Dr Susan Aylott jokes that every time she went out looking for a job when she arrived in Abu Dhabi 10 years ago, she came home with a kitten.
The doctor, who once specialised in ear, nose and throat research, fully intended to work but could not find any roles at the time – just a lot of sick cats. So she filled her days with caring for animals.
“I would have liked to have become a vet, but it just wasn’t possible for me: I would have ended up mortgaged to the hilt and in financial difficulty. So I ended up becoming a doctor, ” said Dr Aylott, from the UK.
From her very earliest days in Abu Dhabi, she did what she could for stray cats, but around two and a half years ago she stepped up her game.
“I was on Lulu Island one day and I saw a cat walking on the beach and it was very sick. It was dragging its back legs, so I went to investigate. And I found 27 other cats there, ” she said.
“So that got me started. We set up a feeding station and sterilisation programme on Lulu Island and then realised that these things could benefit the mainland, too. ”
And Animal Welfare Abu Dhabi was born.
Her group now has hundreds of helpers who help take care of some of the city’s estimated 100, 000 stray cats via a network of feeding stations. She has found many, if not most, of them through word of mouth.
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