As some of you know, there are no squirrels in Israel. Instead, there are cats. Lots and lots of cats. And the cats of Israel are just like the squirrels of America...well at least the campus ones. The squirrels at U of I would fight another squirrel or another student for food. They were known for stealing snacks from those sitting on the quad, and they also broke in to quite a few apartments, usually during breaks.
The cats here are just as crazy. Today I was sitting in the grass with a few people from my lab. The four of us were having a quiet lunch. Because of the holiday, the campus is more or less on vacation and we were the only people sitting outside. Also due to the dearth of people on campus, trash cans are running low on "salvageable" food. As we were eating, a crowd of seven cats closed in on us, each one creeping closer than the next. As any good ecology students, we fed them our leftovers tossing a bit here and a bit there. Of course as the feeding began, more cats came to our little circle to see what the fuss was about. One cat, though, kept its distance. My lab mate noticed and tossed him some food. As soon as the cat made contact with the food, he took off in a dead bolt in the direction he came from. It was quite a sight to see. Especially because the caloric value of the nibble of food probably didn't sustain his sprint.
Sadly my cat encounters for today didn't end there. Today, as I do every day, I opened my office window when I got to work. We have bars on our window, maybe about four inches apart to keep people out, so I usually keep it open even when I am working in the lab. Today I was in the lab most of the day, but I was just about finished for the night. It was so Israeli when I came back to my office and not only was there a cat there, but she was curled up on MY chair, the farthest one from the window. I looked at her for a minute, I listened to her for a minute, and then I decided to bring in some reinforcement...a lab mate.
I went back to the lab to find someone to help out. I said that a cat came through the window and that I am not really a cat person, but it didn't sound too healthy. They knew immediately that it was Mitzy. The cat that adopted our lab (apparently she sleeps in the lab in the winter too). They new it was her because she is asthmatic, and when I described a sick cat, it had to be her. Even though they told me she was friendly, I asked one of them to come bring her away. She was really enjoying my chair though; it took a bit of effort to get her to leave. Finally I thought I was in the clear only to sit down in a still warm seat. That was too much for me, and I switched chairs with someone else. Maybe from now on, I will keep my window closed.
The final cat encounter of the day was even worse. One of the students in our lab has been raising a bird which she is hoping to imprint and train in a number of different homing techniques. Today she took the bird out for a bit of practice, and out of nowhere a cat came along and ate the bird. (Now you see why I hate cats?!) They were able to free the bird and make an emergency visit to the veterinarian, but it is still unclear if the bird will make a full recovery. Days like today make me miss squirrels. Or at least the suburban ones!
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