BEIRUT – After Israeli bombardment forced them to flee their homes in haste, displaced Lebanese have been asking volunteers to enter their bombed out neighbourhoods to retrieve their pets.
Ms Maggie Shaarawi, vice-president of the Animals Lebanon charity, is one of the rescuers.
“A lot of people had to evacuate their homes in a hurry. In most cases, cats stressed by bombing hide,” making it impossible to scoop them up quickly, she said.
“Our goal is to just enter, rescue and leave.”
On Oct 3, Ms Shaarawi and two others helped a resident of Beirut’s southern suburbs retrieve her eight traumatised cats.
Through a video call, the worried woman in a white headscarf guided them to the living room where she had herded Fifi, Leo, Blacky, Teddy, Tanda, Ziki, Kitty and Masha as she left.
“We were able to find them all,” Ms Shaarawi said triumphantly.
Doing their best to hurry, they managed to entice the petrified felines out from under a green velvet sofa and gently lift each of them into a holding crate.
“Luckily we got them out, because (then) most of that area was destroyed,” she said.
A strike hit the suburbs as they were preparing to go to another home.
“It’s the first time we had a hit very close to us. We’re lucky to have left alive,” Ms Shaarawi said.
