The night life of Old City cats

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This curious or maybe bewildered kitten didn't know what to make of this installation.
Neither did I.

It is one part of "Residents of the City" and was created by Bernardo Shkolnick.
Umm, I wonder what city he refers to.

It was part of last week's Old City of Jerusalem Light Festival. (See more in previous posts.)
Their website explains

The installation shows a representation of the different parts of our own personality in 5 stereotypes. The diverse mixture of these psychological stereotypic elements in each one of us creates the infinite kinds of human beings that we meet everywhere walking in the city . Skolnick uses ordinary illuminated display-window mannequins to represent these universal stereotypes as “humans” of diverse ages involved in different activities.

Near the "artwork" on Muristan Street I found the evening gathering place of the Old City's countless cats!
They must have felt secure behind the fence that protects this monument.

You can click on the photo and read the interesting history.

The complex in back of this stone is called the Muristan (bimaristan meaning "hospital" in Persian).

After the Hospitaler knights left their headquarters on the Temple Mount, they took up residence in the Muristan.

The order was founded during the First Crusade and is also known as the Order of St. John.

These knights, entrusted with caring for the health of Crusaders and pilgrims, built a hospital here.

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We learn from the inscription, "the Grand Priory in the British Realm" followed their example in more recent times.
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(This cat post is for Camera-Critters.)

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Sun-induced somnolence

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Lara, my favorite feline, enjoying the springtime sun on the woodpile.

Eyes half-closed, she is half-asleep, simply resting and absorbing the warmth (the warmth of the sunbeams and of my friendship).

Hebrew has a nice expression for that state of not-quite-asleep: nim ve-lo nim.
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Yet another Lara post for Camera Critters meme.
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In the shadow of Prometheus

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Prometheus found -- by a cat!
Who knows, maybe this cat appreciates art or is interested in Greek mythology . . . or maybe he is just hoping for a bite of liver.

Fittingly, the statue stands in the courtyard of Hebrew University School of Medicine at Hadassah Ein Kerem.
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The little cat joins today's animals at Camera-Critters meme.
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Hunters and scavengers

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A cat down in the wild wadi next to my village was so intent on stalking prey that it didn't even notice my arrival.

Many hikers visit the spring over the weekend, too many for only one trash bin.
If the lid can't close properly, it's easy pickin's for the jackals and cats to dig in, scatter the garbage, and look for a meal.
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Fortunately, this area is on the Hadassah Trail, not far from the medical center.
The hospital encourages staff members to volunteer to go out and clean up this area (and also Khirbet Sa'adim spring, up on a different mountain) on a regular basis.
I think Hadassah gives the volunteers picnic lunches, transportation, and pay for the days they clean the adopted nature areas.
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For Camera-Critters meme.
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Cat on a warm tile roof

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A peeping tom?

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For Camera-Critters
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Mating season

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The sound of feline commotion high in the wild sumac tree outside my door sent me scampering for my camera, hoping for Camera-Critters fodder.
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There was high-pitched screaming and deep-throated growling and death-defying acts of aerial balancing.
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"Hissy fit" and "catfight" came to mind, although those terms I think refer to females only.


I feared my favorite girl-cat was going to take a nose dive.
Enlarge the photo and you see her front claws in the wood, hanging on for dear life, with hind legs and tail up in the air.
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In the end both cats got down safely and simmered down.
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Ptach lanu shaar

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Shachar the Gatekeeper
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The "Gates of Repentance" were open.
Night has now fallen and Yom Kippur comes to an end.
We are ready to start afresh, a new week, a new year.
New possibilities.
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My cat friend is for Camera-Critters.

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A kitten rampant

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Shachar was so playful as a kitten, back in the summer of 2006.
Here she is (next to her sister) trying to catch the dry hollyhock stalk I'm waving over her head.
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Today she and Lara, her mother, are much too serious for such antics.
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My grandson asked if I throw a birthday party every summer for these semi-wild feline friends.
Young kids are so wise. Dean has the right idea.
I'll try it . . . next summer.
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For Camera Critters.
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Clever cat (and a horned altar!)

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In Israel's ancient deserts, boulders have long provided respite from the burning sun, for man and beast . . .
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Oh, wait . . . this was just the Hebrew U. Medical School campus at Hadassah Hospital.
But man, was it hot!
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You might have to enlarge the above photo to find the cat.

Here's the boulder "in situ."
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I never understand why they make the roofs of some bench and bus shelters like this.
It lets the rain or too much sun come through.
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Anyway, it's a fun picture for Camera-Critters, Summer Stock Sunday, and Shadow Shot Sunday.
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And here is something YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS! The blog of Tell Es-Safi/Gath Excavations announced their discovery of a horned stone altar from the Iron Age!
And then the archaeologist, Aren Maeir, made a hilarious aerial photo, using volunteers, shadows, and himself as the sacrificial lamb.
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An olive-wood scratching post

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Sink your claws into spring while ye may!

Carpe diem!

Soon the bright flowers will be but dry brown fire hazards.

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Lara thinks old olive trees are excellent scratching posts.

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She sends greetings to you and all the Camera-Critters folks.

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A Friday afternoon cat circus

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Yesterday, as the Sabbath Queen* was about to come in, I allowed myself to sit down on my friends' bench and just get quiet, like the land itself gets quiet just before Shabbat.

Furry friend Lara seemed to be practicing for a cat circus.
First she did a balancing act.
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Oi, is she a tightrope walker?!

Is this a handstand or the beginning of a cartwheel?

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I'm happy to share sweet Lara the Acrobat with Camera-Critters and the lengthening shadows with Shadow Shot Sunday.

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Shabbat shalom.

*Oh, and if you are curious about the Sabbath Queen, here is a real eye-opener.

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Life on the Cardo

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The Old City by night is very different from the daytime version.

The tall columns of the Byzantine Cardo cast spooky shadows.

As part of their training, soldiers learn about Israel and Jerusalem.

The guide is probably telling the young men and women that they stand on the 6th century Byzantine Cardo, which was the continuation of the Roman Cardo.

The Latin term cardo means pivot/"hinge"/axis, and by extension, the street around which city life revolves.
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I wonder if pagan Roman Jerusalem had as many cats as the Old City does today.

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The Romans were big on urban planning and almost every city they built throughout the Empire had a cardo crossing the city from north to south.

You can see Jerusalem's main cardo, secondary cardo, and the recently discovered decumanus on the old Madaba mosaic map.

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Jerusalem's Cardo Maximus was a wide stone-paved road with sidewalks, colonnades (a series of regularly spaced columns supporting an entablature and usually one side of a roof), and shops along its length.

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These wooden bits in the photo were reconstructed to show how a shop would have been covered to keep merchandise dry in the winter and to shield merchants from the blazing summer sun.

The pigeon up there thinks it's a perfect perch!

How do you say pigeon in Latin?

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With its animals and shadows, this post is for Camera-Critters and Shadow Shot Sunday memes.

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Wet fur coats



Wet mother and daughter at dinner

 For six  of the last eight days it has been raining.
The aquifers and the Sea of Galilee, the plants and the earth all love the long-awaited water.
But my neighbors'  outdoor cats hate the wet and cold.  

The clouds sit not just on top of the mountains, they creep down to the valley and into  ravines.

I know Israel needs the rain, but like the cats, I will be happy to see and feel some sunshine again.

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My  feline  friends are posted for Camera Critters weekend meme.

Room to swing a cat

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OK, I confess, even to the Camera-Critters animal lovers--it's me swinging the cat.
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But Lara LIKES it.
Back and forth, then from side to side, while I say "hoy-dash, hoy-dash" (just like Saba Yisrael taught us to say when my children were small enough to swing).
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As a finale, I stand Lara on her hind feet and we do "mechi mechi capa-im," hand-clapping with her front paws.
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Lara is not mine, not a pet. She is an outdoor cat, fed by my neighbor-friends. Born in the wild.
Lara and I are best friends.
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Taking refuge in an olive tree

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Is this not the Cheshire Cat?

The two saucer-eyed kittens up the tree were escaping from the rambunctious Rhodesian Ridgebacks.

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For Camera-Critters Sunday.

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The cat who wanted to be an archaeologist

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Cat, come out!
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He was hiding from the blazing sun at Kursi, underneath the remains of the Byzantine church and monastery on the site where Jesus reportedly drove out a legion of demons from a man.
The demons went into some pigs instead.
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I couldn't find any pigs to photograph for Camera-Critter Sunday, so this cat will just have to do.
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UPDATE Dec. 16, 2015: A stone with a long Hebrew inscription was just found at Kursi, so Kursi may have been a Jewish town with a synagogue -- a surprise!
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Fresh chameleon for lunch

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If you're not squeamish please enlarge some of these photos of the hunt.

The chameleon would have remained well-hidden if he had stayed still.
His fatal error was to run when Lara and I started down the old stone stairs.
Lara saw him move.
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You could almost hear his silent scream as Lara's claws pierced him.

Belly up.

The tail hung from the cat's mouth as she did what born-in-the-wild hunter carnivores do.

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As I heard the crunching sounds, a little wave of doubt or even shame passed over me.

Maybe I should have helped the chameleon escape before Lara's first pounce . . . .

instead of my first reaction being "Run for the camera, Dina! For the blog, for Camera-Critters!"

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Bench for catnaps

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The neighborhood stray cats have taken over the young neighbors' little sitting corner.

It is too hot for the kitties to do much else than snooze in the shade.
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A peaceful picture for Camera-Critter Sunday.
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Water + shade

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A black cat finds shade under the table near the monastery's fruit trees.

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For today's That's My World Tuesday let's drive north to the Sea of Galilee, to the Greek Orthodox monastery and Church of the Seven Apostles.

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Quoting Wikipedia,

"The church marks the site of the ancient village of Capernaum . . . . The village is frequently mentioned in the Gospels and was Jesus' main base during his Galilean ministry. It is referred to as Jesus' own city and a place where he lived. It was in the synagogue of Capernaum where he first started to preach."

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But for the last month Israel has been suffering from an intense heat wave, and the only salvation Israelis and many tourists seek right now is how to be saved from the blazing sun.

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We are obsessed with finding enough shade to keep from fainting and enough liquids to keep from getting dehydrated.

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You smile along with these stones when you discover the little outdoor spigot with a cup chained to it and the reassuring painting which invites you to drink free potable cool-ish water.

What does the sign say in Greek, anyone know?
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This thick tree makes a natural canopy and mercifully shades peacocks and pilgrims alike.
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Lara in the morning

Lara is not mine, but she is my best feline friend.
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Here she is in early morning sun, in all her glory, guarding her domain.
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I share her for Camera-Critters Sunday.
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