Having a pet in Jordan is difficult. First of all, veterinarians are few and far between. If you do find one, he typically charges more for a visit, shots, etc., than what it costs for a human to see the doctor. And in contrast to what Islam teaches us about kindness to animals (do I need to mention the hadith about the woman going to hell for mistreating a cat?), the general population views cats as rodents. It is a rare occurrence to find an Abu Huraira-type local being benevolent to a cat. It’s usually us, the foreign element, opening our doors.

UmmFarouq writes about cats.