Cat stuck behind wall for five years has been freed

Five years ago, Biso the cat crawled through a hole in the wall of the Cairo train station, and he has been stuck there ever since. Biso squeezed through the hole when he was a kitten, apparently in an attempt to hide from the older station cats who used to bully him. But he soon found that he had outgrown his exit point, and was trapped inside the wall.

 

A kind elderly shop owner, known locally as "Uncle Abdo," kept the cat alive by giving him water and feeding him scraps of meat through the hole every day. Uncle Abdo came to the train station every day to feed Biso, even on days when his shop was closed. He also risked his own safety to feed Biso during the 2011 revolution in Egypt, when the train station was closed. 

 

Biso was freed this weekend, thanks to a social media campaign launched by a local animal rights activist named Mounira Shehata. When workers tore down the wall to free Biso, she described his space as being "like a tomb." 

 

Workers spent five hours freeing Biso, who escaped his wall and zipped away during the chaos. Uncle Abdo is keeping an eye out for the little cat, who must surely be cherishing his newfound freedom.

Image courtesy Flickr/Cary Bass-Deschanes