Yeowling Street Gang Kitties (I didn't come up with this title)

There are so many wonderful sights and sounds in Jerusalem. However, when it comes to the out of control feral cat population, the sights and sounds one experiences daily is nothing short of disturbing. To make an enormous generalization, back in the early part of the 20th century, the British decided that the best way to rid the country of large amounts of rats was to import large amounts of cats to kill them and drive them away. Well, it worked, except no one ever bothered to do anything with all of the cats. One would think that large amounts of cats are far better than large amounts of rats, but in reality, the gangs of cats today are as much a nuisance as the rats were, and in my opinion these cats are more rodent than feline. They prowl around day and night, eating out of garbage cans and dumpsters, making us nervous by how tense they all are. They are skinny and a lot more than one would hope look sickly. For some reason the last few days the entrance to our building from the courtyard smells like a few too many cats pooped in the bushes. It ordinarily doesn't smell like urine or feces. By far the worst part of it all is nighttime. We lay in bed with the windows open and listen to the cats yeowling and screaming at each other. It is part feral territory disputes as well as cats in heat screaming for a mate. It sounds like a baby crying and screaming, literally. We find this to be disturbing in its entirety coming from the states where cats are beloved and spoiled and are spayed and neutered most of the time. There is no way our pampered kitties could have made it here. The worst thing to happen so far is that when we left our apartment Monday evening there was a dead cat off the sidewalk with a look on its face I will never forget and another cat was standing over it screaming. We're not sure if it had just killed the cat and was doing a warrior cry thing or what. I was deeply disturbed by this, as was Rachel, and I struggled to get the image out of my mind the rest of the evening. I am terribly sensitive when it comes to pain and suffering, both mental and physical, so it bothered me knowing that this cat had a shitty life on the streets and then died a horrible death. I love watching nature shows, but my heart is torn as I watch survival of the fittest in action. I know all animals need to eat, I just wish no one had to feel pain as they were being killed. Anyway.... When we got home that night the cat was still there (Rachel peeked for us -- thank you Rachel!), and I walked by it with my eyes closed following Rachel's voice. I had remembered reading in the bible for living in Jerusalem that HUC gave us that one of the many municipal services was removal of dead animals. So I called them (it was late so they must be open 24 hours) and told them there was a dead cat. I exaggerated a bit by telling them it smelled and was in the way of pedestrians. When Rachel got home from ulpan the following morning she said the cat had been removed. As I'm writing this I am trying to imagine what you as readers are thinking. It isn't as bad as it sounds, but it is bad nonetheless. That is the only dead cat we have seen, and more appear healthy than not. Some are not feral and enjoy a little scratch, although most are still at least a little skittish. And the noises at night are not constant. We are outraged that Israeli citizens and the government do not care at all about the cats. I don't know, maybe there is something we don't know. Maybe they have tried controlling the population and rats have reemerged. I need to do some research on this. As bad as it sounds, they need to euthanize all of the sick cats and do trap-spay/neuter-release with all of the others like is done in DC and I'm sure many other cities. Again, this warrants some more research, so I'll report back to you on this issue at a later date. In the meantime, treat your cats like royalty and when you see a stray cat with no collar, please call the Humane Society and/or Animal Control for information on how to take the cat to a shelter yourself or how to assist Animal Control in locating the cat and taking it in for medical care, spaying/neutering and hopefully a new loving home.