Cats of Ouled Mgatel

When we adopted our cats, we were hoping that they would eat a lot.

Of mice.

The cat "Mioche" (yes, that's his name - it's French), 5-month-old, and already a huge collection of hunting trophies.

Four months later, I must say that they’ve come a long way since the dry cat food they ate in their first home (a nice house by the way, you can visit it here), until their plates of Ouled Mgatel.

Because here’s our secret – shocking, maybe, to American ears – we don’t feed our cats meat. Or any kind of canned/dry cat food. They eat a of eggs, and whatever food is left from our meals – including, sometimes, vegetables : and they like it !

Don’t worry though, they eat a lot of proteins, that they find both in the house and in the garden. They swallow flies and ants. Hunt mice – but they’re more difficult to catch. Scare to death spiders and wasps. Choke sometimes swallowing some delicious earwigs.

Some people may find this disguting. But I say : it’s useful. Much better than insecticide.

And also : they protect us.

The other morning, I found at the bottom of the stairs a big scolopendra. Dead. Killed – and a little chewed – by our brave protectors.

Since that day, I respect my cats. And if you knew the scolopendras that live here, you’d admire cats too.

Let’s say that scolopendras are as charming as scorpions, except that they’re bigger – no, longer. They’re black, with yellow legs, disgusting. They run really fast, and they’re difficult to kill (bravo, cats). And last but not least, they bite, like wasps.

Sorry, I don’t have any photo of scolopendras, they scare me too much.

But if you really want to know what they look like, take a peek here – don’t be scared !- on this wonderful website on Moroccan animals and plants (it's a the bottom of the page, on the right).