They have dodged bullets and bombs and the other associated dangers of a life lived in Baghdad. One was smuggled over the border from Iraq to Kuwait – the taxi narrowly avoiding being taken out by an improvised explosive device – and the others were flown straight out of Baghdad airport.
But they are not refugees fleeing a warzone. They are stray cats who have been relocated from Baghdad to a semi-detached house in a small town just north of Birmingham.
Their rescuer Louise – she does not want to give her surname or the name of her town for security reasons – has been nicknamed the Cat Lady of Baghdad because of her penchant for picking up the feral strays, domesticating them, then flying them off to what she believes is a better life.
Operation Pet Rescue by warzone Cat Woman in The Guardian, yes, The Graun on May 3, 2008. Please visit Baghdad Cat Rescue.
