The cat with only one ear

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Happy International Cat Day to this wary one-eared long-tailed cat.
I locked glances with him outside a Beer Sheva restaurant.
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Dear readers, I'm sorry for the long time since my last post.
Guess it was a combination of sudden busy-ness, procrastination, long hot summer laziness, and bloggers block.   I'll try to do better now.
Happy August to you.
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An alert Golan Heights cat

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A cat on high alert!
Among the ancient stones of Yehudiya-Gamla Nature Reserve. 
It's best to enlarge this photo to see the cat's special stance. 

I'm just coming home from a wonderful few days up in the beautiful Golan Heights and down around the Sea of Galilee. 
I'll get my notes and photos together and start sharing the adventures with you tomorrow.

UPDATE: Just learned that Feb. 17 is World Cat Day in many parts of Europe!  :)
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Die goldene Medina

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Every spring when these Israeli trees shed their flowers, turning the sidewalk a bright yellow, I am reminded of the Yiddish expression Die goldene Medina.
The Jewish immigrants disembarking at Ellis Island probably did not expect to see America's streets literally  paved with gold  in "the golden country," but they knew that with hard work and patience they would rise out of poverty.

The trees responsible for my reverie look like this, with rough bark.
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(Linking to Camera-Critters meme, for the sweet black cat.)
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Cool campus cats

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Cats are EVERYWHERE on the campus of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. 
Even indoors, it now appears! 
This one was feeling right at home inside the Student Administration Building. 

When she saw me sit down near her, the kitty perked up, assessing me: would I be a good source of food and cuddles? 
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(Linking to Camera-Critters.)
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Door in the window for an indoor/outdoor cat

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This cat and I were friends in Switzerland but only once in my two months there was I lucky enough to see her go up the cat ladder and into her humans' home.

Here she is jumping up to the first ledge.

Then up the ladder to her first-floor apartment.

And in she pushes through the ingenious cat door in the window! 
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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A church watch-cat

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Guardian of the threshold?
A cat sits atop the gate next to a church in old Jaffa.

Immanuel Church was built in 1904 in Jaffa's American/German Colony. 
Its history is so interesting, and unique. 

The Protestant church holds services on Saturday in Hebrew and English.
On Sundays only in English. 

Linking this post to Camera-Critters and inSPIREd Sunday memes.
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UPDATE: Just learned that today is Cat Day (well, in America at least).  Happy Cat Day! 
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Water from the rock

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Happy International Cat Day.
This is a favorite memory of a cat drinking from a rock.
It was a rainy day in March at the tomb of the Rambam (Maimonides) in Tiberias.
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A cat warming up by the firewood

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Siamese cat sunning on a bench by the woodpile on a chilly Austrian afternoon.
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Big city cat

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A Tel Aviv street cat in the driver's seat!

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(Linking to Camera Critters.)

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A campus cat to my rescue

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I read one of those lists.
This was Ten Ways to Quickly Calm Yourself.
One good way was to pet a cat.
Fine, I said, but oi, where am I going to find a tame cat?

A day later, as if by miracle, this sweetie walked over  while I was sitting on a "bench" at Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva and started snuggling up to me.

Even though I didn't let the kitty sit on my lap, students passing by looked at the two of us with curiosity and a little disbelief.
I calmly smiled back at them.   :)
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Keeper of the gate

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Feline gatekeeper at Segula Cemetery,  February 10, 2015.

The gate rolls open promptly at 6:00 a.m.

The Bible verse quoted on white is Ecclesiastes/Koheleth 12:5,
"Then man goes to his eternal home." 

1 Remember then thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say: 'I have no pleasure in them';
 2 Before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;
 3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out shall be darkened in the windows,
 4 And the doors shall be shut in the street, when the sound of the grinding is low; and one shall start up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;
 5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and terrors shall be in the way; and the almond-tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall drag itself along, and the caperberry shall fail; because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets;
 6 Before the silver cord is snapped asunder, and the golden bowl is shattered, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel falleth shattered, into the pit;
 7 And the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it.
. . . 

(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Selfie of a cat

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Well! -- this was the first time I ever took a selfie of a CAT!

But there is a good reason why I couldn't get up and stand in front of the cat and take a normal shot.

Yesterday my Shishi Zioni group went to three places in the Ramat Negev region to hear about three different types of communities.  (More about that in coming posts.)
Most of the folks sat down on chairs on one side to hear Itai, a member of Shizaf, talk to us.

I sat on a row of stacked stones on another side.
A cat came from behind to check out the several people on the stones.
I said "Psst psst" to invite her him over.
She He accepted and came for a good snuggle, then settled down right next to me!
The lady on the other side of the cat was not at all happy about our new neighbor.
But I happily laid my hand on the warm, fluffy, clean, purring kitty and tried to concentrate on the lecture and not attract attention.
I just had to,  however, take one discreet selfie of this sweet animal!
Wish I could have taken her him home. 
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UPDATE: I am now reading the garinsheizaf Facebook page of the community and learn that the cat is a male named Bentzi and he is their only cat.
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Old joke for new Theme Day

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City Daily Photo's Theme Day today is about DETAIL.
It reminds me of a joke from long ago during my school days in Chicago:

The teacher asks a pupil to use the words deface, detail, and defense in one sentence.
The boy answers, "Dat's easy!   De face went over de fence before de tail."
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See other posts on Detail, more serious than mine, at the City Daily Photo October Gallery.
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Go in peace, to peace, Lara

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 By now all you faithful readers know  Lara, my best feline friend.

Lara kept the neighboring monastery free of mice, snakes, and rodents.
Last week we think a snake bit her.
Now beloved Lara is dead. 

 For at least 8 (some say 11) years she did her job well, living free outdoors, bearing the snows of winter and the heat of summer.

 She had one litter.  One kitten survived.
Here on the stairs she had a brief hissy fit with daughter Shachar.

But mostly they were kind to one another, like here, sharing a plate of leftovers in the February wetness.

She was beautiful and intelligent  and affectionate to the few humans that she knew and trusted.

She enjoyed having me swing her back and forth, side to side, around and around.
"Hoy-dash, hoy-dash ..."

And now dear Lara is on the shining path to Cat Heaven, if there really is one.
Thank you for your friendship and love, my friend, and for your long service.
"Well done, good and faithful servant."

In her final days she was tended by a gentle hermit priest monk, and he buried Lara in his garden.
Rest in peace, old girl. 
We will miss you. 
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(Linking to Camera Critters)
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Playing with a gecko

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Oi veh, this is the second Shabbat in a row that I find a dead animal in the grass.
Maybe I should not have wished for something to post on Camera Critters. 

Shachar actually led me to it.  
She was more interested in playing with the poor gecko, batting it around, than eating it. 
I think this cat was not the one who killed the critter, and she is too proud to be a scavenger.
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KAI in snow, with curious cat

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In last week's rare and not-long-lasting snow I wrote my grandson's name, planning to e-mail the picture to him in Los Angeles.

Kai has not yet seen snow, Californian that he is.  

Meanwhile a stray cat walked into my photo. 

Now, looking at the enlarged version on screen, I try to figure out the tomcat's strange stance:

alert?  afraid?

assuming attack mode? 

being careful to avoid snow? 

about to jump up to the shed roof?

studying the grapevine's shadow? 

listening for a bird? 

catching scent of a she-cat? 

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Maybe the animal observers at Camera-Critters know?

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(P.S.  There is another animal, a HUGE rubber duck, in the previous post!)

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And if you missed the snow pictures last week, look at

Jerusalem of White   

and

my village under 10 inches of snow. 

The cling on

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Shachar the cling-on cat  dreams of being a Klingon warrior. 
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(For Camera-Critters)
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A lick and a promise

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A cool winter day it was, but my friend Shachar found a welcome spot of warm sunshine in the olive tree. 

She sensed the sun would soon be setting, so she literally gave her grooming "a lick and a promise." 

Shachar seemed quite smug about the results.
Her beauty shines through even better if you enlarge the photos.
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(A post for Camera Critters.)
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The monastery cat

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I was just trying to get a shot of the door to John the Baptist's grotto when this cat jumped from the ledge.

Then she slowly climbed the tall stairs, sniffing as she went.
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(A cat for Camera Critters meme.)

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Life in the gutter

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"Life in the gutter," in this case, is a good life--cool stones, shade, safety from predators.
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How does she get up there?!

After posing for a few photos this morning, Shachar jumped.

My camera caught only her tail, going straight down!
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(For Camera Critters Sunday)

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