When my Spanish niece visited England for the first time, 35 years ago or more, we were out for a walk when we came across a cat walking along the top of a garden wall. We stopped to take a look at it, as you do when a friendly cat approaches you, but the little girl backed off, declaring, “Es un gato salvajel”. After all back then you saw very few domestic cats on the streets of Spain. They were, and probably still are.
(Incidentally we had a similar incident with her son during their recent visit here. I have mentioned the chap who leaves baking apples on his wall for passers-by to take. Well, out on a walk, my ‘Spanish” sister, her daughter and grandsons came across some of these apples. The 14 year-old advised his grandmother not to take any on the grounds that they might be poisoned!)
Here in the UK, back when I was a kid it was accepted as fairly normal that cats were let out in the mornings and came and went as they saw fit. Some stayed out all night! Come to that, many dogs were fed at breakfast time and set free to roam the neighbourhood until suppertime. These were, of course mostly mongrels. More expensive purebred, thorough-bred, dogs were only set free in the back garden. And there were not so many odd crossreeds of dogs back in the day.
Nowadays, as regards cats being indoor or outdoor pets, it’s probably about 50-50. Granddaughter Number One has indoor cats. Our daughter is negotiating with a cat rescue organisation about adopting couple of rescue cats win special needs. Someone needs to inspect her house and family set-up before agreeing to the adoption. These too will be indoor cats. Yet we have regular visitor-cats in our garden, clearly perfectly normal cats exploring the neighbourhood.
There is, however, a threat to those ordinary, perfectly normal outdoor cats in the shape of “cat seducers”. Cats have always been very independent and prepared to take advantage of any situation. Our son has two cats, one of which will happily help himself to the contents of his slower-eating brother’s food dish. And cats have long been known to go and scrounge an extra meal in a neighbouring house. But according to this article, such behaviour is causing friction in communities as some folk claim ownership of cats that take to wandering into their home to be fed. Accusations of “encouraging” scrounging abound. Beloved moggies return home plump and well fed, sometimes with their collars removed or replaced with a new one. Some stay away from home for weeks, seduced into new homes. Who knew that such troubles went on? Appropriating stuff that is not your own.
Of course, more serious appropriation of other people’s property, land and livelihood is still going on in Palestine. Here’s a report from Thursday by Emma Graham-Harrison in Jerusalem:
“Israelis have shot dead two teenagers in a Palestinian village encircled by settlers, and Israeli troops have razed an entire village outside Hebron, in the latest attacks in a surge of Israeli terror and ethnic cleansing across the occupied West Bank.
The shootings targeted Khalil Abu Alia, 16, who was about to start 11th grade at the al-Mughayyir boys school, and 19-year-old Omar al-Nassan, who graduated from the same institution with top marks this summer.
The teenagers were killed soon after sunset, when a group of settlers entered the village under police and military escort to steal dozens of sheep from a Palestinian home, village residents and Israeli activists said.
Snipers took up position on rooftops and one shot Abu Alia in the neck, his English teacher, Waheed Abu Naim, said in a phone interview. The boy was on the doorstep of his home when he was targeted.”
It’s still happening!
Life foes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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