Meet Dubai's 'cat whisperer': Rescuing 19 cats and healing broken paws and hearts

What does it mean to really save an animal?

After many conversations with animal rescuers, it means many things. Sometimes, it’s nursing a cat back to health after a near-fatal accident—healing a broken paw and a battered heart.

Other times, it’s finding them a loving home abroad, where they’ll be cherished. And sometimes, it’s as simple—and as profound—as getting them safely back home.

That’s what healing is. And UAE is full of these healers, who are always on the lookout for animals who need help.

Among them is Dubai-based Aldrin Anthony Silva. Straightforward and candid, he shares his experiences clearly, recounting how he has rescued and cared for over 19 cats in the past five years.

Silva has always loved animals, but never had them at home.

Yet in 2020, his chance, came in the form of a cuddly, docile rescue cat named Simba.

He isn’t formally part of any animal rescue organization. Instead, Silva works within a diligent and compassionate network of people in his community who spot cats in need, get them veterinary care, and place them in temporary foster homes before finding them permanent ones. What’s even more heartening is that some people step in to care for the cats, keeping them happy and safe while a better solution is arranged. With Simba, Silva recalls, “He really kept me sane during that time in the pandemic."

After that, a lady in his community rescued another cat and asked him to foster her. It was a ‘drastic learning’ experience for Silva, as he now had two cats. Considering Simba was a gentle soul, the other cat was territorial for affection, and was ready to fight with the former. There was even a point where he couldn’t leave the house, with the two cats at home, and had to plan his schedules accordingly.

Silva had his hands full for four months, but this learning curve made him realise that he could do this.

Following Simba, a ‘revolving door of fosters’ began. Silva’s home became the safe space and haven for many cats, where they came to heal emotionally and physically. Some were wounded and needed more help; others just needed to know what it felt like to be loved. There was one instance where he fostered a cat, whose leg had to be amputated. This feline was so terrified of other cats, that it couldn’t even stand the sight of his own reflection. “I remember, I was trying to take a selfie with him, and he just swatted the phone away. He was so scared to even see another cat,” recalls Silva.

It takes love, and endless patience to heal something so broken.

But Silva did. 

Perhaps that’s one of the many reasons, why he became the ‘cat whisperer’ of his community. There were little nuggets of knowledge that he picked up along the way, especially with TNR (trap, neuter and rescue). Some cats were ‘too smart’ to trap’ around the community, but he earned their trust. And when he did, others were quickly vaccinated and neutered immediately too.

There’s a reason why these cats always trusted him.  “I was able to calm them down, especially the wounded cats, who are known to be a lot more on guard and aggressive,” he says. “I just knew how to get them comfortable.”

What was his secret? Two things first: Observation and a lot of instinct.

As he says, there is no particular standard method; every cat has an individual personality. Over time he learnt how to read each cats traits, who scares easily, who is more aggressive, territorial and slowly integrate them into his own household, so that they won’t spar with others.

Yet, more than any of that, is the care that would go into planning carefully their feeding times, in order to make sure that his home doesn’t make a furry battlefield.

Sometimes, this meticulous thought process reflected in the way he had to leave the house too. “You need to be calm with them. You have to show them that composure, as they sense your energy,” he explains. “They can tell with nervous energy. But don’t go overboard either with affection immediately,” he says.

And some cats, became family.  With a slight laugh, Silva explains the ‘foster fail’, which came in the form of Isaac. His vision in one eye was clouded, and considered blind. Realising the cat was happiest and most attached to him, Aldrin decided to formally adopt him in 2021.

From Simba, who steadied him during the uncertainty of the pandemic, to Isaac, who found a forever family in him, each cat has left a mark on his life as much as he has on theirs. His story reminds us that healing isn’t always grand, it’s patient, compassionate, and profoundly human.