Friday, April 22, 2011

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

The festival of Pesach, which our human is celebrating this week, has caused us to devote considerable thought to the civilisation of Ancient Egypt. Did you know, Fellow Felines, that our ancestors in Ancient Egypt were held to be sacred animals and that one of the most important of the many deities worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians was Bast, or Bastet, the Cat Goddess? In such high esteem were our ancestors held by their humans, that when they crossed the Bridge, they were mummified, just like the Pharaohs and other Egyptians of high rank. The honour accorded to our Feline Ancestors was such that the penalty for killing one, even accidentally, was - DEATH.
Alas, We are no longer treated with such reverence and in modern Egypt, as, indeed, throughout the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, there are many hundreds of thousands (if not more) of homeless pussycats, who are forced to scavenge for food and shelter wherever they can find it and who are often cruelly mistreated by humans. We - Possum and Pixie - are so lucky to have a human Mummy (no connection with ancient Egyptian burial practices - MOL) to love us and feed us and minister to our needs (and She is very lucky to have two such noble Felines as Us, if the truth be told) but We would like to ask you all, at this festive season, to remember those kitties less fortunate than ourselves and purr-ay that they may all find loving homes and caring humans and that the Days of Glory of the Feline Species may return once more.

7 comments:

Admiral Hestorb said...

Mommy and I liked the history of we felines very much. Of course, our cat mommy's told us this in our nests from the minute our eyes were open, so, we kittens know our rich heritage. But most humans do not, so maybe when they learn, we cats will never want for anything again. I hope that is so, as we deserve it.

Hi Hi Hi Possum and Pixie ♥

meowmeowmans said...

Hi Pixie and Possum,

Thank you for sharing with us about the noble history of kittehs!

I saw many street cats in Haifa and Jerusalem a few weeks ago. This in itself was not a surprise to me, but I was super excited to see that some of them had tipped ears ... I'm assuming this means there are some TNR efforts going on in Israel, correct? Awesome!

We hope you and your mommy are having a wonderful Pesach!

The J-Cats said...

Meowmeowmans, we aren't sure what the letters TNR stand for, but our human has told us that some of the cats near where she works, were kit-napped by municipal workers a few weeks ago and taken to the V-E-T, who did something to them to stop them having kittens and then returned them to the place from which they had been taken. All the kitties who were taken for the operation returned with clipped left ears.

Cat and DOG Chat With Caren said...

"from your mouth to God's ears"....I had heard about how in Greece they treat cats terribly....I didn't know that was prevalent throughout the entire Middle East as well. so sad

meowmeowmans said...

PIxie and Possum, TNR stands for Trap-Neuter-Return, and it's a humane way to keep feral cat populations from growing. It definitely works, and we are glad to know that such efforts are being implemented there. :)

meowmeowmans said...

Oh, and the clipped ears make it easy to identify the kitties who have already been spayed or neutered (so they are not recaptured). :)

GreatGranny said...

Silly Mom thought we were following you kitty furriends. Now we are.

Mom says thank you for visiting with 'Happy Easter wishes. We want to wish you a happy Pesach festival as well.
We are happy to know that feral cats are being neutered.