As I mentioned before there are A LOT of wild Israeli kittens running around. Everywhere. Campus, the dorms, every garbage bin in the country, the mall, restaurants, etc. This story takes place in a restaurant- a sushi restaurant as a matter of fact. Why are we eating at a sushi restaurant in Israel you may ask? Because, believe it or not, you can eat too much shwarma and falafel in one month.
So, a few of us are eating at this sushi restaurant on the other side of campus because it is cheap and geared towards students. May I just say how hard it is to order sushi in Hebrew? Not really something you learn in a basic language course. We are happily enjoying our tuna tataki, tofu noodles, and rainbow rolls when we see a small black kitten emerge into the dining room. We "ooh" and "ahh" at the sight of a tiny baby cat, as most twenty year old girls will- unless you are that girl who screams and scampers away because the kitty is so scary!- but I digress... This kitty is LOVING our table. Of course I try to feed it some tuna, but she is having none of that. She hangs around our table for the rest of dinner, running back and forth from girl to girl, absolutely loving the attention. We feel it is only fitting to name our new found toy "Sushees", because we are at a sushi restaurant only pronounced as a plural and as if you were talking to an infant child.
Background Info- As you all know I am here on a Dialogue of Civilizations during which I have to complete two classes, one of which is a "Dialogue" course. For our final project we need to do a creative presentation (nothing like a boring PowerPoint or speech) and I have been having a really hard time deciding what kind of crazy creative thing I want to do. The presentation can be on any aspect of our trip that meant something to us but also encompasses health care in some way.
As we are playing with the kitten it dawns on me: I will do my creative project on the wild Israeli cats! And what better way to do this than to bring a REAL LIVE KITTEN in as a show-and-tell portion!? I am so pleased with my idea that I proceed to tell the girls all about it. They agree that I am brilliant. One problem... How am I going to get this cat back to the dorms and keep it alive until June 6th?
I figure step one is to get the cat and bring it home with me. But what do you carry a small kitten in across campus? Why, a brown paper take out bag of course! I am a genius. As soon as the kitten comes near me I pick it up and give it a little loving, calming it and reassuring it that it will be safe in my care. Our take out bags come and I put my left over sushi in my backpack and promptly attempt to place the kitten into the brown paper bag. This does not go over well with Sushees... She does not want anything to do with that paper sack. As she extends her little arms forward, that half of her body misses the sack and squirms out of my grip. Luckily I catch her and try again. After several failed attempts and a creating quite a scene in the restaurant, we decide that maybe I should just carry Sushees out by hand.
Background Info #2- I am allergic to cats. Like full on, eyes puff, nose runs, get hives, kind of anaphylactic shock.
About thirty seconds after we get the kitten out of the restaurant, I am holding Sushees in my hands at this point under the arm pits with my arms extended as far away from my body as possible- kind of like carrying a football that I have no idea what to do with. Sushees is not having much of this either. A few of my girlfriends start saying how uncomfortable the cat looks and maybe I should hold her against my body like an infant.
Number 1- This is a wild Israeli cat... You have no idea where it's been.
Number 2- I am not putting my hand anywhere near this cat's butt hole, no matter how cute the cat is.
I try to rearrange my arms so as not to hurt the kitty, but get a little too close to my body. Sushees seizes this opportunity to extend all fours and grab hold of me where ever she can. The freaking cat claws me! She just short of rips me to shreds grabbing onto my shirt, shorts, and neck. Yes the cat clawed me in the neck. The thing about wild cats is that they live in the wild. They do not get shots and certainly are not declawed.
As I am trying to be brave and not faint flat on my face, I try to pull Sushees away from my body. The girls swear they see the skin on my neck stretch as the claw digs in to my flesh (sorry for the graphic details).
I finally get the demon cat loose and drop her to the ground, don't worry she landed on all fours. Cats may have nine lives, but I certainly do not. My neck immediately starts to swell in a hive the size of a silver dollar where I was clawed. Thankfully I made it back safely to the dorms and downed about three Benadryl tablets that my dad sent me. Thanks dad :) I think I'm still doing my project on cats... But maybe I'll just glue some rocks together instead.
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