Cat ladies are more of a thing in Israel than I remember them being in the US. Britain imported boatloads of cats here in the 1930’s to counter the rat problem: It mostly solved the rat problem, but the result, as might have been predicted, was many (estimated two million) cats. Chad Gadya.
Some of the cats in Israel have owners, but many are street cats, wandering around, homeless and independent. They are fed by the ubiquitous cat ladies, whose mission is to make sure all the world’s cats are cared for. There are many different types of cat ladies, but many of those here are older, single, and all different kinds of wonderfully crazy.
Israel does have laws about cats. Unlike in the US, where in cities vans circulate picking up stray animals to bring them in & euthanize them, here, un-collared cats are scooped up by the roving cat vans, transported to the “cat spa”, spayed or neutered, vaccinated, brushed, cleaned, coddled, and fed, for a few days of relaxation, and then after a few days of pampering, returned to their neighborhoods.
But what of the cats in the north?
With the war, the human residents of the north — all 200,000+ of them — have now temporarily fled their homes for greener, missile-free pastures, farther from Lebanon. (It’s a tiny country, so even farther doesn’t mean much farther.)
But the cats are still living up north.
So every week, cat ladies from all across Israel brave the Lebanese missile attacks, and caravan up to the moshavim and kibbutzim and cities up north.
They come from near and far, commuting in and out of the north, to tend to and feed the stray cats.
Every week. During a war, with missiles flying everywhere.
And if that whole operation doesn’t convince you we are living in a meshuganeh, wonderful country with plucky, incredible people, then nothing will.
For once I am speechless. A beautiful thing.
I love this!