SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
In Lebanon, a historic university offers not just an education in the heart of Beirut, but an unusual sanctuary for cats abandoned during war and economic hardship. NPR's Jane Arraf and Jawad Rizkhallah bring us this report on the American University of Beirut, or AUB, and its 1,600 campus cats.
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JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: You don't have to love cats...
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ARRAF: ...To attend college here, but it helps. There are so many cats.
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ARRAF: AUB veterinarian Rana Bou Khalil says with a huge increase in abandoned pets over the last year, she thinks there's somewhere between 1,200 and 1,600 cats on campus.
RANA BOU KHALIL: We sterilized up to 1,000, and we are continuing the program.
ARRAF: That's in less than two years. They also vaccinate them before releasing them onto the sprawling campus.
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ARRAF: Some need extra help.
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KHALIL: This is a sick kitten left on the gate, and we're trying to save her. We have the blind one left on campus.
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ARRAF: There are house cats - all kinds, some of them purebred - and feral cats. There are elderly cats and kittens.
KHALIL: The highest number was abandoned during the war. Many people dumped their cats because they don't have any home for them.
ARRAF: That was the year-long war between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel in 2024. Caring for the cats, though, began decades ago during Lebanon's civil war. AUB staff member Henry Matthews tells us...
HENRY MATTHEWS: There were serious, severe street battles around here, around the university and in Hamra and everywhere. So the cats flocked to AUB en masse because this seemed like a protection for them. And they stayed.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: The university, established in 1866, says cat care does not affect funding for students. It relies partly on donations.
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ARRAF: The clinic adopts out the ones it can, but it barely makes a dent in the population. Fortunately, this is a huge campus full of trees and gardens rolling down to the Mediterranean Sea.
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ARRAF: On a previous visit, we go along with caretaker Mohammad Kamal as he calls to hiding cats and pours food into bowls around campus.
MOHAMMAD KAMAL: I feed them every day around 9:30, 10, like this.
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ARRAF: About 45 pounds of cat food a day. It takes him about an hour. Despite that, there are always a few cats hanging around outdoors at lunchtime...
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ARRAF: ...Hoping students will share their sandwiches.
Here's more cats. There's a white and tabby, with a ring tail, licking their lips, and a lovely, long-haired, orange and white sweetheart.
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ARRAF: Most of the cats are nocturnal, so you don't see a lot of them during the day. AUB's green spaces give them lots of places to hide. Even people who say they don't like the cats seem to tolerate them, like Hiyam Ghannam, a teaching adviser.
HIYAM GHANNAM: It's sometimes frustrating. Sometimes they come to the library. They study with us. So yeah, they come to classes.
ARRAF: Layla Shahurur, a computer science student from South Lebanon, where Israeli airstrikes are continuing, says people are still afraid and having cats around helps.
LAYLA SHAHRUR: If you were stressed about something and, like, you go out, you know, you pet cats or, like, any other animal, they help you get out of your stress zone.
ARRAF: According to some students, though, the cats do take liberties.
ALI ITANI: Actually, yesterday, I was in a class. Suddenly, I just felt something rubbing on my leg. I just looked. I saw a girl screaming and turned out to be a cat, and she was afraid of cats.
ARRAF: That's Ali Itani, a freshman. Cats aren't supposed to be in classrooms or dorms, but they don't really follow rules.
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ARRAF: Henry Matthews says their presence teaches students to be kind to other beings who are smaller and more helpless than they are. We go around meeting more students and cats with Mimi Touma, a press officer.
MIMI TOUMA: Hi, Kato. She's so pretty.
ARRAF: I asked her about the inscription at campus entrance. It's from a Bible verse, although the university has long been secular. It refers to spiritual wealth.
TOUMA: It applies for anybody if you read it. Let them have life and have it more abundantly. Don't we all want this?
ARRAF: Even cats, she says.
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ARRAF: Jane Arraf, NPR News, Beirut. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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