Josip Novakovich, who immigrated to the United States from Croatia when he was twenty, is the author of the novel April Fool’s Day, two essay collections, and three story collections, and his work has been anthologized in Best American Poetry, The Pushcart Prize, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. A recipient of the Whiting Writers’ Award, the Ingram Merrill Award, and an American Book Award, Novakovich teaches at Concordia University in Montreal.

Jerusalem According to Cats

An Essay

by Josip Novakovich

In Jerusalem I expected to see many dogs and only a few cats. The domestic cat is not mentioned in the Bible. Apparently it was considered a pagan animal, an Egyptian deity, and to discourage potential idolatry (and yes, it’s easy to indulge in feline idolatry), the cat was omitted from the holy scripture. On the other hand, Prophet Muhammad loved cats, and once, in order not to wake up his cat Meuzza, who slept on his sleeve, he cut the sleeve off and walked away quietly. And Arab mistrust of dogs is legendary. So I assumed Israel would be divided along yet another line: dogs in Jerusalem, cats in Ramallah.

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