They are Family

 "He who feeds a hungry animal feeds his own soul."      Charlie Chaplin.   The  most beautiful cats one can find out on the streets in Tunisia, neat gentle, grateful for a bit of food and water. There are golden and white, black and white, red, black and white (three colours means female, absolutely gorgeous), grey, all white, black or yellow, mixed colours, long (Persian breed), medium or short hair and even the Siamoise cat, that once upon a time only the Burmese royal family members were allowed to keep. Where do they all come from? Originally quite a few lived in a family, that fed them mainly on leftovers ( spices and salt are bad for cats, as well as onions, beans, etc.) and couldn't or didn't want to spend money on medical treatments or for getting their cat spayed and neutered. Unfortunately the cat is all too often not regarded as a kind of family member, unlike in Europe (the same applies to the dog), so when keeping the cat, possibly with babies, is considered to be too much trouble, the simplest solution seems to be to put her out on the street, with or without the little ones. In such a case the cat babies are put in a cardboard box and left in a place with a more or less slim chance to survive. I dread these boxes. When the babies still have their eyes closed their chance to survive without the cat mother are Ciro, I managed to spread this information. It depresses me to see cats (and other animals) in need and not being able to help. The other day I found a perhaps ten weeks old cat in front of my entrance door. I gave her food and water. She seemed to be okay, but I wondered where she came from, where she belonged and can she cope with the traffic? The next day an even younger kitten, maybe six weeks old, was sitting in front of my door. The two kittens' mothers don't seem to be among my regular guests. Someone brought them to my house. Anyhow, the older one I named Joyce, the other one Ramon and they are living with us now, playing and sleeping together. When I call: "Where is my Baby, " sweet Ramon appears.  They are so cute. My main worry, do the others accept them, are we getting too big a family, can I still manage to meet all the expenses. It is not just the food, new members means spay and neuter some time in the future, dentist and possibly other medical costs. Having lost meanwhile four cats due to kidneys not functioning properly, I guess I better use mineral water for my little treasures. I know poor citizens can't afford to buy this, but I am not helping them by making my cats sick with bad water from the tap. Some folks feel we should support them, instead of cats, what if we buy a nice car instead - like many neighbours do? We live modestly, no holidays, no car, etc. because we see the plight of the innocent cats and there are still kids that throw stones. Every day I find at least one in front of my house, when will they ever learn? Very loud barking, I see a medium sized a bit skinny white dog with spots, chasing cats, he knows where they sit or hide, underneath cars, around my and neighborhood houses. Cats are scared and running for safety, luckily no traffic. A grinning slim tall man, watching, looking highly pleased to see his aggressive dog obviously trained to be a fighter dog. Brought here are for training, no leash, no nozzle, but a blind man can see that he is misusing the dog so he can make money with illegal games. I try to chase the dog away (no stones, no stick) and when the man finally leaves, the dog follows him. I hope he will eventually get arrested and the dog retrained, after all he is innocent.