Snow Day

That's right, it snowed here in Amman last week. Big, white flakes fell from the sky for most of the day, and although most of it melted soon after it hit the ground, school was cancelled and we had an extra day at home. In fact, most of the cars on our block didn't move all day, probably meaning most of our neighbors stayed home too. The picture above shows the results of our day of snow, and although it is pretty meager from our Minnesota standards, it was enough to disrupt the normal rhythm of life here, and even enough to provide us with a little bit of extra excitement.

Wild Cats

I recently read an article in our hometown newspaper about the large and increasing number of wild cats in the metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. According to the article, studies show that between half a million to a million such cats are roaming the area, creating nuisance issues and potentially spreading disease. The article even told the story of one such wild cat that entered a women's home and, when discovered, took a swipe at her. Oh my! The article went on to discuss the solutions being bandied about for the resolution of the problem, which included bringing the cats to animal shelters to give away or, if they were not taken, to euthanize; trapping, neutering and then releasing them; or just shooting them. It didn't say if there would be a "cat season" or not.

This got me thinking about our own wild cat problem here in Amman. Here, cats roam every street like packs of wild dogs, dig for leftover food in garbage cans, sleep on abandoned furniture or empty dirt lots, produce new offspring several times each year, and occasionally disturb the peace with their fighting. They're like squirrels in Minnesota in their ubiquity, except with much more personality. No matter how wild they are, when you walk by them they seem to look at you longingly--occasionally meowing--hoping for a bit of human contact, but deep down, knowing that they should probably keep their distance. Also, since--like snowflakes--no one cat looks exactly like another, you start to recognize the various cats on your street, notice the new ones that sometimes come along, and wonder where the old ones are if you haven't seen them for a few days. Anyway, there are a lot of cats here. A lot.

So I wondered exactly how many wild cats we have here, and did an internet search to see if I could find out. Needless to say, however, there was no such information available online. I guess that's not surprising. There were a few blogs from various people here on the subject, but I doubt that any study has been done to determine the number of wild cats living in the city.

A cat on the dumpster outside our apartment.