Stray cats are better known as feral cats and when the word stray is mentioned for cats what usually pops into peoples’ minds is a picture of a cat with sharp fangs, missing a bit of fur, covered in wounds are scars and hiss viciously if they are seen. The thought of stray animals brings a face of evil into people’s mind and when they come across one they decided to stay away and sometimes even attack the animal by throwing things at them.

But the truth about stray cats is not the creature that people picture in their minds. They are shy cats that look perfectly like other cats. They seem normal and their attitude is not to be feared by humans unless the cat is disturbed or has had a bad past with humans. Although their lives are different to the normal house cat in many ways they still act like their wild relatives, tigers, lions and all of them.

Unlike our house cats, strays use their skills given by big cats. They are not given tuna in a bowl but have to sniff out any trash in bins or hunt their own food. They have to watch out for any animal that might be a threat. They need to run after prey and away from dangers, climb over walls and in trees. A stray’s life is more complicated then we think but there is also time to relax if they can find a comfortable place to rest in. life is exiting for stray cats…

Just outside her house was a cat named Biscuit. Biscuit looked like an older version of Mogs with similar markings. She was sitting on the doorstep of the house opposite. Lucy warned me that Biscuit was he bully cat of the area. She told me that Biscuit attacked Mogs and she thought Biscuit may be related to Mogs. I didn’t agree as why would the mother keep attacking her young? It didn’t make much sense but is Biscuit was Mogs’ mother then there might have been a reason why she attacked her young.

Biscuit seemed a friendly cat as when she saw us she started meowing happily and let us stroke her. But

Biscuit seemed a very friendly cat. As soon as she saw us she was meowing and let us stroke her but at that moment Mogs ran out of the house and Biscuit stared at him. Lucy knew that the two were going to fight and Biscuit could do a lot of damage to Mogs as he was only small. Lucy and Scarlett ran to Mogs which was silly, when cats are run at they get scared. Mogs bolted and was unaware he was heading right towards the older cat.

“Hold Biscuit off!” Lucy yelled

I stroked Biscuit which held her off for a while. But not for long enough…

Mogs was hiding in a bush but as soon as Biscuit found out where the kitten was hiding she charged and attacked him. It was annoying because you couldn’t see what was going on in the bush but you could hear hisses, screams, yowls and meows coming from the bush. It was a signal that they were actually having a fight that may have hurt either one of the cats. The fight lasted only a few seconds before Mogs ran straight for the house and through the door. Biscuit just walked out looking very proud of herself.

“No Biscuit!” Lucy yelled. But the cat was oblivious to what she was saying. Biscuit just decided to run down the street and out of any more trouble.

We wandered around hoping to find another cat. It was like stalking leopards in a jungle but only we were stalking cats in a compound. It was hard work and in such a hot country. It took us a while before we came to the end street at the other end of the compound. At the end of the street sat four cats but five houses before them was a big fluffy orange cat called Skittles. Skittles was owned which made her little of use to my project about street cats because she was never and is not a street cat. The four other cats are what I call the cat gang, Jake, Snowy, Snowball and Daisy. Daisy is white with some ginger splodges and Snowy is white with quite long hair, Snowball is a shorthaired white one and Lucy’s favourite and the last one, Jake is a white cat with some tabby brown splodges and one eye, well nearly one eye. One of his eyes is red al around and he always keeps it closed.

As soon as Scarlett and Lucy charged at them with their loud flip flops clocking down the street, the cats scattered in all directions. Daisy and Jake bolted under cars while the two white ones stood shocked out of their skin. Lucy grabbed Snowball and Snowy ran for her life out of the street and down another.

Snowball began to stalk her from under the car. “Um excuse me Skittles’ owners that stray cat is trying to catch Skittles. Snowball showed to be a clever cat at that moment because she was on her way. I ran to distract her and she ran but then at that exact moment I saw something else, something that showed that a cat died. Lying in the pavement was a cat’s jaw.

“Guys you must see this!” I yelled. The two girls ran and saw it too. It was clearly that of a cat, o other animal had such big a jaw and cats are the only predator in the area, the teeth looked exactly like a cat’s and the shape and the size. The jaw was broken ad a canine tooth was missing from the left side. I was desperate to know how the cat had died and who or what had killed it. This led me into a mystery inside a project which was really good. Then I thought missing cats, dead cat, it all made sense on of the missing cats was killed inside the compound.

Deedee went missing two years ago and she got out of the compound leaving her to the fate of the main road just outside. She either got run over or found another place to live. She couldn’t have come back and fallen prey to he dominant cat of the area because cats live less than a year on their own. The jaw was far too big to be a kitten’s which met that Greedy may have been the victim.

Greedy wet missing two weeks before and t seemed as if cats were the killer in this case. The dogs are not allowed off the leash leaving cats as he only threat. The fate of the kittens is unknown but it is clear that male cats sometimes kill cubs hat aren’t theirs. That might have been their case but what about Greedy? Now was not the time to go looking for answers. I picked up the jaw and we ran in search of more cats and we were in luck.

Jenny and Stripy, two love birds sleeping in a basket, cuddled up next to each other. These cats were strays but hang out at this place. Stripy is a tabby and a male and Jenny is a female and white with ginger splodges.

We decided to move on and find more cats and for a while we thought we were not going to find any but then we saw a very funny looking cat. It was grey and was originally very fluffy but its owners obviously shaved its fur round its body leaving in with only its paws, tail and head with long fur. Lucy had never seen this cat before and we didn’t bother to name it because it would not fit in. one it was not a street cat and two it shot off as soon as we spied it.

Moving on we found a tiny little kitten a very tiny kitten. It was not one of the three little kittens that went missing. We only got a tiny glimpse of it before it jumped into a white land rover’s engine. Yes it was a very weird thing to do but it is true. I saw that it was a white kitten with one or two dark splodges but I am not too sure. It was not our car so we couldn’t search for it. We looked under but saw nothing; it was far inside there somewhere. We gave up on that kitten and continued to search for cats.

While we wandered down the street we thought of ideas what happened to the cat. We decided to wash the jaw and put it in a bag just in case people got suspicious. We went to the girls toilets and washed it. Then we took a photo of it and ran back to the house to get a bag. We got a bag and continued our search.

We found Giraffe wandering down the lane. Giraffe is a light ginger cat and a stray. It meowed at us and we stroked it. “All the cats here are my friends.” Lucy said. I asked her if there were any nasty cats around but she shook her head. The sun began to set and night began to come. Night, the perfect time to spot cat in action. Unfortunately for us we found nothing as night was only on its way. It got darker but when the time was perfect we heard some familiar voices shouting, “Shadow! Scarlett! Lucy!” It

That night I thought about the cat jaw that I had found. I was not allowed to bring it home with me which was bad. All that I have as evidence is a single photo. I knew that next time I went to Palma Springs I needed to look around the place where I found the jaw. The jaw was perfect and I knew that it would make my project work. A mystery inside it was great but I needed more information. Greedy, an adult cat that has been missing, Greedy may be the Hunted in this case. I thought of many reasons how the cat met its end.

The gang hang out, that was where I found the jaw and I was definitely not a gang member because they were knocking around when we found the jaw. Greedy may have trespassed on gang turf and therefore paid the price. Cats are very protective of their territory and if you have a pet cat then you will know what I mean. I have three cats back at my house and their names are Peebee, Angel and Mittens. Before Mittens was born this cat named Bertie from next door came into our garden and scent marked in it. Angel was around and they had a huge fight. Bertie walked away sub missed and wounded. That is with pet cats but with street cats the fights are worse.

Perhaps Greedy was attacked in a fight and his jaw was broken and he walked away with a broken jaw, unable to eat he may have met his end. Or maybe the gang had killed Greedy and left his body to rot. The attack was not a resent one because the jaw had a bit of rot. It was also not an old one that happened two years ago which meant it was a few weeks or months ago.

We had to wait about two or three days until we could go back to Palma Springs again. But the time flew by and soon we were there again but the thing I noticed first was that the jaw was gone. We left it next to the doorstep but it was gone! Lucy came out of the house to greet us.

“Where is the jaw?” I asked.

Her reply was not the reply I had hoped for.

“My annoying next-door neighbour is mad about cats and she took it and kept it.”

Lucy had told me about this girl before and warned me that she was not very nice and that answer really did make me unhappy. The jaw was what made my Street cat project work and without it, it seems unlikely that we will ever find out who the jaw belonged to and how they died. But maybe I was wrong…

We went off in search of more cats. The first cat we saw was one-eyed Jake. Jake did not seem very active today as he was sleeping on a chair outside someone’s house. As me, Lucy and Scarlett silently got closer he woke up and opened his eye. He seemed happy to see us and began to purr quietly. We gave him a stroke before deciding to leave him to carry on sleeping.

We only took a few steps before I heard the un-mistakable sound of a cat yowling. But I was the only one that could hear it. There is was again… and again… now Lucy and Scarlett could also hear it and we headed to where it was coming from. It was coming from the bush five houses down. We walked closer to it and the yowling grew louder. We looked into the bush but saw nothing.  There is was again… it sounded like it was coming from on the other side of the bush so we went to the other side… nothing…

We heard it again but it sounded like it was coming from the other side of the bush so we walked back to the other side. Again… it was coming from the other side. We went back and fourth like yo-yos until we decided it was no use. We took a few steps

Two more days zoomed past us and we were back in the compound one again. This third visit was unfortunately our last visit which made the chances of solving the cat mystery even harder. If we don’t find out today then probably the truth will never be discovered.

We were back searching for cats and the first cat we saw was Biscuit sitting on the doorstep of a house three houses down from Lucy’s. Biscuit saw us and stood up. We gave her a stroke. Then we left to search for more cats.

The next cat was a cat Lucy had never seen before. It was black with a white belly and was extremely shy. I saw it crossing the road towards a house and when we spied it near a bush and when it saw us, it looked terrified and it leapt over a small wall. It was a chase as it was running everywhere and wouldn’t stay still for me to take a photo. I did get one just when it was about to run. We named the cat Midnight because of its colour. Soon Midnight was out of sight.

We carried on the search to see yet another new cat. It had the same markings as Daisy but was larger and was a male. We named him Max. Max was a friendly cat and when he saw us he walked up to us ready for a stroke. And we stroked him for a while. I noticed he had a wound on his ear. It was a tell-tale sign that he had been in a fight. Could Max have got into a fight with the cat that mysteriously died? Could Max have killed it? The questions still remained unanswered.

I got a good photo of he cut on his ear. It was in his left ear and some fur was missing around it. Max was very friendly but we knew we couldn’t stay stroking him for the whole day as we didn’t have much time left so we decided to move on.

The search dragged on deep into the afternoon and I knew I couldn’t stay for much longer.

My time with the street cats was only a short time but it was worth every second. This trip was one to remember and it is what street cats are really like. They are not nasty animals with a taste for human flesh, in stead they are just like pet cats. The mystery of the cat jaw looks like it will stay a mystery forever. Some things were meant to stay mysteries and it isn’t a bad thing. It is always good to think about it and look back. You wander what the truth really was. It gives a slight chill down your spine not knowing the truth but that is the whole fun of it.

It would probably be at least another year until my next trip to Dubai and I mist hope that my luggage does not get lost again. Although it seemed serious at the time it is funny to look back on loosing my luggage.

We will probably never know who killed the cat and who was killed. I hope it stays that way, a mystery for ever more. In such a harsh place, the streets are a large danger for cats, it will not be a surprise if next time I visit the compound is roamed with new street cats and the others are dead. That is likely to happen but maybe one or two or even five of the street cats I met today will probably still be around next time I visit. I have met Daisy, Jenny, Stripy, Max Biscuit, Midnight, Snowy, Snowball Jake, Giraffe, Skittles, Mini, Sandy, Micky and Mogs. There were some un-named cats and some cats that hang around that Lucy has told me about but I had never seen.

But it wasn’t all over yet as I still had one last stop to go to before it was the end of my time in Dubai with the street cats…

Before I was going to leave we still had one last stop to visit… the gang hang out. When we got there, Jenny and Snowy lay cuddled up next to each other and the door step of the house next to the hang out. At our company Jenny awoke and sat up. She stretched out her claws and stood up on all fours.

Jenny began to walk towards the garage to the house she was at. She walked down to it with her tail in the air. She kept looking at me with her eyes almost closed as the dun was shining brightly on us. She sat down in front of the garage and stared at us.

In the distance I could hear my brother shouting, “Scarlett! Shadow! It is time to go back!”

This was now the end of the street cat project. Jenny looked at me with wise eyes as if she knew what was going on. It was as if she knew the whole mystery of the jaw and that it was the end of my time here. It could be possible and more likely that she knew what happened to the cat. If only we could understand cats.

I stared deep into Jenny’s eyes and she stared deep into mine. We were like that for about two seconds but it seemed longer. I could tell this cat was smart but as my brother called mine and my sister’s names again I knew I had to go. Scarlett and Lucy turned around and began to leave. I knew I had to do the same, still looking at Jenny I began to step back. Then Jenny winked at me as if to say, goodbye and see you again some day,

THE END