Return of the Cat Man of Aleppo

An amazing, heartbreaking, and inspirational story, complete with kitty pics and funny cat names.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/stories-47473772

"When the city fell in December 2016, he left in a convoy, his van crammed full of injured people and the last six cats from the sanctuary.

"I've always felt it's my duty and my pleasure to help people and animals whenever they need help," Alaa says. "I believe that whoever does this will be the happiest person in the world, besides being lucky in his life."

After a brief recuperation in Turkey, he smuggled himself back into Syria - bringing a Turkish cat with him for company - and established a new cat sanctuary, bigger and better than the first one, in Kafr Naha, a village in opposition-held countryside west of Aleppo.

Using the same crowdfunding model employed successfully in east Aleppo, funds were sent in by cat-lovers from all over the world via Facebook and Twitter.

But Alaa has always worked for the benefit of the community, as well as the cats themselves.

In Aleppo, he and his team of helpers bought generators, dug wells and stockpiled food. Even at the height of the bombing, they ran animal welfare courses for children, to develop their empathy. They also set up a playground next to the sanctuary where children could briefly escape from the apocalyptic events taking place all around them.

The new sanctuary has expanded to include an orphanage, a kindergarten and a veterinary clinic. Alaa and his team resemble a small development agency, providing services that government and international charities cannot or will not. He strongly believes that helping children to look after vulnerable animals teaches them the importance of kindness to all living creatures, and helps to heal their own war traumas.

"Children and animals are the big losers in the Syrian war," he says. "It's the adults who so often behave badly."