photo by Kamen Minkov

ABOUT US

LeoLife Bulgaria was established by Emanuil Tolev and Camilla Munkedal - and we are of course also the ones doing the work!

Emanuil is from Bulgaria and grew up in Varna. After high school, he moved to windy Wales and lived in the UK for 14 years where he studied computer science, worked as a programmer, practiced archery, and ate large amounts of baked beans on toast! Emo has adopted 2 sweet kitties, Nadya and Nelly, from the streets of Varna.

Camilla is from Denmark, and grew up close to Copenhagen. After high school, she worked as an au pair in China, and then lived in the UK for 7 years during which she studied Chinese, worked at environmental organisations, started surfing, and met Emanuil! Camilla has adopted 2 sweet kitties, Sia and Sammy, from the streets of Varna.

HOW WE STARTED

The seeds for LeoLife Bulgaria were planted in July 2023 when we spent a few weeks in Varna on holiday. One evening, we met Leo: a 4-month old kitten that was stumbling about by the Armenian Church in the old town centre of Varna on a July evening. We noticed that he had an enlarged head, and we could see that he was disoriented, exhausted, and completely alone. We took him to our apartment and let him eat, drink, and sleep on our lap all night. The next day we took him to the vet, and they told us that Leo had hydrocephalus: a condition known as "water in the brain" that normally occurs at birth and cannot be cured. We were devastated. We were going back to London a few days later, so we didn’t know what to do (at the time we had no knowledge of the facebook groups where you can try to get cats and kittens fostered). It was a horrible thought to us that this little kitten who had been born with a terrible disease through no fault of his own and was completely alone in the world would have no one to help him.

Amazingly, our vet offered to try to treat Leo for this rare disease and, if he survived, to get him adopted to Germany once he became strong enough. We were so relieved and incredibly grateful to know that Leo would be taken care of and wasn’t alone anymore. But our experience with Leo - seeing such a young kitten, ill and without a cat mother, all alone in a dangerous urban environment - sparked a fire in us. A fire of sadness, anger, hope, determination.

A few months later, in September 2023, the clinic informed us that Leo had passed away from his illness.

The cat image in our logo is an outline of Leo’s head. LeoLife Bulgaria is for Leo. It is also for all the other little cats we have helped - Nadya, Nelly, Lulu, Lea, Sia, Sammy, Freddy, Lily, Stefan, Gabi, Mickey, Tommy, Simeon, Max, and Sienna (as well as two dogs - Minka and Rosie). Creatures that through no fault of their own were born into an urban environment that is completely unnatural for them and ended up getting ill and suffering from this fate. Cats do not belong on the streets - they belong in warm and loving homes. These are the needs they have developed as a result of how we humans have bred them over thousands of years.

Let’s each take responsibility and fight for a better Varna for animals and people! Find out how you can take action now!