Mariam Al-Balushi of Oman has an estimated 500 pets that she saved from the streets.

In the Omani capital of Muscat, hundreds of cats and dogs congregate outside Balushi’s home. Despite complaints from neighbors and increased expenses, Balushi, 51, said that living with 480 cats and 12 dogs on the ground floor of her two-story home has helped her overcome the harsh conditions she went through in her life.

-Better than human beings-

"I found that animals, especially cats and dogs, are more efficient than humans," Balushi explains.

After growing up with nine siblings amid great financial difficulties and in the absence of her deceased parents, the retired government employee recognized the word ‘shelter’ and it became her dream "to have a shelter to protect homeless children."

"Because the Gulf countries provide all the basic requirements for the needy, I compensated my dream of this shelter for animals, especially cats and dogs." continued Balushi.

-My world-

"I have become my [own] world, my love and my happiness.” she added, “I gave up all kinds of entertainment, entertainment and even television," as the sounds of animals bellowed behind her.

Oman has seen an increase in the number of homeless animals in recent years, according to local media reports, despite financial penalties for abandoning a pet in the streets.

Balushi, a mother of two young men who live on the first floor of her house, spends $7,800 a month to tend to her animal friends. Seventeen of the animals are blind, therefore she tends to their every need, including feeding them, bathing them, and taking them to the veterinarian clinic when need be.

Most of the animals in her home, including homeless cats and dogs, live in large cages, and she releases them at certain times to play outside their cages.

The beginning of this ‘pet-shelter’ began in 2008 when Balushi’s son purchased a kitten. Ironically, she explained “I was like many mothers. I refused to raise animals and did not like it."

Two years later, "my son repeated the experiment again, and bought another cat that was not clean, so I found myself completely interested in it and spending a lot of time with it," she said.

The news of Balushi’s love for animals has spread widely, and expatriate travelers regularly leave their pets on her doorstep.

In 2014, Balushi purchased her home and began to regularly add to her pet family, saying that at the beginning of her life she was ‘influenced’ by a former neighbor, who used to feed homeless animals on a daily basis in front of his house.

She asserts that living with 500 cats and dogs helped her out of depression at different stages of her life.

“I was like someone at the bottom of a well and did not know how to get out (...) and the animals were like a lifeboat or a bucket that pulled me from the bottom of the well," said Balushi.