[CATS:The Workshop!] Day One

Being a cat lover, like the rest of the creative individuals, who I joined yesterday part of Interruptions' Cats: The Workshop, I jumped on the opportunity to join like a kitten pouncing on a ball of wool.

The first day was quite interesting as we all sat around to discuss the main objective of the workshop.

So what's the Cat-ch? It was decided that Paris Circle that was known as Dowar Al Hawoz would be the premise of our project: A cat friendly city within a city.

One question that we all found ourselves facing was the following: What does a cat's paradise consist of?

1) Food land
2) Legacy and culture
3) Leisure
4) Raves (Khaled's personal favorite)

Hours and minutes passed as we sat at Makan to talk about the characteristics of these lithe felines that inhabit our city's neighborhoods and alleys.

As each and every one of us contributed a piece of information, scientific, mythological and social, about our client we found ourselves coming up with six important scratch marks:

1) Food:
Cats eat garbage, insects and small mammals (anything that fits into their tiny mouths), food offered to them by people, extra food from restaurants and meat from local butcher shops.

2) Drink (alcohol and non-alcohol):
Cats drink water mainly, clean water that is, and milk. A question that presented itself to us: Where do they get water from?

3) Sleep:
Cats sleep wherever they feel comfortable. During winter they seek out warm places and during summer they seek out shade. Gardens, water and fuel tanks and concrete walls are favored cat hangouts.

4) Security
No, we are not talking about financial security even though we asked ourselves: Do cats actually need money to buy happiness?

The main thing that we all agreed upon is that all cats love life and prefer not to end up under the screeching tires of vehicle.

Humans, children and vehicles are among the factors that threaten a cat's security.

5) Playtime:
All Work and No Play Make A Cat a Dull Cat. Cats like to play around with different objects like wool balls, threads and furniture that they scratch in glee and of course food.

6) Sex
Most cats mate and procreate during the months of January and February. We are trying to find out what cats think about the fallowing issues: Homosexuality, rape, incest, promiscuity and orgasm.

Cat characteristics:

-Cats identify each other through smell
-Cats communicate through sounds
-Cats produce fur balls especially after eating Tuna
-Cats detest water
- Cats in Western superstitions have nine lives, whereas in Eastern ones they only have seven. Bad news for cats living in this part of the world!
-Cats have fast reflexes. They are good at Karate and know how to use a catana.
-Cats are curious
-Cats have good eyesight—ever seen a cat wearing glasses?
-Cats are vain
-Cats use humans for their own benefit

Participating in the workshop are Toleen Touq, Dana Qabbani, Dina Haddein, Rula Yaghmour, Rawan Qaqeesh, Ali Mosleh, Yazan Bqeily, Hadi Alaeddin, Mike V. Derderian, Khaled Sedki and Ahmad Sabbagh.