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Dave Says:
Stray dogs. We’ve seen ‘em, smelt ‘em, been woken up by ‘em and on a rare occasion petted them. They are the blight of the under developed countries. It’s a well known fact that the Muslims are not too crazy about dogs so our expectation of a surplus of unloved and unwanted mutts was surprisingly met by a surplus of much loved, but filthy stray moggies. There’s hardly a dog to be seen, stray or otherwise here in Essouira but there are cats, and thousands of them. Cats everywhere you look and everywhere you walk. It is a good thing they’re neat-freaks with their poo or we’ll be tripping over that too.

The life of cat here isn’t too bad. Food is plentiful and the diet varied. Everyone seems to deposit their food scraps right outside their front door for their feline friends. Rotting chicken and rice left in a vomit inducing pile right on the sidewalk. Hey, one man’s RangyChangyWakWak is another’s gourmet dining experience. Watch your step now! I don’t think it occurs to the nice people here that where there’s rotting food there are rats and where there are rats there must be cockroaches and none of that is very sanitary. This is a little surprising considering the standard of general cleanliness here is of a much higher standard than India, for example. Perhaps it’s like the old lady who swallowed a fly. Perhaps this is the perfect micro-ecosystem but although the cats are fat they are not rat fat. Besides, what on earth would induce the otherwise lazy feline to chase a rat when roasted chicken and vegetables just seem to drop from the sky on demand?

Health care for the cats is much better than for the general human population. If you find yourself up the junction, with a bun in the oven or just plain knocked up, a box will magically appear outside a door for you to deposit your litter. Kitten survival rate is high although one shouldn’t discount the mortality rate caused by the feet of unsuspecting tourists. In the past four days we have walked by a box of new arrivals and today, we’re glad to announce, the kittens took their first tentative steps away from their mother – all eight of them – ahhh.

The best time for feline spotting is at dusk. The alleys are lined with our furry friends. They are smart enough to hug the walls for fear of trampling, often guarding the entry ways to lanes and alleys. The most alarming aspect to the cat epidemic is the encouragement of the little beasts into the restaurants. As you know, we love to eat with the locals and here we are eating with both the bipedal and quadrupedal variety. It is quite acceptable to all concerned to take a healthy portion of your dinner and drop it on the restaurant floor beneath your table. The cats that hang around the doorway are acutely aware of the sound of scrap and splat and race each other to the prize. Within a few minutes the floor is so clean you could eat your dinner off it, but only if you’re the next cat in line.

I had never really thought of cats being vermin before but here I think they are. There’s so many of them they are just bothersome. Quite a shift from how we in the west think of our moggies. Sarah takes it one step further by describing them as creepy and scary. She, I believe, is just guarding her food. The eyes of opportunity are always upon you even if they are a little squiffy from too much in-breeding.

Good grief David Browne, I’ve just re-read this entry and I can’t believe I’ve written all this about cats. I mean, here I am in a strange culture and I can only comment on is Top Cat and Bones. Am I the mad cat lady? If you have spent valuable moments of your day reading this, I’m sorry. I must have drunk too much mint tea (see previous entry).

Tomorrow we leave for a small coastal town called El Jadida and if I see any cats there I’ll be sure to keep my impressions to myself.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 10:16 am and is filed under Africa, Global Travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.