Lessons Learned

I have a beautiful Persian cat. In fact, there has never been a moment in my life that I have not had a cat of some breed. My wife and I got it as a dear gift. If you have never seen a little white cat closer to a flake of cotton or cotton candy playing in the sun and chasing a ball of thread, then you have not seen beauty and have not yet known happiness. But the cat grows with time. We are also accustomed to this moment: the problem of tearing the furniture upholstery begins, and you have the problem of hair flying everywhere that sneaks into every bite you eat, and covers the black shirt that you carefully saved for Dalia’s wedding, and there is the problem of howling and scratching near the corners of the table, and all the problems that cat lovers know. . When the cat reaches marriageable age, he punishes you because you have not married him yet. At this very moment - as my wife and I are accustomed to - the cat decides to run away into the street, most likely to get married and we will never see him again. He solves his problem himself, we did not intend that, but the last cat in our house is very cowardly and very domestic. It is enough for him to see the door open to make him shrink and tremble in horror. I once tried to take him out the door and the result was that he had bloody streaks around my palm. What exactly is the solution? I cannot find a wife for him, and if I did, one time would be enough for him. What about next times? One solution is to take him to a pet dealer, but I know these people. He will put it in a cage the size of this page, and feed it every three days a dead ornamental fish if one dies. Can this spoiled cat endure a life like this? There was a women's association that took care of stray animals, which was a very honorable mission. I called the honorable lady, the association’s secretary, to offer to host Katti Al-Shirazi. I would be willing to pay a monthly fee for the hotel, or if she could find a decent family who would adopt him. But she said with icy coldness: “People acquire cats without the slightest responsibility, and without thinking about tomorrow, and after that the only solution is to get rid of them.” I swore to her that I was looking for a family for the cat, and she said with the same coldness: “You will not imagine the psychological trauma that happens to a cat when the family changes.” Then she added: “The cats we have in the association are street cats. Some are mangy, some have lost a leg, and some are one-eyed. Your cat will not tolerate this life.” It's like we're talking about putting him in a juvenile correctional facility. In the end, she told me: The only solution is castration surgery. This way the cat will calm down, his hair will not fall out, and he will stop scratching. There is a fatwa confirming that surgery is permissible because it saves the cat from being thrown into the street. Then she proudly put down the phone. Of course, I didn't have enough time to tell her that I wouldn't do this. God created this beautiful being to reproduce and bring beautiful cats into the world, so why should I ruin this elaborate anatomy? Why should I deprive him of offspring? In the past, I used to cry every time I watched the movie (The Electric Horse) by Robert Redford, when the rider escapes from the circus with the horse he rides in its shows, because they inject the animal with hormones so that it will not have offspring. He takes him to the spacious pastures and releases him to join the flocks of galloping horses, saying: “Because the horse and I are friends, I did this!” This scene made me cry so much, so how could I do the same thing with a cat? It's easy to be soft-hearted while watching a movie, and then make all the mistakes when dealing with reality. Until I found the right solution, it occurred to me that this is happening very close to what is happening in our lives. Especially in today's youth world. The young man is looking for a beautiful being that he can be proud of in front of his friends. And the girl does the same thing. The important thing is that the wedding party be dazzling and that they dance brilliantly. And he looks like a knight and she looks like a dream princess. No one thinks about the next steps or the upcoming responsibilities. I have known men whose dreams collapsed when the wife started vomiting due to pregnancy, and I have known women whose lives were destroyed because the husband wanted the food to be hot when he returned at night. Then responsibilities and problems increase. The two young men discover that it is not just a safari trip in Sharm El Sheikh. Rather, behind it is a mountain of exhausting responsibilities. That's why today's marriages get divorced faster than you can buy a cat. Then would you contact the secretary of the women's association to solve your problem? Do you take your husband to the pet store to put him in a cage and feed him dead pet fish? I don't think life is that easy. An article by Dr. Ahmed Khaled Tawfiq. - Published in Al-Shabab Magazine, February 11, 2015.