Cats

Here is something that I haven’t mentioned before despite it was being one of the first thing that we encountered in Iceland. Cats, cats, cats. Black cats, and orange cats, white cats and multi-coloured cats, they all wonder freely around town – all with collars adorned with little bells, never going too far away from their neighborhoods. They have some complicated divisions of their territories, if one enters the domain of another cat too frivolously; it is bound to be a fight.

For the first 5 weeks we lived in Reykjavik near Miklatun Park. On the first day getting out of our apartment we were greeted by a friendly orange cat. It readily came close and openly enjoyed out attention. It strolled with us for a while but then went its own way. This cat, the kids called it “our cat” and gave it a name “Kokomojok” (their interpretation of kokomjolk, chocolate milk), always met us near the house and often escorted us for a short distance.

We haven’t yet acquired any cat that we consider “ours” in Hafnarfjöður. We have a variety of them here unexpectedly appearing out of the rocks and playfully joining us on our walks.

I found out that most of the cats live in homes but some of them made their residence in the libraries. Also, though such widespread superstition as “a black cat crossing the road brings bad luck” doesn’t seem to be a concern here, the Icelanders have a legend of a Christmas Cat. It reminds everybody to buy new clothes for Christmas.