By Natalie Thomas

LVIV Ukraine (Reuters). – Natalia Horobets said farewell Monday to Charly her beloved cat at an animal shelter in Lviv.

Horobets had to flee Kramatorsk with her husband as Russian forces fought Ukrainian invaders.

However, after an exhausting journey westbound on a packed train, the couple decided to surrender their pet. It was too much work to set up a new home hundreds of miles away without a cat who is hyperactive.

Natalia Horobets stated in Lviv that “our train journey lasted 40 hours” and said this along with other parts of Ukraine’s West, which has so far been mostly unaffected. We were worried that the man would be trampled because there were so many of them.

Rasma Krecia (a Latvian volunteer) is the rescuer who hopes to bring Charly, along with dozens of other animals, across the border into Poland.

“We’re going to try to take as many animals as we can out, back to Latvia, back to Europe, back to safety,” Krecia said at the Home for Rescued Animals in Lviv, where she was loading up three vans with the first batch of dogs and cats.

According to her, it would have been impossible for her to stay in Latvia without doing something. “If I have an opportunity, if I have a large van, if I can bring food here and take some animals back to safety, I can’t stay at home.”

The Lviv sanctuary used to be a refuge for wild animals and strays. However, since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 24, it has been able to take in many more people fleeing from violence.

Dogs, cats, and even pets rat all jostle to be noticed alongside storks and foxes.

Reuters met with a Lviv resident who brought in half a dozen dogs that she had found in a container at the railway station. The train station is home to thousands of internally displaced people every day.

Krecia began to attach cages to her vans.

“Charly, my little one, you will come back home, but you need to stay in a different place for now, you will be good there,” said Natalia Horobets.

Volodymir, her husband, said that they didn’t know where their future would take them: “We hope Ukraine will prevail and win. We will return home.”