Farah - I Bentrovati

Farah came to us in the fall of 2000. She is a true blood Arabian street cat. Farah's story is a special one:

A Dutch mechanic, stationed for several years in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was fond of cats and took care of the local ones. Then came the day his company informed him he would be transferred to Thailand. He could take six cats with him; the others -he was looking after some 60 cats!- would have to remain in Jeddah.

We read about the predicaments of the Arabian cats in the newspaper and later on in one of our cat-magazines. We read about this brave man who had given up all his savings to save some mangy cats and how he tried to find a good home for them.

Therefore, in October 2000, we drove up to Lauwerszijl and picked ourselves an Arabian kitten. It was a beautiful feisty little thing with a sinewy body and big ears.
We thought it was a male and called it Ramses; only to discover after three weeks that it was a female when she began caterwauling . We then renamed her: Farah.

Farah is not like any of the other cats. She is highly intelligent and demanding. She meows with everything she does and wants to sit on your lap constantly. She is very affectionate to the point of being irritating. Farah is always there and loves to be stroked. This cat is really attention-crazed.
She even surpasses Garbage Can and will eat anything... and I mean ANYTHING. A frozen fry? No problem .A bit of sludge in the drain? Lovely! Farah is game for all things that seem remotely edible. She is however also a very scared and nervous cat: the slightest sound can set her off and will have her shoot under a cupboard.

Farah's favorite place is on top of our stereo receiver; it is nice and warm and she snuggly fits in there between the shelves.

Since cats are considered vermin in this country and are chased and exterminated the way rats are in Europe, he was afraid his cats would not survive after he was gone.
He therefore decided to take up all his savings and send the cats to Europe, to the Netherlands. Arranging for all the necessary papers and getting flight tickets gobbled up his money a lot sooner than he expected and in the end he only managed to send some 15 cats abroad. He did not give up though and asked a Dutch cat-society for help. They were able to raise enough funds to get the remainder of the cats to Holland.

Some of the Arabian cats had proven to be pregnant and had given birth once they were in Holland.
The pound of the cat-society was now chock a block full of cats and they were desperately in need of people willing to take over an Arabian cat or kitten. We did not have to think long when we read this. We already had six cats; would one more matter that much? We did not think so.