me touch her kittens. Sometimes, she scolds the other cats when they run around making too much noise."

All of Kava's kittens have found homes, but she's still waiting at DimPets, hoping for a family of her own.

Another heroine of the calendar is Athena, a rescue from Avdiivka, a Russian-occupied city in Ukraine's east. This calico beauty has been through a lot; unfortunately, her health suffered. After arriving at the shelter, she fought for her life for a long time. She was diagnosed with sepsis, and her condition was critical.

"We pulled her through, and ever since, she's adored people," says Ivan Minenko. "She does have a small quirk — her head tilts slightly to one side. But that doesn't stop her from playing, being silly, and stealing our hearts."

Ivan calls Athena the shelter's jewel. "She's not up for adoption because we can't imagine our cat house without her anymore," he admits.

Stepan, another calendar star, is also from Sloviansk. He was evacuated at the start of the full-scale invasion. Meanwhile, Begemot, a gentle and people-loving cat, was rescued from the front lines by soldiers. And these are just a few of the many faces in the Furry Calendar. This year, 15 cats took part in the photoshoots.

"We always include more than 12 cats because some might not feel well or just won't be in the mood to pose," Ivan explains. "That's why we bring a few extras, but every cat we photograph still gets a spot on the final page of the calendar."

This year, the star of the shoot was Medok, a tiny kitten from a border town. "She was on everyone's toes — jumping into every shot, trying to take over the entire space to be the center of attention," Ivan recalls.

Does it really work?

While the shelter worked on the 2024 Furry Calendar, one of its stars had already found a loving home.

"Just two days after the photoshoot, Chappy went to live with a girl in Kharkiv. He's loving it there, and we still keep in touch all the time," says Ivan Minenko.

According to the shelter's founder, the first print run of this year's calendar helped it cover its enormous utility bills, which were mainly due to ongoing heating issues. So far, 170 copies have been sold.

Ivan says the calendar and other animal welfare initiatives DimPets takes part in raise awareness about stray animals from front-line and border areas. The organization also holds a pet adoption festival with music, contests, entertainment, and prizes donated by local businesses. The shelter also hosts open days where visitors can come play with the cats, drop off food and treats, or make donations.

Since the shelter opened about a year and a half ago, it has successfully rehomed over 100 animals. "I think that's a fantastic result," Ivan says. He regularly posts updates about cats still looking for homes on the shelter's Facebook and Instagram pages.

"It's tough to live knowing that in active combat zones, so many abandoned animals are left behind. They can't evacuate, they can't hide, they don't even understand what's happening — they're just trying to survive," Ivan shares.

The shelter founder adds that people can call for help in a crisis, but animals can't. That's why the urge to rescue them is so overwhelming.