Five years is a long time, and much can be done, or not done at all, in such a time span. One cat in Egypt unfortunately met an unlucky fate and got stuck behind a Cairo Metro station wall for five long years. Just recently, though, the cat was finally recently saved and released from the subway walls thanks to a dedicated elderly man and a group of women who pushed to set the cat free.
The cat, who has been named Biso, was finally saved, in part, because of the power of the Internet in pushing the below picture viral across a few Facebook pages dedicated to animals. The Cairo Post explained that on March 12, someone posted this picture to the “Help and Rescue Homeless Animals” Facebook page, complaining that he could not break the wall to free the cat due to committing such an act being considered sabotage of public property.
Biso was stuck behind a subway wall for 5 years
The cat’s tail hanging from a small opening in the wall, posted from the “SVAE AN INNOCENT ANIMAL SOUL” Facebook Page.
Another person then shared the picture to the “Svae an Innocent Animal Soul” Facebook page, which is how animal rights activists Mounira Shehata and Marwa Elgebaly learned about Biso and set off to free him. On the day of the rescue, their friend Rania el-Kordy also helped out. Mounira to The Cairo Post, “When we removed the wall, a heinous smell emerged from the dark hole, which was 15-centimeter wide and four-meter long. It was like a tomb. There were black worms along four meters of the edge, where Uncle Abdo was able to put in food for Biso.”
Who is Uncle Abdo? He’s the kind elderly man who is the reason that Bido made it through those 5 long years – he made sure Biso was fed every day through a tiny hole in the wall, even after his shop closed down during a revolution in 2011. Uncle Abdo was the owner of a glasses shop right outside the station and is the one that named the cat Biso. Uncle Abdo used to feed the cat when it was free as a kitten. After a “stronger cat” beat him in a fight, Biso squeezed into a hole in the wall and never came back out.
Uncle Abdo fed Biso through a small opening in the wall
You can see Uncle Abdo feeding Biso through the opening in the wall in the above video. Below is another video of someone else trying to feed Biso, with Biso trying to grab the food with his paws, but having difficulty.
The rescue took over 5 hours
Animal rights wrokers Dina Zulfikar and Dalia Shaheen took everything a step further, filing a report at the Abdeen police station. The police then went to the metro and informed the head of the metro station that there was a prosecution order to rescue Biso. Workers were brought in on their day off to free the cat, which took over five hours.
All the rescue workers could see were Biso’s glowing eyes in the dark
Workers created three outlets for the cat to come out on its own, but Biso was too terrified to leave. The cat only finally came out after Amr, a worker at the station, went inside to get him. But, Biso quickly ran away before anyone could catch him. Uncle Abdo is still on the look-out for his little cat friend, hoping he can be Biso’s caretaker again.
The outlets that were made to help Biso escape the subway walls.
The Cairo Post explained that coincidentally, the metro station that Biso was stuck in, called Mohamed Naguib, is named after Egypt’s first President, who was known as an avid animal lover. Perhaps Biso knew he was in good hands at that station, even if he was stuck behind a wall.
Source: The Cairo Post
We hope Uncle Abdo is able to find Biso soon, and are so grateful for the kindness that Uncle Abdo, the animal rights activists, the police, and the subway workers all showed to this cat.
