-By Fae Feline
When I look back, I realize that cats have always been quietly present in my life, even before I truly understood them.
It started when I was 9, a cat gave birth on our ground-level floor balcony. She was hissy and protective, and I mostly kept my distance. A few weeks later, I saw her kittens around the apartment complex, being treated poorly by kids. I still remember my helpless feeling of wanting to help but didn’t know how.
Then at 17, my mother came home with a female kitten. I named her Mika. I didn’t know anything about cats then, nothing about spaying, litter boxes, or even that cats should eat food made for them, not leftovers and canned sardines. It’s worth noting here that I had an isolating childhood so I didn’t have access to know anything other than what I was told at home, which was mostly wrong. I also didn’t realize how attached cats can become to their humans.
When Mika had kittens, I thought we were doing fine by keeping them until they could eat solid food. Later, my mother became overwhelmed with what became 5 cats and decided to leave Mika and her kittens in the garden of a biology institute, where she was told the staff would care for them. I didn’t know that was abandonment and an irresponsible and selfish act. I remember how Mika still came to me when I called her name on the last day I saw her. She wasn’t even angry. I couldn’t bring myself to walk near that place again afterwards.
2 years later, in 2015, I moved from Tunisia to Turkey to attend university, still carrying the guilt of leaving Mika. I promised myself that IF I ever had another cat, I’d do everything right. In Istanbul, I saw a completely different culture, cats and dogs living freely in the streets, people leaving food and boxes for them in winter. It was truly eye-opening!
In 2017, I moved into a big student dorm filled with cats living in the garden. As someone who always struggled with anxiety and depression, spending time with cats there became my peace. I joined a group of students who fed and cared for the dorm cats, and I eventually created a new group when many of the old members left. That group grew from fewer than 20 people to more than 300 members today.
During my 3 years at that dorm, I learned so much about cats: how to get them treated at public clinics, how to organize feeding schedules, and how important spaying and neutering are. I also witnessed really difficult moments, the hardest was losing a kitten 2 days after I saved her from a box where 2 other kittens were laying dead, likely from starvation. Those moments stuck with me. I began to understand cats not as cute background animals but as emotional, intelligent beings.
In 2020, the pandemic forced us to move dorms suddenly. I didn’t get to say goodbye to my dorm cats, but the new dorm was where I met Zoom and Oreo, two stray kittens who appeared within 2 months of each other. The two quickly became inseparable and when I finally moved out to my own apartment, I had to take them both with me.
Since then, we’ve been through a lot together; new apartments, stressful moves, and even an earthquake in April 2025. Through all of it, Zoom and Oreo have reminded me daily why cats deserve patient and informed care.
My path hasn’t been a straight one. I’ve made mistakes, but learned that you can turn your mistakes around by a) doing the right thing in the present, and b) sharing your experience so others don’t end up making the same mistake(s).
My 10 years in Turkey definitely shaped the cat person I am today. And I’ve recently realized that my connection with cats might even be a calling. That’s why I’ve decided to become a feline behaviorist. Volunteering with EveryCat Health Foundation feels like the natural next step. I hope to contribute by helping make cat-care knowledge accessible to every current and future cat owner, so that caring for cats becomes simple, natural, and based on understanding, not trial and error.
Through EveryCat’s scientific research, I also hope to learn more about feline psychology and behavior patterns, and how we can make our cats’ lives more fulfilling without it feeling like a chore or a mystery.
Looking back, every mistake and every cat I’ve met led me here. And now at 30, I’m working on shifting my self-image from someone who’s failed Mika and her kittens, to someone who’s trying to do better, not just for my own mental health, but for every cat’s welfare.
Fae Feline is a writer from Tunisia who volunteers with EveryCat Health Foundation, blending her love of storytelling with a growing passion for feline behavior and welfare. After a decade in Turkey, she returned home with her two rescue cats, Zoom and Oreo. She is an aspiring feline behaviorist and the founder of Pawetique, a cat-exclusive care brand combining an online store, future behavior consultations, and educational content with the long-term goal of creating a physical cat sanctuary.
