After decades of a tumultous and troubled past the former British territory of Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1990. In this relatively safe part of the Horn of Africa, the Cheetah Conservation Fund established its second facility in 2018, where now over a hundred cheetahs rescued from illegal wildlife trafficking are taken care of. I arrived to Hargeisa in 2023 to join CCF and work with cheetah cubs at their base in the protected area of Geed Deeble.