Multiple Muggings in Morocco
By Boingboing
@boiboing (13147)
Northampton, England
December 14, 2015 3:12pm CST
You really can't go to a restaurant in this little town without getting mugged - sometimes multiple times. It's hard to resist the little furry faces looking up at you and imploring you to share whatever you've just ordered. If it's fish, then they're doubly keen to help you out with finishing it up and sorting out any bits you think you might not need.
We've also come across furry muggers who don't want fish - they just want a cuddle. Sitting in a restaurant on our first night, a long haired ginger and white cat crept onto my husband's lap and hunkered down for some serious hugging. A particularly persistent ginger striped kitty with a sweet voice and the most crossed cross-eyes I've ever seen moved on after polishing off my fish head and started flirting with a lady in the next restaurant.
Cats are everywhere in Essaouira - from tiny kittens just a few weeks old to big, scraggly old pensioner cats who've been around the block a good few times. Apparently some vets come out every year and do a mass neutering operation. This is why a lot of the girl cats have the tips of their ears snipped off so that the vets can tell who's been spayed and who hasn't.
Personally, I'd take a lot of them home if I thought the airline, immigration, and my three bruisers at home wouldn't mind.
16 people like this
16 responses
@LadyDuck (502812)
• Italy
15 Dec 15
Cats are so sweet, how to resist to their furry faces and their puppy eyes. Also here in Switzerland, until last months, the vets snipped off the tips of the cats ears that they neuter. Now a new law forbid this practice as it is considered cruelty versus animals. Well they will have to capture the cats and check.
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
15 Dec 15
well I am glad the vets handle some of the issues that come with an abundance of kitties, but sounds amazing! lol
2 people like this
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
14 Dec 15
I know what you mean we have the same here occasionally in spain...., in some restaurants.... sweet imploring eyes... looking for food or love... like you I'd like to take them home with me ....
3 people like this
@poehere (15123)
• French Polynesia
15 Dec 15
Now that is the type of mugger you don't mind. Here I have seen a lot of animals on the streets and abandoned. It is sad to see this. In Tahiti we started to clean the street and shelter these animals. But in the Marquesas it is still a problem. What is wonderful here is all the wild horses. They are a smaller breed of horse but it seems a lot of the local own some and ride them all over.
2 people like this
@celticeagle (189988)
• Boise, Idaho
14 Dec 15
Well, Essaouira is a good spot to visit then. Cats are heavenly creatures.
2 people like this
@boiboing (13147)
• Northampton, England
16 Dec 15
Better than you might expect. Quite a lot of eye problems but they are generally well fed. It's a fishing port so there are lots of scraps and the locals seem very supportive of their furry neighbours.
@WorDazza (15826)
• Manchester, England
15 Dec 15
We have a terrible time resisting the little fellas whenever we go on holiday.
Cyprus is the best place for animals. All of the restaurants put food out for the cats. They seem to have a more British attitude towards animals there.
We also stayed in a hotel in Lanzarote a couple of years ago and they had about 1/2 a dozen hotel cats they looked after. You would often leave your sunbed for a dip in the pool and return to find a cat lying on it!! We liked it!!
1 person likes this
@WorDazza (15826)
• Manchester, England
15 Dec 15
@boiboing I must admit we sometimes find it quite difficult to see so many stray cats. Like you, we would love to bring them all home!!
We've even considered moving to Cyprus and setting up a cat rescue centre where we would encourage hotels to adopt cats! Probably wouldn't work though. Most hotels probably wouldn't risk losing the custom of people who are allergic and/or generally miserable, heartless individuals!!
2 people like this
@DeborahDiane (40850)
• Laguna Woods, California
15 Dec 15
The kitties sound adorable! Here in Southern California, our "muggers" are sometimes the sea gulls who hover around when we are trying to eat by the beach! 
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382542)
• Rockingham, Australia
16 Dec 15
At least the powers that be are neutering some of the cats. I'm sure many of them are hard to resist.
@Auntylou (4262)
• Oxford, England
15 Dec 15
How extraordinary that so many cats are allowed in restaurants!
Like the neutering policy as it prevents a lot of feline suffering
