Cats Under Siege

Syria 2010

Muhammad defected from the military service, and he was ready for all the expected and unexpected catastrophic repercussions. On his way to Douma, having passed through difficult war-zone routes, he had an immense surprise, unlike anything he had expected.

It was a surprise that took him in his memories back to Damascus. It was Tia…! It was not a normal scene when his friend opened the gate of the house. He thought his two cats, Tia and Jena, had stayed in Damascus before the Syrian authorities incarcerated him. Suddenly, all logical questions made no sense, and events started racing before his eyes like a reality that raised more questions than answers. Tia’s presence gave a different meaning to the subsequent mornings and an assertion that something from his former life, something that was part of his family would now keep him company in this siege and in this insane war.

Turkey 2015

Muhammad Orwani

A journalist and a TV anchor. He was arrested by the Syrian authorities on April 18th, 2012, to force him to serve in the Syrian army whose mission at the onset of the Syrian revolution in 2011 changed from protecting the people to killing them in the name of absolute authority and its eternal leader. This drove him to defect, and he now lives in the city of Douma, together with the rest of the civilians living under siege in the Eastern Ghouta.

Lulu

A ferocious cat whom neighbors often avoided inasmuch as she used to spend her time in the space between the outer roof of the house and its artificial roof. When the windows were closed, she would spend her time in this secret hideout until Muhammad came back from work.

Lulu was a few weeks old when she started to come to the house, and later she became a permanent and a core resident. Her daily diet consisted of a small cube of cheese, while Tia spent the rest of the day feeding on cucumbers. This meant they both did not have to compete much for food to sustain life in this besieged town, isolated from the rest of its surrounding areas by all sorts of weapons and military barricades.

Douma

Despite the aerial bombardment and the atmosphere of war, the first few moments of Muhammad’s arrival to the town felt significant and decisive. Freedom, when it was this clearly tangible, was finally achieved the moment he made it to the string of towns which spearheaded the peaceful demonstrations which later turned into an open conflict. Another significant reality was the presence of Tia beside him. It was not so much the fact that she was part of his former life or that she was a pet. It was more because she was a serious responsibility, a living creature sharing his life. Cats are free and they love you frankly, unlike what many people say that they bite the hands that feed them. Those who say that are those who want to run away from their responsibility or their inability to lead them. They, cats, are free and genuine, but people cannot stand sincerity.

Forced Migration

As in the first instance when he could not take Jena and Tia, he had to make a decision regarding Lulu. This time it would be more difficult for Muhammad to decide. He had two options, the cat would either have to stay in the town or he would have to be responsible for her during the journey through roads full of danger, starting with secret tunnels and not ending in a twenty-day walk on foot across the desert.

Muhammad finished from the procedures of getting a new identity card and the necessary travel documents, having left behind all the documents upon his defection from the military. He wouldn’t be able to reach Turkey through checkpoints belonging to either the regime or “the Islamic State” or others, without having first to acquire new identity cards under false names so that he could safely make it through those checkpoints. This was another reason why keeping Lulu in town was a better option than the dangers that lay ahead of him.

Life’s Trivial Condition

After he made it to Turkey, I met him at a coffee shop under his apartment. He asked me what if our perception of reality was similar to that of cats, having no nationality. Cats are free from this stupid condition. It makes no difference if the cat is British, Chinese, or has any other nationality! Cats are truly free, while we are slaves and our movements are constrained. He laughed sarcastically, pointing a finger up when his cat appeared: “Eva had to fly here ” he said “ because I couldn’t bring her on the bus with me. The journey to Istanbul takes about 18 hours on the bus.”

Everything changed after his arrest.

The family in Damascus that took Jena gave her a new name. As for Tia, he is not worried about her, she is mothering her besieged children in Douma. Muhammad, though, was remorseful for Lulu whose blood was mixed with the blood of others flowing in the streets of the town as the neighbors reported. They saw no one inside or underneath the car where the shell landed. They saw only a trail of blood from the pavement all the way to the corner without any sign or either death or injury. After a period of time, a resident from the building smelled the stench of a dead corpse coming from his floor. When he searched, the smell led him to the secret hideout where Lulu used to wait for Muhammad’s return from work when the windows were closed.