IN PHOTOS: The Cats of Tel Aviv
In honor of International Cat Day 2018, Haaretz celebrates the street cat

Cats are the most divisive of companions. Do our cats love us? Are we, to them, merely warm furniture with can-opening appendages? Did we domesticate them, or did they domesticate us? Are they even domesticated?
Good questions all, but August 8, International Cat Day, is an opportunity to shrug off all questions about their affections and simply appreciate the slinking wonder that is cat, whether sitting on your keyboard or thronging the streets of Israel, where they are amply cared for by people who have seen the light.
Then there's the other end of the rainbow, occupied by the unenlightened, who feel that their fellow Israelis who feed street cats are encouraging mainly filth and cockroaches. Asked for comment on the meaning of International Cat Day to him, a non-cattist didn't blink: "Humanity is stupid." Hmm? "To invent things like day of the cat," he elaborated. "It's shocking."
So in honor of the occasion, here are 22 pictures of Israeli cats. Enjoy.