My Egyptian Friends….and Other Animals*

If the cats in my apartment building are any measure, this city of 20+ million must have at double that amount in stray/wild animals.

There are, of course, the chickens and rabbits in cages by school where you can pick your own and have it slaughtered for you, and the not-so-starving stray cats that are ubiquitous on campus – popping out of garbage cans or descending like a biblical plague when you pull out any larger than a tictac. On the streets it’s not rare to see donkeys, horses, camels and dogs, (especially in heavy traffic) and there’s those early morning ferrets who dart out at my feet as I run to crew.

But a few animals have caught my particular naturalist fancy:

Vera had kittens! Vera is the cat that likes to sneak into my apartment – as she did earlier today when Tony, Nate and I were having lunch – and the same cat fed daily by my neighbors (The Finnish Sara who gave Vera her name: meaning “striped” in Finnish). Two survived and were snuck into Sara and Sammy’s bedroom by Vera when the maid inadvertently left the window open. Of course, the sight of kittens the size of cells phones means that instead of tossing them out the window again you become protective parents and tell all the neighbors to come have a look. Now that the kittens are able to hunt on their own with all the other new borns and we run into them regularly in the stairwells - they don't like being picked up though - and Vera’s back to her old tricks of sneaking into my place any chance she gets. It’s become a not-so-fun game lately.

Henry is some sort of African Hawk: not very large – but neither are the golden falcons that circle the building – he has brilliantly white feathers that come to a few grayish spots on his tale, a white beak and cold red eyes. We were up on the roof to have a study break (to tan and try to hit the Nile with paper airplanes, of course) when we noticed Henry sitting about 5 feet away. We approached: he approached and we spent the next hour with him. As we have the best view on the north end of the island, he used the edge to scout for prey without wasting precious energy. Occasionally he would fly off to get a ferret, a mouse, or a small child, but he’d be back 5 or 10 minutes later. As if I needed yet another reason to go up to the roof instead of doing work! (My tan is coming nicely, btw, thanks.)

Finally, while rowing up and down the Nile I get to see cranes, kingfishers and all sorts of garbage, but the piece de resistance was when we hit a dead cow last week. Sameh, our delightful if inept cocksen steered us right into an iceberg of cow – a cowberg is you will – ricocheting the entire boat with considerable force. Gladly, our Titanic only suffered a loss of synchronization and a few laughs. One more reason that I will NEVER go into the Nile.

*I know it’s ripped from Gerald Durrel’s book – but that means that I can tell you to buy one of my favorite books of all time.