My New Feral Friends!

I said I wouldn't and I am! One of the downsides to being in Doha is seeing deserted animals all over the place. Specifically, there are a large number of feral cats. So the story goes...cats were brought to Qatar to control a rat problem many years ago. Of course, the cats started multiplying and have just taken over. There are many stray cats in our compound. They actually each govern a block. It is quite funny really. There are one or two who seem to have the run of the place, but for the most part, they stay in their territory!

So one day I found my soon to be adopted cat on my car. As I got closer to her, I realized that she only has one eye. UGH! What was I to do. I had some extra food from Macey's welcome-to-Doha pack and decided to put a little out for my one-eyed friend. So of course, for the next week, every night, she would show up at my door for her ration of food. Michael and I named her Bandit.

After about a week, I noticed that not only was she coming to me for meals, she was also finding refuge in my Jeep! I thought it was so cute until she started scratching up the interior. So on the top went. (She is still mad at me for this!)

After about another week, I went out to feed her and when I called "Bandit" there were suddenly two cats in front of me. When you get a good look at them together, they are clearly related, as their tails and eyes are the same. So I figured that Bandit's new friend was her sister, who I named Sissy. I have since figured out that Sissy is really Bandit's brother...oh well!

Yesterday, Sissy was taking a snooze on the porch and a friend came by with her dog and Sissy got chased up a palm tree! I was a bit worried about her getting down. She made it about a quarter of the way down and then just dropped the rest of the way. And yes, she landed on her feet!

I do get worried about Bandit's missing eye. The eye just stays open. You can imagine that with all of the dust here it is often infected. So far they will only let me pet them while they are eating. Maybe one day Bandit will let me pick her up to bring her to the vet. Maybe one day, Michael will let me take her to the vet to get her eye fixed! ;-)

BTW-Macey isn't too happy about all this, but understands that it is just not fair for these two cats to have to eat out of a garbage can! (I have taught her well!)