Cats & Things

One can not help but notice the scraggly cats all over Morocco and Essouria seems to have an inordinate about of them. They look cuter and neater in my pictures than they did in person. I love how this white one turned out looking almost regal against the old Essourian blue door, but she was really shabby and neglected looking  in person. It kind of reminds me of a symbol for the beauty of Morocco, regal and shabby at the same time.

Cats usually clean themselves, so it was unusual to see so many with ruffled fur, so I felt sad for them as they were clearly not well kept and had to make do the best they could on their own. Yet I have heard that cats are taken care of much better than the dogs. I guess when people are this poor, they have enough challenges just taking care of themselves.

There was one beggar woman near the beach in a wheel chair with a whole host of cats around her.
I was not sure if they were there to keep her company or to help her draw more attention to herself to
get money. I took the picture and we gladly gave her some money, but the scariest part of giving beggars money is trying to do it in a way not to pick up any germs as sometimes it looks quite filthy in person. DaVinci got quite good at the art of dropping coins into a hand without touching anything.

Two of the funniest cats were trying to get into a window on the second floor of a building. I am not sure if they belonged there or if they just smelled something good cooking. I don’t think anyone noticed it but me, but I enjoyed the little drama. They were doing lots of meowing, but the hubbub on the street level
had everyone’s attention.

The food stands in Morocco are very colorful and always caught my eye. We did not eat from them but they were fun to look at and take pictures of. We could have eaten the oranges and bananas since they fit under the peel it rule, but just did not happen to do that. Plenty of people do eat from the vendors, but we were just extra careful. I took Pepto bismol tabs as a precautionary prophylactic for dysentery that I had read about on the internet and I think it saved me from getting sick as I did have some bouts with nausea.

There were also lots of song birds in cages in the souks all over Morocco, but I did not get any great pictures. This one in Essouria was one of two at a shop and when I took a picture of the one who was singing melodiously, they pointed me to the other one across the way. I love song birds and their enchanting sounds, so I really enjoyed the fact that the Moroccans liked them too. In some very dreary places, they would trill their sweet music, thus will always be a fond memory of Morocco for me. I think I woke up to song birds almost every morning.

The cat by the boxes was just a kitten and Mozart wanted to pick her up and play with her like all of the cats. She misses her cat that she dearly loved that disappeared right before we took off. Since they were stray cats and  seemed very docile, she wondered why we could not take them with us. Tempting in some ways, but we already have enough in our motor home!