Living with the Street Cats in Tangier

Strange, wonderful, and sometimes difficult. My second photo essay on living with cats in the Medina (old city center).

Outside a shop in the old Medina

These are cats I saw every day in Tangier, Morocco.

For those of you new here to my substack (welcome, welcome), I will fill you in:

I recently lived in Tangier for 3.5 months like a local…in the old city center (the Medina) and other non-touristy parts of the city.

The street cats and dogs from the beginning were fascinating to me.

They became a solid part of my life and experience there.

Part of the same community

This was my first time living in a Muslim country and first time in Africa.

It is strange and wonderful and difficult to live among the street cats on the daily.

We are part of the same eco-system.

People feed them yet they live on the street and survive on their own.

People tend to them yet they are also left to live a natural life.

Some are ill. Some have died.

Most seem healthy.

Seeing and living among them made me more grounded in real life.

Less caught up in random thinking about things I cannot control.

Living alongside them put life and death and the grittiness of living front and center in my heart.

Also love.

Now I’ll leave you with the phoos.

I want you to walk with me in the old Medina - I hope this gives you a sense of the life of these cats as part of the larger community.

Boxes on the sidewalk are commonly put out for the cats. I saw mamma cats in boxes with newborn kittens.

In the old Medina, minding her own business, not caring when people pass by.

Sometimes you have to shoo cats off of chairs to sit at the outdoor cafe.

In the old Medina. The colorful glasses are for tea, which is always served in glasses, not mugs.

Inside a big store with furniture and household decorative items.

I love this! I saw it walking home on a random street one night. An elaborate cardboard makeshift cat house and feeding station on the street.

Cats at the edge of narrow pedestrian streets sleeping and grooming. In the old Medina

Sardines! Eating fresh ones from the fish market.