Zamalek Dorms Turn into Cat Hotel

BY HANNAH ALTMANN

With their newest “Adopt a Pet” campaign, the Animal Rescue Club (ARC) at the American University in Cairo (AUC) have successfully established a new home for street cats at the AUC Zamalek Dorms.

The campaign, which launched in February 2015, caught many animal lovers’ attention, who then decided to join ARC and helped in creating a safe haven for stray cats.

The Cat Hotel will include a private room for each cat, 24-hour food service and a staff of 18 people who will work in different areas.

Sophomore student Sherine Yehia, founder of the ARC and “Adopt a Pet” campaign explains, “We see a lot of cats around campus here at the New Cairo Campus and in the streets of Zamalek and Cairo. Seeing that most street cats eat from the garbage and are treated badly by most Egyptians, my friends and I decided to open the Animal Rescue Club and offer cats a better way of life.”

Yehia and her co-founders have surveyed over 400 people at AUC and also in other universities.

Most of the surveyed students agreed that cats deserve to be treated equally as humans and that the idea of a cat hotel will serve Egypt’s cats very well.

In addition, people will be able to visit the hotel and play with the cats during visiting hours, which will still be set by the administration of the hotel.

The campaign will also enable people who visit the hotel to adopt a cat. Khaled Ismail, a freshman student who was surveyed says “I’m very happy for the cats because they usually get treated very badly by humans. Once the hotel opens I will adopt more than one cat because I want them to have a better life than the one they had before.”

In addition to many students’ support, the university’s administration and Office of Student Services have applauded this idea of the bright minded animal lovers.

With their support the ARC will manage to cover the costs of refurnishing the current Zamalek Dorms and also have it done before June 2015.

However, some Zamalek Dorms residents think it is very unfair to move out just for the cats.

“Dude, that is soooo the bane of my existence. I don’t want to move, but those damn cats will be the death of me if I stay,” JRMC Prof Kim Fox, who has been at the Zamalek Dorms for five years, told The Caravan.

In the future, the cat hotel will increase its available rooms and also add more animals to the hotel, like dogs, rabbits and birds.

Donations as of June 1 will be accepted to help maintain the high standards of the hotel and its residents.

Editor’s note: We hope you enjoyed this article, one of several published to mark April Fools’ Day.