Kitty update

Last week was rocky when it came to my cats. On Saturday night I discovered that Mister Zol, the grocery store, doesn't open up after Shabbat, so I had no food for the kitties on Sunday. Sunday night, I discovered that they close at 21:00, and I went at 21:15. On Tuesday I finally had cat food, but my roommate and I got to campus too late for me to do my feeding. On Wednesday someone fed them before I got there, from the looks of it real white meat. I think I finally got to feed them on Thursday.

This week has been better; I haven't posted only because I was waiting to have video. I still haven't figured out how to feed and tape at the same time--the video's sorta awful. The cats were also really spread out this morning, but I think if you count you'll find all twelve.

The cats know me by now. Twice in a row now they've come running, and this morning I didn't even have to sit down first. The kitten's also becoming more trusting; it took a while for him to come out of his bush, and then he would run back into it whenever anyone walked down the path. Now he'll stay there and eat, as long as there's a bigger cat between him and the people. ("Mommy, hide me!")

I haven't named any of them yet, and I doubt that I will. There are some consistent kitties, but otherwise the cats in the humanitiies block change day by day. They also don't trust me enough to let them touch them--with the exception of Naftali, who has been affectionate since way before the feedings. I wonder if they'll ever trust me that much?

Speaking of Naftali, yesterday I found a girl pouring water into a rock for him. She said he was dehydrated; he'd drunk half her bottle already. I'm really glad I saw that; somehow, I've never stopped to think about how these cats get there water. It doesn't rain during the summer in Israel, ever. How do they find water to drink? Anyway, I've started giving them water, too. A container that had held creme cheese is now a kitty water bowl, assuming the people who clean the university don't find it in the bush and throw it away. I think I'll make the same thing out of my butter container when it expires, and the rocks have little grooves which can hold water. It's so simple; why hadn't I thought of it before?

When I got back to Kfar HaStudentim after class, I found Lynley with a couple of kittens, whose names seem to be either Yossi and Charlie or Hariette and Gila depending on who you ask. Yossi's scared of people, but Charlie's the friendliest kitty I've ever seen. As soon as I sat down on the bench she was in my lap, climbing around on top of me and on top of my backpack. I don't have any footage of that--it was so unexpected--but I can show you Charlie/Gila with Lynley, and being otherwise generally friendly!

After Lynley left, a couple of people who work in the office came out with a container of what I think was tuna. It makes me feel cheap to be feeding them dry cat food, but... the cats seem to like it just the same, and it's probably better for them.

Though, I could give Charlie one kind of fish to play with!