When video of a dog at the top of an Egyptian pyramid in Giza went earlier this month, tens of millions of social media users were simultaneously delighted and baffled. How did the dog get up there, and why? But Ibrahim Elbendary, co-founder of the American Cairo Animal Rescue Foundation, recognized the animal immediately. It was Apollo, one of about eight dogs in a pack that lives on the Pyramid of Khafre’s upper reaches.
Apollo, his siblings and their pack mother, whom locals call Laika — named for a dog who was sent into space in the ‘50s — are among dozens of stray dogs at the pyramid complex and millions in Egypt. They are cared for by animal welfare organizations that say they face significant challenges in meeting an enormous need. Most of the strays at the pyramid complex, which is just outside Cairo, live on the ground or close to it.
But Laika ventured toward the pyramid’s top, which Elbendary says may have seemed a protected place to give birth. “She is very smart,” he said. She and her offspring have since made it their home.
It was “the most shocking thing,” he said, to see them hunting birds atop the Pyramid of Khafre, the second tallest of the three main pyramids in Giza. They sneak up on crows and jump into the air to catch them, hundreds of feet from the ground, on the rough stones. Apollo, who Elbendary said is about 3 years old, was barking at birds in Oct.
14 footage filmed by a paraglider. The rescue organization cares for street dogs an.