The Dilemma of the Cat Man

For those of you who have been quietly following my cat saga, it has finally been resolved.

Three of the kittens have been adopted (one by my children). And somebody put us in touch with a fellow who runs a cat shelter called Girgurim. We called him up, and he was willing to take in the mother and two remaining kittens. He wanted to push us off for a few days, but eventually we got him to agree to take them before shabbos.

So Friday afternoon, my family piled into the car with said felines, and drove off to Kibbutz Harel (between Tzomet Shimshon and TzometNachson), where Girgurim is located. Here our host accepted the cats and took us on a short tour of his premises.

They care for around 800 cats in 1 dunam of land that they have enclosed for their comfort. Yes, those figures are correct. We saw it. They never destroy any cats, no matter how sick or feeble; they just take them in and care for them. And I have to be honest, these cats look like somebody is taking the most amazing care of them. They look strong, robust, healthy - as if each one of them was being taken care of individually by a family with 2.4 kids and a white picket fence around their garden. Except that they're all living under one gigantic roof, with tens of discarded sofas, beds and other furniture and toys to sleep on and play with. If I were a cat in Israel, I would probably want to live there.

Anyway, I thanked they guy, and gave him a modest donation - maybe enough to feed the 3 cats I gave him for a month. I thought, I can't take this money out of maaser, and I would much rather donate money to a cause that benefits people rather than cats.

So now, this guy with the big heart is saddled with 3 extra feline mouths to feed. I'm sure it's a big maala what he's doing, looking after Hashem's creatures - but would I encourage my children to follow his path? No way. Frankly, I think he's lost the plot. I think he's wasting his obviously considerable koach of chesed on a bunch of dumb cats, when he could be using it to care for any number of different kinds of people who need it.

Yet I am grateful to him, and I took advantage of him. I think what he's doing is silly and wasteful; I think he is wasting his life on a non-cause - and I went ahead and fed him more of the same drug.

Was that a good thing to do? Should I maybe have looked at his situation and said to myself, "This man says he wants my cats, but I know better what he needs, and that is for me simply to dump the cats on some kibbutz somewhere and let them fend for themselves, rather than be an additional burden to this misguided fellow Yid here, who doesn't know his right hand from his left."

What do you think?

Calling cat lovers!

A few weeks ago, one of our neighbors' kids brought home a cat that somebody else had had as a pet, and didn't want it anymore. I'm sure the story has grown legs, but apparently the original owner was about to dump it somewhere, and our neighbor's kid had rachmonus on the thing and brought it home.

Problem 1: she didn't clear it with her parents. So she wasn't allowed to keep it in the house, and it started wandering from house to house in our complex, picking up whatever scraps it could beg or steal.

Problem 2: it started becoming apparent after a week or two that either this cat had been eating really well, or it had a few buns in the oven. On shabbos a week ago we settled that question; it lay down in our next-door neighbors' garden and proceeded - much to the delight of a capacity crowd of local children, and much to the chagrin of the family whose garden was serving as the grandstand - to deliver six teeny tiny (and very cute) little kittens. (One has since died; the remaining 5 look pretty strong.)

Problem 3: Now this cat has officially adopted our complex as its home, and she is becoming more and more emphatic about her rights to whatever any household happens to be eating, cooking or defrosting at any given time. This past shabbos she had the chutzpah to take advantage of our open front door to sneak up to our second floor, and one by one she deposited her kittens on the pull-out bed in our 2nd bedroom.

Now the neighbors are growing restless, and this cat is fast becoming felix non gratus...

Are there any cat lovers out there? There are 5 really cute kittens just waiting for a good home. My daughter got very excited about them and went and took a bunch of photos, just so you can see that they really are cute. If you want the mommy, too, you can have them all now; if you just want a kitten, we'll hand them out as soon as they don't need their mother anymore. (Incidentally, does anyone know offhand what age that is?)

Please be in touch by email: sbehr.at.sabreton.com

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Update 20 July 2009:
The kittens are now weaned and ready to go to a good, loving home! They are healthy, strong, amazingly cute, friendly and love to play with children.

Please be in touch to claim your kitten!

UPDATE 27 July 2009:
The neighbors have had enough. Ultimatum - the cats have to go... today.

This is your last opportunity to get yourself a strong, healthy, de-flead, hand-tame and very cute kitten.

Email: sbehr.at.sabreton.com or phone 02 999 1342