PostScript Even for Beauties Life can be Tough

 "We are not rich by what we possess, but by what we do without." Immanuel Kant

It being very hot I asked a neighbor whether I may leave an empty ice cream box filled with water on his pavement for outdoor cats. He had no objections, it's in addition to that in front of my house. I used to also put croquettes in such a box on a neglected pavement (long grass, lots of paper and various pieces of plastic, wood and metal) of a house whose owner works in France and thus is rarely here. When she returned I found both boxes removed, even that one in front of the other house (they placed in front of my door!). When my husband and I passed her house, that stupid woman stood there together with a Moroccan woman, a " good story teller",  advising us that one should leave cats without food and water as they produce excrements. The not so bright, stone hearted women kindly allowed me, though, to provide cats with food and water along my house. Don't expect this to be a joke, around here one can easily get the impression that house owners have no rights, kids and youngsters can do as they please. I often get the smell of stinking diesel on account of motorbikes racing around here, surprising that only kittens are the usual victims (motorcycles and cars). Lately two small kids turned up on mini motorbikes, tuned to create maximum noise just like the big ones and stinking just the same. Youngsters and male adults viewing these got shiny eyes, such a dream...... Who cares about the environment? I don't think kids are taught to protect, live now and ignore the future. Take what you can get and don't worry about animal rights...... I want to be fair, not all are like that, the number of folks willing to protect cats and dogs, demanding animal protection laws, is on the increase.

Even for Beauties Life can be tough

 "Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat" Jean Paul Sartre

I have a lot of beautiful cats in my house, there are the two Siamoa cats Diana and Minusa (once the most expensive cat in the world, now very fashionable in Tunisia, which doesn't mean you can't find them homeless on the street), Persian cats Aisha (only one eye) and Amelie,  a bit of Persian: Jessica, Fleur, Capucco, Melanie, Burma cat Lilly, black and white Adamo, Claudia,  black with white socks Khaled, all white Milka (one eye blind), mainly white: Julino, Ricardo and Mallek (one eye blind), three colour beauties: Myriam and Tareqqa (both only one eye), gorgeous Nathalie and Kitty, golden coloured Sandy, mixed coloured: Tiger, Janina, Eileen, Natasha, Fritz, Larissa and Johanna, little Moses, white with grey spots, face resembling Hasky dogs: Adele and Alien, all grey: Grace and Jessica and little  newcomers: black and white Max and Moritz, three coloured Precious (white, black and golden), seven more: all black two, black and white two, black and beige one, white with black spots two (approx four week old, some with shortened tail.) All these treasures I found in front of my door, some handed directly to me, others were left in a cardboard box or lately thrown in a plastic bag and there are of course also those that I took to the vet after an accident and then kept. All old enough I had spayed and neutered, the little ones come from people who didn't take the trouble to get this done, perhaps didn't have the money or preferred to spend it on something else. I am afraid we are too many now and I urgently require families willing to adopt. Some of my older cats have health problems, I had to have their teeth done repeatedly, their blood tested and buy special croquettes for them. This applies at present to Lilly, Ricardo and Jolino, whose croquettes are 85 Dinar for 1,5 kg and now he doesn't like them while all the others would love to have his diet. A bit frustrating, to say the least. By the way, the poor little ones miss their Mum, they try to suck milk from male and female cats of various ages, some themselves quite young, this even though I give them the mother milk powder mixed with water. Obviously not like the real thing. Still, they are much better off then those without a family, a for ever home. If they are lucky they encounter folks who provide them more or less regularly with water and some food, often what is left over, including spicy hot food, not ideal but better than nothing. They can't afford to be choosey. There are some real beauties out on the street, very strange. Friends of mine in Germany said that they never saw such beautiful cats before. There you have to pay a lot of money for them, even when you get them from an animal home, because you have to pay for all the treatment the cat received, spayed and neutered, vaccine, check up. Folks here want all of this as well before adopting a cat, only the previous owner should meet the costs and ideally perhaps also for a year's supply of food. I am not saying all are like that thank heavens. If more folks discover the value of cats and dogs, I believe it will do our society good and maybe the lost brilliant, ever so charming North African big smile will return. I remember it well, at a time when guys were happy to possess a bike......

PostScript It can only get better

 "I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change..... I am changing the things I cannot accept." Angela Davis

Yesterday a woman dressed as if religious (some like to fool you like that) went passed my house and throw a plastic bag behind the metal fencing, behind which large cactus plants replaced the previous flowers a while ago as several of these got stolen or damaged by hooligans. A neighbor watching thought at first that the woman dumped her rubbish there. (By the way one can be find 60 Dinar for throwing one's garbage just anywhere.) Fortunately our neighbour checked and heard that the bag actually contained kittens. It was very hot, anyone who puts cats in a plastic bag in a weather like that and on top of that throws this onto cactus plants commits a crime and violates the Prophet's teachings. It was very lucky we were at home and managed to save eight approx. 4 weeks old cat babies, they must be of two different cat mummies, as they usually have four babies. I wonder what happened to them, people can be so brutal. We experienced so much, a mother cat still with milk - the owner told us she has been spayed, another mother with her kittens in a cardboard box in front of our door (a lady later on apologized, said she didn't know what to do), very often 2-4 cat babies, some much too young to be separated from their mum, 4 kittens four months old squeezed into a transport box ( a y

Young boy later on turned up and said his family wanted to throw them out on the street and he wanted to prevent this), two have been adopted with the help of our vet. Lately we were forced to accept 9 young newcomers apart from these 8 babies, had we left them outside, they would probably be run over by a car meanwhile. Their life expectancy is so low and they are so cute and lovely. We hope that we can find folks willing to adopt. Most Tunisians prefer a male cat, the expensive one (I joke, if you are not posh, at least your cat should be...). I don't know how to finance our big cat community in the long run, when old enough they need to be neutered and spayed, I learned how to treat some minor sickness (got a supply of cat medication meanwhile, some people with low income come and ask me for help sometimes when their cat is sick), dental problems are frequent. Several cats relay on my Cats' Table, so I can't close it in order to save money. So far I financed everything with my private money, apart from a monthly 20 Euro donation from a cousin. We hope and pray that folks here will take the trouble to get their cat spayed/ neutered, respect our NO, we can't take more cats, teach their children to treat animals well, support animal rights for a better world!