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My name is Paula and I want to share with you a story which does not yet have a final chapter. However, with your help it can have a fairy tale happy ending. I’ve been living here in Dubai for nearly two years now, a dream I thought would last for many years. However, that dream has come to an abrupt and unexpected end and with it comes my plea for help. Throughout my time living here (2yrs) I became acutely aware of the plight of so many street cats and their struggle for survival within the first month of arriving. Walking past a local metal waste container one evening I was surprised by a young scruffy ginger cat looking for food. ‘Westie’, as I later found out he was called, was named by security staff after the building he lived in, ‘West Tower’. I watched this little scared, dirty, hungry cat look for food and be bullied by older more dominant males. I began feeding him immediately, trying to help him gain strength to survive but could do nothing about the bullying. I wanted to take him home but my tenancy contract did not permit pets. One evening Westie appeared with a nasty 6” open wound down his back, he was still being bullied. I tried desperately to find him a home but no one wanted him. As we became friends I could call him and he would come running, in a matter of days he became used to my voice and touch and even found a girlfriend, I named her LuLu. Then one evening I called & called him but he never came. I went looking for him and found him badly injured. He was trying to walk but had been badly bitten and the bite had become infected. He had no means of defence nor could he run away. Distressed I called a local cat charity Jebel Ali Cats who kindly volunteered to help Westie and get him to a vet as I could not drive. They explained that any veterinary bills would be my responsibility and even though funds were limited we managed to get him treated with the help of charity rates. I posted an adoption appeal on various cat charity websites and Facebook pages, and I managed to find him a forever home. However, he couldn’t settle and when I went to see him it was obvious where he wanted to be, with me was how Sam the very kind adopter had put it. I took him home and secretly got him into my apartment. He was safe but he became unwell. Tests discovered he had cat IBS which fortunately could be treated with medication. It did mean though that the hope of ever rehoming him was limited. And so began my affair with helping street cats. I joined the cat charity who helped trap Westie, I helped raise much needed funds and food donations and continued to help and look after local street cats in my area, by means of TNR and rehoming . My husband also got involved and he began looking after Westie’s girlfriend, LuLu, who was still on the street. Without Westie to offer her some protection she too was being bullied and much like Westie, one evening when he called her she came crawling, unable to walk as she too had been badly bitten and which had become infected. We trapped her and paid for medical treatment but unlike Westie she could not be taken back to our apartment for fear of us getting caught and so was released back onto the street. Being semi feral it would be difficult to foster her and find her a forever home. However, she became attached to my husband and whenever she saw him she would follow him. Rather than retreat to a hiding place she began sleeping on the top of cars waiting for him to come down for work in the morning and to come home in the evening. Building Management who constantly threatened to get pest control in started getting complaints about her crying outside reception. There was no alternative, we had to take her in, tame her and put her up for adoption. We now had two cats we’d fostered and which we had to find forever homes for. Our involvement with cat rescue continued and we successfully fed and helped rehome several kittens to fosters and found a safe outdoor home for their parents. During the last of the trappings we heard the faint cries of a cat that was found hiding under a pile of tangled metal rubbish. When she revealed herself she was thin but extremely affectionate, wanting to rub herself on you constantly. We named her Millie and began feeding her. We trapped and rehabilitated her and even though we found her a forever home but we were asked to foster her again due to unforeseen circumstances. We now have Westie, LuLu and Mille which are all looking for a forever home or alternatively they stay with us but now we have to leave Dubai and cannot afford to take them home. My husband was laid off from his employment as a Software Test analyst. His company had said they would pay for shipping costs, are now only paying 50% of these costs for personal items only and will not include any pets. We are therefore desperately trying to raise funds and so we are appealing for donations in order to be able to relocate our three cats back home. They are all micro-chipped, vaccinated and neutered/spayed but we cannot afford to have them relocated. Those that know us understand what we’ve already done and given financially to help other street cats and now given our unfortunate circumstances we have no alternative but to ask for your help. We need to raise AED10,000 so any amount large or small that you could find in your heart to donate would be greatly appreciated. We would all dearly love to stay together and with your kind support you could help make this happen. Thank you for taking the time to read my story.
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