My cat Snefru was born somewhere on the streets of Maadi to an unknown family of feral cats near the Midan Victoria. She is an orange Arabian Mau cat. She has a small head, orange spots, and a whisper meow. She’s never had a voice as far as I know, but she still talks quite a bit and always makes her presence known.
She’s one of the friendliest cats I’ve ever been around. She will greet people at the door, and she always wants to be around wherever the people are. When she was a kitten we would play fetch with the bottle caps from the water bottles in Egypt, and she would always try to climb to the top of everything.
Feral cats are ever-present in Cairo, as are street dogs (Baladi dogs). One of the unfortunate truths about Egypt is that there is a lot of trash in the streets, which means there is a lot of food for animals. Often, trash collectors will gather trash from around an area and pile it in one spot waiting for trucks to come by and pick it up. The system is inefficient, and there are often piles of garbage that never go away. Those are the worst spots, but there is just a lot of trash around everywhere. Maybe it’s a lack of education about the harm litter does to the environment, a sense of apathy about their community, or maybe even a sense of entitlement about who cleans up trash and who doesn’t (another unfortunate truth about Egypt) you just can’t get away from it, and you learn to look past it.
You sort of learn to look past the feral animal populations as well. But they are everywhere. Baladi dogs can run in packs around neighborhoods, and I suppose there is concern about those packs becoming aggressive. They are unwelcome intruders for the most part. Dogs are often thought to be evil by folks in Egypt, and they are chased away, poisoned, and even shot in certain cases. For the most part they leave everyone alone. It always seemed that the Baladi dogs had a pretty decent life of lazing about in the sun and digging through trash for treats. They are dirty and sometimes full of ticks, but seemingly happy otherwise…for the most part.
Cats, on the other hand, are well loved in Egypt. Storekeepers put out plates of food, water and milk for them. They are usually left to be wherever they are, and if they are friendly at all they are usually adopted quickly. But many of them are fully wild and avoid people at all costs. There were many times when I saw a cat with serious injuries or a cat that was sick, but it was impossible to catch and take to the vet because it was so feral. Those cases are heartbreaking, and deeply discouraging.
There are organizations in Cairo that try to help in all manner of ways. Some try to catch animals to spay and neuter them, others run adoption agencies that try to get kittens or puppies early and raise them for folks to adopt. Many veterinarians will spay or neuter an animal if you bring it in for no cost. It is possible to adopt a Baladi dog or an Egyptian street cat even in the United States. (I have provided an incomplete list of some of those organizations below, please add more in the comments if you know of them!)
There was a black cat that lived in the stairwell of our apartment building that we called Nefertiti (of course…eye-roll emoji). She was basically wild, and we could never get near her. She would watch us from the landing above or below us, and the bowabs who took care of our building would feed her I think (or maybe one of the other residents in the building). She had kittens while we lived there, but they disappeared before we could get to them, which makes me think someone else found a place for them, or she moved them somewhere else. But she was still around after that. We tried hard to become friends with her and adopt her, but she was never going to be a pet, you could just tell.
I had a group of friends who got together each week to play board games, video games, hang out, etc. One of the guys in that group had two cats and had adopted this friendly little orange mau cat that had come up to him on the street. She was just a kitten but was clearly very friendly. He told me he was looking for a place to send her, and I told him I was interested. I bought a cat carrier, a litter box, some cat food, and a couple of pet bowls and went over in a taxi to pick her up. My wife and I decided that we should name all our cats after Pharaohs, since cats were so beloved in ancient Egyptian culture. Plus, I like the name Snefru because it’s fun to say.
She quickly became part of the family and spent her days following the sun beams around the room. We had a nice balcony, and she liked to go sit out there curled up in a chair in the full sun. I built her a little cat jungle-gym out of cardboard boxes, and she made friends with all our visitors.
One of the ways you really get to know a place is to engage in day-to-day chores. We found a vet, and a pet store that sold supplies. Those kinds of trips helped ease the culture shock of living in a new place. It’s less lonely with a pet around, and they are full of wonderful stories. If you are an expat in Egypt and feeling isolated or lonely, check out one of these adoption agencies and see if you can find a cat!
I know, you’re probably concerned with what to do once you have to leave Egypt. We were too. Depending on where you are going, there are different rules about bringing a pet into the country. Some countries have a strict quarantine time that pets have to be kept for observation. Some countries don’t allow the import of cats. Others are pretty easy going about it. When it came time to come home we learned that bringing a cat back to the United States is not particularly hard, or rather, it’s not hard to get it through the border. Cats need to appear to be healthy at the time of arrival or they might be subject to quarantine or a veterinary examination (at the owner’s expense). Cat’s don’t need to have documentation of vaccinations to enter the US, but it’s a good idea to have them vaccinated and have that paper work to present, especially if they send it to a veterinarian.
When we brought Snefru back, the hardest part was the routing. Certain European countries require pets to be quarantined when they arrive in the country. It was unclear to me if that meant that if you were making a connection your animal would still be subject to a quarantine, or if that meant if you were just intending to stay in the country. Regardless, if there were problems at the airport and we had to find a hotel or something, our cat might have to abide by that country’s quarantine law, and it would delay our trip home. Other countries are as free and easy with the rules as the United States.
We booked flights with Lufthansa, made a connection in Munich, and flew directly back to Denver. Snefru stayed in her cat carrier underneath the seat the entire flight. We lined the carrier with a pet-pad in case she peed and brought several replacements with us to change them (note: she did not pee or poop, until just before we landed in Colorado). We let her out on a leash in Munich, but she was too stressed about the trip and ended up just wanting to stay in her carrier.
When we arrived at customs, the border officer basically said “yep, that’s a cat” come on in. He didn’t pull her out of the carrier and gave her paperwork a cursory glance. I’m sure everyone’s experience is different, but it really could not have been easier.
If you are flying with an animal, make sure you check all the requirements for each country you are stopping in and what you need to bring for them. Folks travel with their pets all the time, and airport workers are mostly accustomed to it.
Snefru lives here in Colorado now, and has a charmed life chasing sunbeams around the house and greeting all of our friends. Everytime we pull something out of a box from Egypt she sniffs it carefully and often rubs up against it, which makes me think she still remembers Cairo. I’m not an expert on cat psychology though. She’s the sweetest, and we are so glad she came home with us from Egypt.
Egyptian Animal Adoption Organizations
HOPE – Egyptian Baladi Rescue & Rehabilitation
Care & Repair Baladi Dog Rescue
Nile Valley Egyptian Foundation (NVEcats)
Bonus!!! We also rescued another cat as well in Egypt. She was a beautiful little orange kitten that came up to us on the stoop of our apartment building. She was sick when we picked her up. She was gentle and sweet. We took her to the vet to get her vaccinated and spayed. She and Snefru didn’t get along very well, and we had a friend who wanted a cat as well. So, that little cat went to live in that home, and I believe is still living in Cairo!
Snefru in America
Across the Sand 
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