The Cats of Marrakech

If you do not like cats, then never visit Marrakech!  I think there’s a strong possibility there are more cats than people living in this city.  The number of street cats you see literally everywhere is astounding.  On the other hand, if you’re a cat lover, then Marrakech is a great place!  Well, sort of.

My children utterly adore animals, especially kitty cats.  They were in heaven being surrounded by so many cats.  And basically, every cat was extremely friendly.  I also love animals, including cats.  While I was amused by all the cats, it also broke my heart to see them all. 

We saw cats everywhere we went.  In the grocery store, on restaurant patios, in shops and stores, in butcher shops, in alleys, inside restaurants and hotels, in palaces… I’m not sure if there’s anywhere you won’t find a cat in Marrakech!  You could be eating your meal, and poof… all of a sudden you find a cat on your lap or behind your back, both of which happened to us!  My children wanted to touch, pet, cuddle, and love every single cat they met.  And we may have spent a lot of money and time on feeding the various street cats!

We were quickly and repeatedly warned by the locals not to touch the cats, as many of them are diseased and can make you sick.  And you could see it in so many of their little faces and bodies.  Many of them looked quite sick and rough.  Others looked very well cared for and healthy.  It really depended where you went.

The people of Marrakech LOVE cats.  Basically, everyone feeds them and moderately cares for them.  But, at the end of the day, they are unvaccinated street cats that breed non-stop.  They don’t receive medical care from what we could ascertain.  This was the part that broke my heart, seeing the sickness and pain in the eyes of many of the cats.

But we met some truly amazing kitties along the way.  The girls’ ultimate favourite cat they have ever met now is a sweet-natured little grey kitty they named Blossom.  She lived in our alley and was fed by the people on the street.  She’s clearly had some significant trauma in the past, as her head is permanently cockeyed and her eyes aren’t quite right.  She otherwise seemed perfectly healthy and exceptionally loving.  My children and Blossom formed an instant attachment.  Within the first day or two, she was always on our doorstep meowing when we returned home.  When we opened our door, she instantly ran into our riad.  All she wanted to do was to curl up in the girls’ laps and snuggle and sleep. 

We let her into the main level at times but had some pretty strict ground rules about when she could come in, and where she could be – on the tile floor or on the couch if she was sitting on a blanket or rug so she didn’t damage the furniture.  She was forbidden from the kitchen, dining room table, and upstairs where the bedrooms were.  And strict handwashing regimens.  She was not allowed inside if we were making or eating food.  The poor sweetheart would sit on our doorstep and meow piteously for the girls to come back and cuddle her whenever we put her out.  We would hear her outside our window through the night and woke up most mornings to her meowing for the girls bright and early in the morning.

The girls were utterly devoted to that cat.  She was the best motivator to get them up and out of bed and ready for the day!  They would wake early and be ready in under five minutes so they could rush into the alley and play with her!  Jon and I could spend hours upstairs on the rooftop patio together while they contentedly played in the alley or main level with her.

One morning, Blossom was nowhere to be found.  I woke up and realized Blossom hadn’t meowed to wake us up that morning.  My children were utterly bereft when they ran out to the alley and she wasn’t there.  There were a lot of tears.  Thankfully, she showed up again that afternoon.  But Jon and I were legitimately worried something had happened to her throughout the night.

There was a gorgeous and peaceful park about a 20 min walk from our riad.  We loved going there to escape from the motorcycles and the hectic pace of the city.  This park was full of cats.  And these cats are exceptionally well cared for by the park workers.  They were all incredibly healthy.  We would go to a nearby grocery store to buy meat and take it to the park to feed a bunch of the kitties.

There were two in particular our girls were enamoured with.  One was a sweet, heavily pregnant cat the girls named Silky.  She was a really nice cat.  She was the one cat we met in Marrakech I would have adopted if we lived here.  The girls were sooooo hoping that she would have her kittens before we left.  And she did, on our last full day, February 29th.

The people that work at the park are sooooo nice.  Well, people in Marrakech generally are incredibly nice.  We passed by Silky’s area on the 29th and the girls were sad not to see her.  We assumed she had gone off to hide and have her kittens.  We continued on through the park and were petting the girls’ favourite kitten in the park, Luna, when the security guard recognized us.  He waved us over and showed us a video of Silky from a few hours before with her six newborn kittens.  The girls were in heaven!

After getting back from the grocery store with our meat, we went back to feed little Luna and other cats in that area of the park.  The security guard told us to come with him.  We followed him to a closed-off area of the park where they had built a little tree branch enclosure for Silky.  He removed a piece of cardboard at the opening to show us Silky and her brand new, three-hour-old kittens.  The girls just about died of happiness.  We made sure to feed the new mother tons of meat to help her get strong after the birth to care for the kitties.  And thanked the security guard profusely for taking us there to see her.  It totally made the girls’ day!

Little Luna was a really sweet little kitten.  She was a tiny little thing who definitely didn’t get enough food.  The security guard told us that she relies on people feeding her since she’s so tiny.  Which we were happy to assist with!  Emmeline was utterly appalled when just the two of us were there feeding her the first time and Luna’s mother swatted her away to try and steal her food.  She couldn’t believe any mother would be so mean to their baby!  But, it reinforced in her the need for us to go buy food and feed Luna, so she could get bigger and stronger.

Luna, Silky, and Blossom were the three favourites for sure!  And they were three that we allowed the girls to interact with, as we could tell all three were healthy.  There were so many other cute little kitties.  We fed and cared for the kitties we came across as best as we could, and donated money to a man who cares for mother cats and their newborns.  He was called the father of cats, and even had a book someone had made for him that we flipped through showing him some of the cats and kittens he’s cared for and helped over the past 30+ years!  He had a mother cat with her five-day-old kittens in the back of his shop in a secluded area, which the girls were thrilled to see!

The cats of Marrakech will undoubtedly be one of the things our girls remember the most about our time there.  Especially little Blossom, who has left a permanent paw print on their hearts.  They hope to return to see her one day, though we have told them that’s highly unlikely.  But anything is possible in life!