SHARJAH // A rescued cat is on the road to recovery after being badly scalded with what appeared to be oil.
The tom was found near the home of Anna Aydin, 26, and her husband, Halil Emrah, 30, in the Al Khan neighbourhood.
"As soon as we looked at it we knew it was in bad condition," said Ms Aydin. "At first we didn't know what was wrong with him but we could see that he had no fur from his head to his back. We thought it might have a disease or something."
The couple took the cat, which is believed to be a few months old, to Zabeel Veterinary Hospital in Dubai, where he is being treated by vet Dr Stanislav Vyrva.
"We cannot know for sure how the cat sustained these injuries, but it looks like it was hot oil," said Dr Vyrva.
The cat, which has been named Yarik by its rescuers, has been in quarantine since he arrived at the hospital last week.
"The cat needs to be in a restricted area for at least 10 days because we don't have previous records for him, and in such cases we cannot be sure that he was vaccinated and that he can be near other cats," Dr Vyrva said.
"At this point he is just being treated for the burns and secondary infections, but we will probably have to do plastic surgery by grafting [skin]."
Dr Vyrva, who has been treating animals for 25 years, said he has, unfortunately, seen similar cases in the past.
"There have been cases like this, which are routine but they require additional care and the animal needs additional time to heal," said the doctor, who has lived in the UAE for 12 years.
Ms Aydin urged members of the public to not ignore animals if they saw them suffering on the street.
"A week before Yarik was found, we found another cat right at our building entrance with her front legs broken and her mouth full of blood.
"People near by saw it and did not care to help her, which is shocking," she said, adding that the kitten, named Elza, was now in good health and had been adopted by her family.
"I am surprised by some people's indifference to a suffering animal. This is not what we were taught growing up," said Ms Aydin, who is from Ukraine.
"I know that many of those people who live near me make a good living and so it really does not take much effort or money to help an animal."
Yarik's recovery will be a slow process, Ms Aydin said, but the cat is doing much better and is eating on his own.
"I just hope that people will learn about such cases and understand that even if a person does not like cats, it doesn't mean they should hurt them," she said.
dmoukhallati@thenational.ae
