Dr. Raphaella Bilski

They live beside us. They need our help and attention to survive. Most of us accept their presence without questioning. Part of us ignore them entirely and part of us give them food and water. These are the street cats. What do we know about them? – very little. This book is ought to show the reader the special and interesting world of the street cats focusing on one community for about 14 years (of observation). Here you will read on the social life, on hierarchy that exists in their community, on their leaders and various social behavior. The reader will also meet the heroic acts of various cats, the wonderful friendship relations between them and their very special patterns of motherhood etc. At the end of reading the book the street cat who was for most readers just an anonymous animal spending a lot of time near garbage cases will become a familiar animal, interesting and liked.

Raphaella Bilski has been a member of the Department of Political Science in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. She specializes in modern political philosophy, welfare and social policy and in the subject of happiness. Her most known books are "Every Individual – A King, the Political and Social Thought of Zeev Jabotinsky" (Dvir, Tel Aviv and Bnai Brith, New York). For this book she got The Jabotinsky Price. Her second known book is "The Lure of Happiness" (Carmel, Jerusalem). She was the director at the Van Leer Foundation (1977-1980) and an advisor on social and welfare policy to the Israel prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres. From 1990-1992 she began taking care of street cats who constituted a community in her garden. This book is based on 14 years of observation. She continues to take care of street cats and is about to write a second book on this subject.