Migrant Cats

After many long trips and carrying bags that embrace our identity more than our passports, Maxim settled in Urfa city, a Turkish town located near the Syrian border. Before moving to Turkey, Maxim was living in Algeria, the country he went to after leaving Syria in 2012.

Syria 2010

Maxim Isa

He was born in the city of Damascus on the 5th of September, 2010. Like any human being, Maxim the cat chose neither his name, race, color, nor even his faith! For him it’s enough that Rezk, his dad “his owner” sits on a chair and calls him “come here “ so he - without hesitation - jumps up to his lap and happily and comfortably sits there and starts purring and then takes a nap, like there is no other place in the world cozier and safer for him.

Türkiye 2015

Damascus

Rezk Allah Isa returned home carrying a colored small cat instead of the bag of bread he intended to bring. No sooner did he open the door than Maxim received him in his usual anticipation of what he had brought with him. At first glance, he thought it was a toy. That was his first encounter with Misha, the name given to the new small cat. The meeting was neither romantic nor even cordial. Maxim was quick to express his immediate discontent and resentment of his new housemate. And between sniffing her, chasing her, and hiding from her, Rezk got his share of slaps by his little paws as a punishment for bringing in this newcomer.

It is not easy to judge Maxim’s character, and he is often misunderstood by many visitors. Maxim grew up in a house often frequented by visitors. He built his independence and strong personality in the company of those visitors. Like all other felines, he knew who liked him, who hated him, who was nice to him, and who was afraid of him. He was used to meeting new people every day and knew how to interact with them.

Luggage

Maxim had never experienced the connotation of the word luggage before Rezk journeyed to Algeria. In fact, he could not establish a connection between the sound of shells outside and the shape of the bag. All that mattered to him was that the hand that held him when he was sixty days old was no longer there.

Travel

Rezk left Syria in May 2012, leaving Maxim in his house with his sister and his fiancée who visited the house frequently. Rezk hoped to a job and a place that would give him some sense of stability.

Immediately after Rezk’s journey, Maxim abstained from food for days and signs of depression were showing on his face. He would not answer when called, nor would he engage in any activity. He kept to himself in isolation without any movement or mewing sounds, and when he mewed, it was with a sad tune. However, as time went by, his condition started to improve especially around the time some family members were getting ready to travel to Algeria.

Two months later, while Maxim was under the influence of the vaccine cats are usually injected with while travelling, the complexions of Rezk started to appear gradually before his eyes as he was coming round. At that moment, his eyes started to dance with joy and with gestures of blame. That was all that he wanted to say through those wandering eyes of his.

Something is going to change

After staying about two years and a half in Algeria Maxim’s behavior changed and he started to hate the very sight of bags even more than before. Pieces of clothing scattered on the bed, books were in places where they did not belong, and there was a change in the layout of the house, all this meant that the box labeled as “travel bag” would show up. There was no doubt about these preludes since Maxim visited a number of airports and experienced the atmosphere of many cities away from Rezk and his private belongings. This also meant that Maxim would show some peculiar behavior when the family attempted to open travel bags or change their locations; he would jump inside the bag refusing to come out trying to prevent Rezk and his wife from packing even if the travel is for one or two days.

Waiting

At the airport, because some travel documents were missing, Maxim had to wait in Algeria for three months for Rezk to return from a visit to his wife who started a new job in Turkey.

Turkey

Rezk went back to Algeria to arrange for the residency papers and pack up their luggage as they had decided to stay in Turkey. What made the journey and the change of airports easier for Maxim to tolerate was the fact that he and Rezk were companions and they had no trouble during their excursion However, Maxim’s wife, Misha, stayed in Algeria with the rest of the family.

Now, Maxim is living in Sanliurfa city alongside the Syrian Turkish border. We do not exactly know whether the atmosphere of the city, or the proximity to Syria, would boost his mood or not. However, the presence of Rezk beside him is definitely sufficient to give him a life of simplicity and a lower level of anxiety to the point that Rezk would be able to go out to buy a bag of fresh bread.

Tomorrow

While taking a photo of Maxim sitting on a bag trying to show his objection, Rezk said that there was a change in the location of his wife’s job and that they were also preparing for travel at that moment.

“We are planning to emigrate to another country, but I always remembered Maxim’s refusal for my attempt at saying good-bye to him during one of my previous visits to Turkey. Despite my insistence, he refused to let me say good-bye. In fact, Turkey is not an option, at least for a family like ours. Australia is one of the options that we are considering today although my wife does not seem at all enthused for travel in case our application is met with approval.

Australia is one of many countries that have complex and strict procedures regarding the admission of pets. If the travel is decided, then I will have to send Maxim to one of the countries that signed agreements with Australia regarding admission of pets into the country. They will quarantine him, give him new vaccinations, and make sure that he is not infected with diseases rendering him ineligible to enter the country. After taking the vaccine, he will be sent back to Turkey once again. What’s more, when the time of travel comes, I cannot take him with me, but I will have to send him once again to a third country to put him in quarantine for 15 days. Then, after making sure that he is healthy, he will be sent to my new address in Australia. The period he will spend during travel, quarantine, and travel once again will be approximately one month, something that required us to think carefully before taking such a step, as I know exactly the suffering that he is going to undertake because of both travel and quarantine, let alone the possibility of being exposed to bad or good treatment, and what will accompany that in terms of change in his behavior or his appetite for food.

Apart from all of that, he will be shipped for 20 hours to reach the address that I will be living at. Thus I find myself every now and then imagining the look that he gave me when I left him in Damascus. I know that Maxim has no choice in the decisions we humans make about moving between cities and houses. Maybe –or let us be more frank- this is definitely what compounds the feeling of responsibility I feel towards him because the most important factor of stability for him as an animal –this may also apply to people- is his feeling of a place he belongs to. Not only is the change of house, city, and country accompanied with physical fatigue, but it also has its accumulated psychological exhaustion.”

Rezk uttered his last words and set out to prepare juice while I was, at that moment, in a state of retrospection. I was thinking about the great and multiple changes that took place in our lives outside the story that is called Syria, and how Maxim could create in the life of Rezk an element of psychological serenity and helped enhance his feeling that one thing among many things will not change.