Thursday, October 27, 2011

Its raining cats....but not so much dogs

Dear Readers,

Oman is filled with cats! Lots and lots of cats. But unfortunately not as pets. Cats are considered rodents in Oman, equivalent to rats. Driving down the road, its not out of the ordinary to see a skeleton-shaped cat diving into the dumpsters, laying underneath or on top of cars, or sitting on the side of the road with a gash in its back, completely helpless.

The problem is, the cats reproduce litters. The amount of kittens coming into the world outnumber the number of cats that it took to reproduce them. So the population of cats is rising!


When it comes to dogs, its hard to say much about them, because there are so few dogs here. Why?

Well, traditionally, dogs are considered unclean. Not many muslims have dogs as pets because, well it is sort of against Islam. But I say "sort of", because there are actual specifications. For example, its okay to keep a dog if its for the purpose of hunting for food.
There's a well written explanation on this link in fact: What Do Muslims Think About Dogs?

But the ironic part of all this?? All my Omani friends want cats as pets!!! All of them fawn over the rodent-cats! Even though the cats are skinny and gross, some girls still want to steal a kitten and raise it into a normal house cat.

I wish them a half-hearted "good luck" stealing a kitten from one of those Omani cats, though. They have little chance of sneaking past those vicious creatures!!




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