Nippy!

Those of you who follow Beirut news are probably curious about the implications of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt’s leaving the US-backed March 14th coalition and joining the opposition party—the one that just lost the June parliamentary elections. Israel has certainly been making lots of threats about the nasty things they’ll do to Lebanon if the opposition—led by Hezbollah—plays a more prominent role in the government in the wake of Jumblatt’s move, so you may be wondering how serious those Israeli threats are. Or you may be wondering about Beirut’s gay bar scene, which was recently covered (or outed, as one gay Beiruti asserts) by a New York Times travel writer. However, I’m afraid this blog entry will not answer any of your questions on topical matters, or elucidate any of the tangled and shifting allegiances in Lebanese politics. Instead, I want to mention one of our neighbors here in the new apartment building we moved to in June. We call her Nippy.

As I may or may not have mentioned, in June Jeff and I moved to a new apartment. My first apartment was on the lightless, airless ground floor of what was really an office building, and people kept coming to the door thinking I was the concierge. In the new place, I have an extra room in which to work, with a breeze and a big, sunny window!

As an added bonus, this apartment building also has a population of cats. They are not exactly feral, or even stray, as most of them seem to have lived here in and around this building for generations. One of them in particular spends a lot of time in the stairwell, on the landing, and yes, even in the elevator. We started calling her Nippy because of her nipped ear, but then started to realize that several of the cats around here have a similar ear nip. One of my colleagues finally told me that AUB spays a lot of the campus cats. The spayed cats have their ears nipped, so as not to be rounded up twice.
Nevertheless, Nippy’s name has stuck. She herself is working hard to be able to stick around the apartment. She frequently loiters outside our door, and has been known to launch herself inside the instant we crack the door open.

Jeff and I both play with her, of course, whenever we see her in the building or outside.

She caught on really quickly to the fact that our apartment means positive human attention. Once, Jeff went out to do an errand, saw her on a lower floor, and played with her for a moment. As soon as he continued on his way, Nippy came upstairs and sat outside our door, waiting for him to return. Pretty smart!

When she makes it inside, she typically sniffs around for a while, scratches the couch, and then sits in the kitchen looking pathetic. We learned from a next-door neighbor (who came knocking one night wearing only a towel, having locked himself out of his apartment. Very sitcom-esque) that Nippy used to be the pet of a family in this building who left her behind when they moved away. I think that explains her propensity for kitchen begging, and her obvious desire to be someone’s indoor cat. For now, we are content to have her as a frequent visitor, but she seems determined to ingratiate herself into our place—or kitchen, at least—more permanently.

As for Jumblatt, Hezbollah, and the gay bar scene, you’ll just have to keep your eye on the Times or Al-Jazeera English. But you can count on “My Life in Beirut” for all your Nippy news. Signing off for now. Happy end of summer to all!