(Photo Handout from EMRO)
It’s normal for a homeless cat living in the streets to face the brutal acts of children having fun and laughing over hitting him, or the fear of getting hit by a speeding car while he’s just crossing the road looking for food.
That comes along with his daily struggles for finding eatable food and clean water to drink and a warm place to sleep in the winter or a less sunny place in the summer.
The Egyptian Mau Rescue Organization (EMRO) aims to save as many cats as possible from going through such a harmful life journey.
EMRO is a non-profit organisation takes cats from the streets and provides them a shelter to live in with food, vaccines, and creature comforts.
The organisation, which was established at 2005, aims to save the street cats – especially the Egyptian “mau” breed – from dying and to give them a better life.
“The mau cats are one of the oldest kinds in Egypt, it goes back to ancient Egypt era,” said Moustafa Nagy, the manager of EMRO. “They are very intelligent and clean but they are badly treated in a society like Egypt,” he said.
(Photo Handout from EMRO)
EMRO’s shelter currently has over 200 mau cats living in it, plus the huge number of cats it takes care of without providing them a place to sleep in, according to Nagy.
“We take good care of them and publish their pictures and information on our website looking for a good home to adopt them,” Nagy said. “Most of the time, people living in foreign countries are the ones who ask to adopt a cat.”
The organisation firstly sought funding through donations “but with having to spend EGP 6,000 monthly just on food, donations weren’t enough,” said Nagy. So, they had to open their own private pet hospital in 2007 to cover expenses. “We may reach a point of spending EGP 20,000 in some months,” Nagy said.
With five doctors and seven other staff members, EMRO makes sure the street cats live a perfect happy life until they find a warm, sweet house to live in.
