Dumped four months ago at this Abu Dhabi bus stop, Gussy is still waiting for a ride home
Gussy the cat has sat every day for four months at a bus stop in Al Bateen. That is where his owners abandoned him.
Gussy, as he has been called by the people who feed him, never leaves the stop near the InterContinental Hotel, as if waiting for his cold-hearted owners to repent and come back for him.
Kristi Larson, from the US, started feeding the Arabian Mau-Turkish angora cat after seeing him on her daily morning walks.
“I would of course bring him food and noticed people catching the bus would leave him food as well,” says Ms Larson, who has lived in Abu Dhabi for seven years.
“One morning, a street cleaner told me that Gussy was dumped right at the bus stop. The owner just tossed him out of the car. The street cleaner said Gussy never went far from the bench.”
Jo Cathrine has taken over feeding Gussy a tin of cat food and some chicken each morning while Ms Larson is away.
“It’s so sad because he just sits there waiting,” Ms Cathrine says. “You can tell he has been domesticated because he is very tame and he will sit on your lap.
“He is OK, but he is starting to get a little bit dirty. He is still in good nick but he’s just starting to get a little bit rough round the edges.”
Ms Cathrine, 44, from the UK, who posted about his plight on the Abu Dhabi Q&A Facebook page, said he is also very caring, having protected a kitten one day that was sick with flu.
“I went one morning as usual and I heard this noise in the bush and this tiny black and white kitten came out,” she said. “I thought it might have cat flu. I was on a run, so I ran home and got the cat box and put it in the car.
“Luckily the kitten was still there. I think he was protecting the kitten. He was standing underneath Gussy.”
Ms Cathrine took in the kitten because she could not return him to the streets, but with seven cats already, she does not have room to take Gussy too.
But she visits him every morning to feed him and make sure he is OK. He is neutered, she said.
“I remember putting the kitten in the box and Gussy was looking to say why wasn’t that me. And he does look, when he sees the car driving away, he does just sit there and look. I keep telling him, ‘One day it’s going to be your turn, mate’.”
She hopes that someone will rescue him.
“It’s such a sad story about a beautiful, loyal boy.”
Animal welfare experts estimate that there are about 100,000 stray cats living in the capital alone. And there are many cases of abandoned and abused pets each year.
In June, Afra Al Dhaheri, the founder and owner of Cloud 9 Pet Hotel and Care, called for the establishment of a special legal task force to combat animal cruelty after his business spent Dh300,000 treating abused animals last year.
The UAE has already tightened up laws in relation to animal cruelty in recent years.
It raised fines from Dh5,000 to Dh200,000 with a prison term of up to a year for anyone caught abusing, illegally hunting or buying or selling animals after a string of animal abuses were exposed on social media.
Anyone interested in adopting Gussy should email ecookman@thenational.ae.