Long Way Home recently posted about the American Foundouk, something I had heard of but up until seeing the website had thought of as myth.

Started in 1927, the Foundouk, which is located in Fez, Morocco, provides charitable veterinary care to a wide range of animals.  They treat 50 to 100 animals each day, all for free.

Donations can be made online via the website, or by check sent to:

The American Fondouk
c/o MSPCA
Attention: B. Zeledon
350 South Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02130

A typical Fez donkey (photo is my own)

Awhile back, Everything Morocco and I were discussing in some comments about the origins of Morocco’s cats.

Today, Long Way Home posted about an article on the origins of domestic cats, saying:

However, the scholars can claim a new “first” previously given to Egyptologists. (and don’t we all know the catfight that will start).
Yep, new analysis of cats’ mitochondrial DNA indicates that modern domestic cats originated from 5 ancestrial lineages in the Middle East, and that their domestication began much earlier than previously thought–around the first signs of agriculture between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
In slightly depressing news, the domestic cat is the only subspecies of the 37 in Felidae not endangered or threatened. Good evolutionary experiment on Fluffy’s part, not so good for the tigers and leopards of the world.

This is good to know.  If someone in Fez could please assist me in taking a few pictures of street cats and allowing me to post them to my blog, I can show you how extremely different Fassi and Meknassi cats tend to look.