Finding My Place in the World

Every day I feel more settled in Sidi Bouzid, more at home in the community and happy with the choice I made to come here. In fact, so much synchronicity is happening right now that I’m comfortable with the idea that each step I took to get here was by design, courtesy of the universe.

The very day of my arrival, as @michelios and I were unlocking the gate in front of our bungalow, a brown dog approached us in the street and gave us an official greeting. If you’ve followed other blog posts I’ve made recently, you know that this dog--who we've learned is called “Hinda” by residents of the community--followed us home the next night and made it clear we had been adopted into her rather large extended family.

Being the animal welfare advocate I am, I recognized right away that Hinda didn’t need to be saved from her circumstances. She was the quintessential happy beach bum dog, no rescue required. However, she was in desperate need of essential vetting that the community hadn’t been able to provide for her. At the very least she needed vaccines against rabies and other core diseases like parvo and distemper. Beyond that, she needed deworming and sterilization. Michel and I called on my former rescue contacts for help in providing this, then we made contact with a local veterinarian and started the process.

This led to my discovery of ERHAM Association, a group working to provide TNR for feral cats in the Azemmour region of Morocco. I contacted Anne Heslop, organizer of this group, and she and I set a meeting during her return to Morocco next week. I’m sure I’ll have much to post on that topic, so stay tuned.

Today, Hinda introduced us to three of her extended family members here in Sidi Bouzid. The love that passes between her and these people is incredible.

Ironically, last night I learned that my old county of residence in Virginia has stooped to a new low regarding the welfare of its feral cats, which number in the thousands. Richlands, VA and Bluefield, VA have both passed “nuisance” ordinances making it illegal to feed or maintain these colonies. There’s language in the ordinance to allow for official animal welfare agencies to work with this population of cats, but not without burdensome data collection and reporting requirements that amount to little more than red tape. Fines for an ordinary citizen who feeds these cats, or “encourages the existence of a public nuisance” are set at $50 per offense, and each day of “offense” can bear a separate $50 fine. While villages in North Africa ascend and evolve, Tazewell County, Virginia keeps circling the drain. I am very, very glad I no longer live there to suffer the consequences of such unconscionable decisions by community leadership.

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