00:00We are cat rescuers and we have recently opened our own vet.
00:15We've been doing cat rescue for over a decade now in Dubai and we own over 100 cats.
00:23It all started with our first two cats over a decade ago.
00:27They were both rescues and from there it was a journey where it started with two and three
00:34and once we moved into a villa it graduated to over 50 and 60.
00:41But we are trying to get quite a few adopted every week, whether it's here or internationally.
00:47We are now on a path of bridging the business element of owning a vet and still doing cat
00:55rescue in the same time.
00:58We've kept track of the international adoptions for the most part but we've had quite a few
01:02success stories here as well and then that's of course on top of the TNR effort as well
01:07that we've been doing within Dubai and Northern Emirates specifically.
01:12In having so many cats, obviously every month we were quite regulars at the various vets
01:19that we were visiting which brought the bills on a monthly basis quite high.
01:26So we have decided to take the plunge and open our own vet, not because we wanted to
01:33compete with some of the current vets which you have really good institutions as well currently.
01:40We wanted to bridge the gap in between cat rescue or rescuers and an overly monetized
01:48sector of vets around Dubai that are still trying to provide a certain service but with
01:572x, 3x of the actual price of certain services.
02:02We are trying to still be a viable business model, however I do believe that there is
02:08a slice of the pie for everyone.
02:10So in doing it ethically and sustainably and making sure that we not only take care of
02:17the animals but we treat the people behind those animals with the great ethics, I think
02:26we have a good start.
02:28For us it's a bit of a game changer, right?
02:31Because we are not veterinarians by practice, we did this out of care for animals and hence
02:36the reason we don't look at this like a veterinary clinic first, which might be quite a bit.
02:42So we're looking at it from the perspective of animal welfare, animal care and in doing
02:46so I think the care that goes to these animals comes naturally rather than looking at the
02:52bottom line or looking at the cost.
03:09I run a licensed cat sitting business here in the UAE.
03:14It was almost like it was meant to be, me coming here, because I had nothing to do with
03:19animal welfare before living in the UAE but after being here for about 6 months to a year
03:26I decided to start helping cats that were on the streets, that were injured and abandoned.
03:31Like Jack here, he needed my help and from the back of that I decided to start running
03:39this cat sitting business because a lot of cats that were adopted from me, a lot of the
03:43owners, they wanted to make sure that they had a trusted sitter, someone that they knew
03:47generally cared about the animals.
03:50So the cat sitting business was set up to basically help more cats.
03:54Percentage of all of the proceeds from the cat sitting business goes towards helping
03:59more cats, TNR-ing more cats, rescuing more cats off the street, so it all goes back for
04:06a good cause.
04:07In the last 3 years of rescuing I have saved and rehomed 250 cats.
04:13A lot have been rehomed in the UAE, I have sent some internationally to Europe, a lot
04:18to my hometown of the UK.
04:22We have done quite a lot of TNR-ing as well, I can't even count how many TNRs, but we help
04:28as many as we can that need the help, that have been abandoned or injured and need to
04:35be taken off the streets, especially in the summer time like now when the temperatures
04:39are racing and they can't survive on their own out there.
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