As promised, Malta part II: the cats of Malta

There were cats just about everywhere we went in Malta. These are sort of pets, sort of feral cats which are fed and stroked by people regularly. The weather never gets too cold in Malta, my impression was that these cats live pretty free, sleeping whenever and wherever they want and getting fed by people in the neighborhood.

For example, there were a bunch of cats that just sort of lived around our hotel, petted and fed and tolerated by the hotel staff. The cats would laze by the pool and the cafe, coming in and out as they wished. My nephew thought this was really exciting. I wish I had some pictures of his enjoying the cats of the cafe. Maybe my sister-in-law does--I should ask her. The above cat in the plant was one of these hotel kitties.

The below cat I found just hanging out by the sea, at a restaurant where she was eating some cat food someone had left out on a stone wall. Isn't she pretty? Don't you want to take her home?

Then I discovered a whole clan of mysterious cats living at these ancient temples we visited, the Tarxian temples. My brother found nice short little video about the temples here, but for some reason the video doesn't include my favorite statue


Wow--I don't think they had cats on the island back when this lady got carved, but she looks like she could mother a whole brood of them, doesn't she?

It was strange and wonderful to visit these temples, which I will post more pictures of tomorrow. They were so very old (estimates are between 3000 and 5000 years old) and yet they were full of life--the cats, plants growing everywhere--it still felt like a place full of energy to me. Perhaps its the ghosts of all the sacrificed animals still hanging around.

Here's my favorite Tarxian temple cat, sleeping on top of this pillar. It must have been warm and safe up there for her.


After we left the temple we went next door to try to see the local Catholic church. I am not certain but I believe the church was built prior to the finding of the archeological remains of the Tarxian temples (some farmer literally found them while he was digging in his fields). We couldn't get into the sanctuary but we enjoyed exploring the graveyard--funny how this old institution, the church, felt so young to us next to the even more ancient goddess-worshippers' temple next door.

They don't have a lot of extra space on Malta, so they bury whole families in single plots in their graveyards. Witness a random grave

And if you look carefully in that picture you'll see a little orange splotch sitting on the top of the next grave. The splotch is a cat, which you can see more clearly in the picture below

Oh what a pretty boy. This cat goes back and forth between the Tarxian temples and the Catholic graveyard, I'm sure. He doesn't care which religion he's keeping company with, so long as the stones are warm and in a sunny spot.