Ajeeb, a street cat with a spare leg, has passed a check-up at the British Veterinary Clinic in Abu Dhabi. Now he just needs a home.
Ajeeb, a street cat with a spare leg, has passed a check-up at the British Veterinary Clinic in Abu Dhabi. Now he just needs a home.

UAE

Ajeeb the five-legged cat is feline fine

Cats are known for having nine lives. But one unfortunate moggy is getting used to life with five legs.

Rym Ghazal

May 03, 2009

Abu Dhabi // Cats are known for having nine lives. But one unfortunate moggy is getting used to life with five legs. Ajeeb, a ginger-coloured Arabian Mau, is a bizarre sight with a fully grown extra limb tucked between the front and back right legs just over his ribcage. "In my 15 years of being a vet, I have never ever seen a five-legged cat," said Dr Jonathan Hale of the British Veterinary Centre, who was examining Ajeeb after the animal had been rescued and neutered. The fifth leg, which also has an extra toe, is a fully grown non-functional limb. Dr Hale said it did not appear to handicap the gentle cat.

"The leg is a birth defect caused by the mother being exposed to toxins or carcinogens while pregnant, and if more such birth defects start appearing in animals here then it is an important indicator of changes in the environment and the effects of development and pollution." Dr Hale said it was not uncommon in the UK for owners to bring in cats with an extra toe that twisted and had to be extracted.

"But a whole full-grown extra leg? Truly a rare case." Ajeeb is one year old and is very friendly, something Dr Hale noted as probably being one of the animal's ways of dealing with its deformity. "I am sure Ajeeb realised early on it is special and that it needs help from humans, and so it made a choice to be friendly and extra trusting of people instead of running away," said the vet, as Ajeeb purred and rubbed against him.

As for what to do with the extra leg, Dr Hale said it was best to let it be. "It is not necessary for us to intervene unless there is a problem, and the cat does not seem to be in any pain and is not hindered by the extra leg," he said, adding that the only problem would be that the limb might get entangled in something. "The future owner will also have more toenails to clip and manicure." Ajeeb was rescued by Raghad Auttabashi, an animal lover who saw him trying to feed from bowls she had put out for her own cats. Ajeeb, whose name is Arabic for strange, was pushed away by the others.

"I just couldn't leave him there on the streets without trying to help him somehow," said Ms Auttabashi, who has adopted nine cats and has no room for another. She decided to have Ajeeb neutered and his ear clipped so the municipality would not pick him up and destroy him as part of a campaign to free the streets of strays. "It does not guarantee he won't get picked up, but I just wanted to increase his chance of being adopted as he is so sweet, so intelligent and really special," she said.

"I just hope we find him a good home," she said. The Arabian Mau is the indigenous cat of the Arabian Peninsula. rghazal@thenational.ae

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While you're here
Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE

There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.

It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.

What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.

When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.

It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.

This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.

It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.

Green ambitions
  • Trees: 1,500 to be planted, replacing 300 felled ones, with veteran oaks protected
  • Lake: Brown's centrepiece to be cleaned of silt that makes it as shallow as 2.5cm
  • Biodiversity: Bat cave to be added and habitats designed for kingfishers and little grebes
  • Flood risk: Longer grass, deeper lake, restored ponds and absorbent paths all meant to siphon off water 
Tomorrow 2021
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