Moroccan Woman’s Shelter Rescues 200 Stray Cats Near Rabat

Khadija collects stray cats (and dogs) from the streets and offers them a framework and the necessary attention for their development. With a law degree, the 58-year-old woman works in a beauty institute. At the end of her day, she takes care of the cats in her shelter and brings food to the other cats still roaming the city. Khadija takes pleasure in accomplishing this task which she considers therapeutic. "At work, I’m stressed, but being with the cats is an anti-stress for me. When I get home in the evening, I take a shower and sleep like a baby," she confides to EFE.

The shelter has 200 cats, 42 puppies, as well as sick or disabled dogs. Most of them have been abandoned or are victims of abuse or rescued from a serious traffic accident. Already overpopulated, Khadija’s shelter is preparing to receive other cats from a slum that will be demolished in the coming week. The quinquagenarian is making an appeal to people of goodwill to financially assist her in this public health work. She also calls for the help of a veterinarian and invites families who wish to adopt pets to write to her on her Facebook page, Association Village des Animaux.

"When I started this adventure, I had zero dirhams," she explains, adding that she has solicited and obtained two loans to launch the project. One allowed her to acquire the land and construction materials for the shelter, and the other to buy products to sterilize the animals. Sterilization is the only way to prevent many cat deaths on the streets of Morocco, she insists. But it is not enough, insists Khadija, who calls for the passage of a law "that respects the life of animals (cats and dogs) and punishes the aggressors".

"Khadija encouraged me, she is a pioneer and unfortunately she works alone, she spends her own money and almost no one supports her," laments Fatima Zahra Elbouzidi, who has just founded the association Maroc Compassion in the neighboring city of Témara. A high school teacher, she also takes in stray cats. She asks for the help of the authorities and any natural or legal person in order to achieve her goal, that of offering a better life to cats, like her elder Khadija.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk_t_ahLIgU