Here is the poster:
Translation:
“Give us something to drink. We are dying of thirst.
“Thousands of street cats die of thirst every summer. A water dish in the yard saves lives
It is enough to put a large plastic container in a corner of the yard and fill it with water once a day, or else place it underneath the dripping hose of an air conditioner. They will be thankful and your heart will be filled with joy and satisfaction. Thanks.”
I had visited certain City’s in Israel in 2008 on a “Holy Land Pilgrimage” with “Mosiac Tour Group” of Mumbai. I saw a lot of stray cats in Old Jerusalen city and also in the other lesser populated Israeli city’s. During my tour of European Capital city’s with “Thomas Cook” in 2010 i was surprised to not see a single stray cat, including the “Burroughs market” of London !In hindsight i presume that amongst the developed economy’s Israeli’s are more tolerant towards stray and feral cats.
Now that summer is here in Cyprus with a vengeance I have to make sure my cats get enough water. That’s not as easy as it sounds because some of them do not like water at all and others drink too much. Consequently I have to prepare their dry food mixed with cooked chicken liver, canned food, mashed together with water. Variety is provided by alternately adding mackerel, cheese, or chopped chicken meat. They wolf down this tasty stew which ensures they also get plenty of liquid. Fatima who is nursing a beautiful white whoops Turkish Van kitten named Orkide gets extra cheese every day. Orkide has grown from 100 g when born on 3 June to 520 g today and already has a bushy tail and collar. It’s going to be a tough time for outdoor cats this summer, but hopefully that will motivate some lovely fluffy Angoras to come looking for water and food at my house.
Nice idea. I leave out food but not water. I’ll start leaving water as well.
I totally understand. I have seen this on my travels. These cats are what I would call genuine community cats. A different way of the semi-domestic cat being cared for not by an individual but a community. In Israel it seems that people relate to cats in a similar way. It happens her in the UK too sometimes. You can get a lot of pleasure relating to and caring for community cats.
I used to do that too in Canada – leave a bowl for the stray cats and raccoons. Animals live in the city have a tough life surviving against many odds. When I was little we had a familly of hedgehogs and I would leave them milk every night. I realize there are situations where one has to be careful about creating reliance in a wild animal but there are other situations where every little bit helps.
It’s a great poster – makes people think. I have a feeling alot of Israelis don’t do much of anything to help though. It’s a very strange country indeed. Not at all what one might think. Religious extremism has not time for cats – in my opinion. I have a friend who lives in Tel Aviv and tells me all about everything including cats. I don’t think I will ever go there.
Hi Michael. I think in Cyprus the cats do fairly well, but their situation is variable and depends on luck. I don’t think the word stray fits the cats here. They have always been outdoor and semi-feral cats. Almost every hotel, restaurant, holiday village or housing estate has it’s colony of cats, plus all of those that can be found in the villages and looked after by kind people. I have a lot of photos of these semi-feral but mostly friendly cats. My latest occasional visitor is a solid red female Turkish Angora female which would be a valuable and rare acquisition in anyone’s book. I suppose she is related to my 2 solid red SH females and the 3 SLH’d red cats, 2 females 1 male, that I exported.