thane he could easily fit the modern version of noah the biblical character who built an ark and saved the animal world from extinction during floods kaustabh gokhales ark is a 250 sqft room in his threestoried building siddhi vinayak prasad in dombivli e where he hosts 19 cats and three dogsall rescued from neardeath on the streets the cosy wellventilated room has been transformed into a home for his feline and canine friends a tenant family who occupied the room was persuaded to vacate the premises to make room for the growing family of pets passionate about his kittens and puppies gokhale has left nothing to chance two steel storage racks have been turned into bunk beds with clean beddings kept inside 19 plastic tubs walls sprayed with eucalyuptus oil to act as repellant for leeches and a huge wooden log to help sharpen their nails if thats not all an inhouse bathroom here has been turned into a designated potty place for the cats initially the cats would go out to relieve themselves and bring home mud and dirt stuck to their paws we decided to create an indoor potty and got six to eight small plastic tubs and filled them with a mixture of fine sand particles and saw dust after a little training the cats would dig up the soft and loose sand inside these tub and after defecating cover it up the sand from these tubs is then emptied into the garden once every week and used as compost for plants gokhale said a real estate consultant by procession and an rti activist gokhale proudly announces that all of his pets are of native breed rescued from starvation on the streets one of the three strays which occupies a bed belonging to gokhales younger son was brought from the pet care centre run by the kalyandombivli corporation he was suffering from jaundice and was starved so we brought him home gokhale said we always liked pets but never had one at home as space was a constraint one rainy morning six years ago my daughter kaushika bought home a kitten completely drenched and shivering and pleaded that we keep it at home we gave in to her request and all of these 17 cats here in this room are his family we have named him badshah and his wife is billo gokhale said while checking the neatly arranged food bowls in the pets room just like the gokhales their pets too are strictly vegetarian the cats are fed on cat food none of my cats will touch food or even milk kept in our kitchen unless we offer it to them he said as for the canines the staple diet is milk and chapatti the steady diet and proper care is evident from the size of gokhales pets with the burly cats weighing anywhere between 10 to 15 kg these pets are a great stressbuster the 50plus gokhale said