DM
Peru
These heart-warming images show the extraordinary lengths one nurse has gone to in her campaign to care for cats dying of leukemia.
Maria Torero, 45, of Lima, Peru, has turned her two-story, eight-room apartment into a feline hospice housing 175 patients and spends a staggering $1,785 a month on their care.
The mother-of-three meticulously doses out medicine while also regularly treating the cats for parasites - she even knits them shirts and jumpers to wear when it gets chilly.
While some of the moggies sleep in their own bunk-beds, many more end up sprawled over every piece of furniture in the house - which they share with Ms Torero’s three children, aged six, 14 and 16.
The cluttered apartment is totally consumed by cat litters, food and water bowls - leaving barely enough room to walk around.
 To make her life easier, friends have suggested she care for healthy cats instead but Ms Torero insists she is doing the right thing.
She said: ‘That’s not my role. I’m a nurse. My duty is to the cats that nobody cares about. People don’t adopt adult cats, especially if they are terminally ill.’
For five years she has nursed unwanted strays as they slowly succumb to the common, fatal retrovirus, which is not contagious to humans or other species. She finds them in Lima’s streets and market places and has them tested for leukemia.
Many street cats turn out to have the disease, as well as fleas, parasites and malnutrition and she says she only takes in adult cats to avoid spreading the disease to new generations.
She added: ‘Bringing a kitten here is condemning it to death.’
Each cat has a name - Fellini, Peppa, Dolly, Misterio among them - and Ms Torero dresses most in small shirts and jumpers claiming that ‘each one has a distinct personality’.
She said she gives out medicine, sterilizes the animals and treats them for parasites every two months. Her arms bear the scratches of cats that resist the injections.
The nurse spends around $1,785 a month on care for the cats - half of that amount coming from donations, the other half her own modest wages.
Despite using strong deodorants, the apartment gives off an overpowering smell of urine but Ms Torero said her neighbors have not yet complained.
Leukemia in cats is usually transmitted through direct contact, mutual grooming and the sharing of litter boxes, food and water bowls, according to the website of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
They can survive for several years, though their expected lifespan is much shorter than that of an unaffected cat.
As Torero lacks the resources to have the animals put down, they eventually die naturally, without any ceremony. She added: ‘My best gift of love and respect I give them in life.’