M’Shishett (Kittens)

Today is the second-to-last day of Ramadan (Insha’Allah), so Aliya stayed up most of the night last night, ate at 3 a.m. and is fasting today.  This is the basis of her strategy for surviving the fast:

Ben decided that the rest of us should go on a 5-mile walk to the beach and back, even though he didn’t have his pedometer to record the effort (he’s still unhappy about that).  On the way we encountered another of those unexpected surprises…kittens!

Adlani has been very concerned about the cats here.  They are EVERYWHERE!  He decided that when he grows up he will come to Morocco for a couple of months every year, gather up the cats, feed them, and find them homes.  I’m trying to inspire him to add spaying/neutering to his plans…hopefully that will be easier to explain after Mrs. Kinsella (the 5th-grade health teacher) has spent some time with him.  At each meal he saves the scraps to feed to the cats in the neighborhood…by the time we leave, this block will be known to all of the cats of Mohammedia as the place to get a free meal. 

When we travel I try to respect the local customs, but sometimes it’s easier to pretend I don’t know what’s going on.  On our way to the beach, we came across this box full of kittens.  Of course, Adlani immediately broke rule number 42 (no touching the animals):

A boy approached (in the blue shirt) and asked if we were going to take them home.  Ben told him that we were going to help the mama cat (you can see her approaching behind Ben), which I’m sure he thought was insane.  The mama cat came and picked up one of the kittens in her mouth and took off down the street.

The kids gathered up the rest of the kittens and followed the mama cat…

She was headed for the motorcycle wagon up ahead, where she had already moved a few of the kittens to the shade.

The kids put the rest of the kittens there, at which point a group of neighborhood ladies were exclaiming about the crazy people who brought back the kittens they were trying to get rid of – that’s when we took off.  I have no idea how they will try to get rid of them next, but Adlani won’t be there to witness it. 

At least Mohammedia doesn’t have a rodent problem.