I wrote about Mohammed Aljaleel on November 30 last year after his sanctuary, Ernesto’s House, had been bombed by Assad’s regime or the Russians. At that time he was probably the only cat and dog rescuer in the city and he was fairly famous internationally. He had heroically rescued the cats of fleeing families who had become refugees travelling to countries such as Jordan. Mr Aljaleel stayed behind for the sake of his cats. This is a brief update on Mr Aljaleel’s exploits.
After his sanctuary was bombed and many of the cats killed, he left the city, went West into the countryside and rebuilt his sanctuary with the assistance of friends and good old Facebook through which he has spread the news.
His journey to the took about 15 days apparently and it was a difficult time. I believe that the new sanctuary is called Ernesto’s House, as before. There is a Facebook page. People have donated money. All of this helped him to rebuild his animal sanctuary. His friends and admirers saw that he had suffered a lot and wanted to help in any way possible.
As expected, his cat rescue service puts a lot of pressure on him because he has to earn a living at the same time. His wife and two children became refugees and now live in Turkey. He tries to visit them as much as possible. It would seem that he has given up his family life in the interests of feline welfare. As mentioned, he also rescues dogs by the way (see second photo above).
He currently has 25 cats in his care. He said:
“I hope my children one day will understand what their father was doing… And that the world will repay them with the same kindness and mercy I’ve given to these animals and humans in need”.
