Conference misery::feline_v1

4990.0. "1992 Saudi Cat Calendar" by YOSMTE::CORDES_JA (Set Apt./Cat_Max=3..uh,I mean 4) Mon Oct 07 1991 21:27

    Saw this in the paper on Sunday and thought it was cute.  Just wanted
    to share it with the rest of you.
    
    Jan
    
    
Article reprinted (without permission) from the Lifestyle section of 
the San Jose Mercury News, Sunday, October 6, 1991.


Picture of Pat Thompson (in traditional Saudi Arabian women's clothing
which only shows the eyes) and a cat from her cousin Kay Zarif's 1992 
Saudi Arabian Cat Calendar (white cat is also wearing Saudi Arabian head 
wear but entire face is showing [must be a male ;-) ]).


Saudi Cat Calendar Purrs for Pet Lovers, Not Politics
by Margaria Fichtner, Knight-Ridder Newspapers

"This is Pepe, our cover guy," says Kay Zarif, gesturing at a 
black-and-white sprawl draped on one corner of a sofa.  "And here's 
little Salama.  I forget which month she is.  That's Yasmine Desert 
Storm over there."

There are inviting, overstuffed couches and chairs scattered all over 
this spacious, vaguely exotic house, and many sleek and not-so-sleek 
forms to curl or stretch upon them.  Here and there, with shattering 
nonchalance, small heads raise to stare when someone strolls by.  A few 
plumed tails twitch menacingly.  For once, the terrible Abdullah merely 
yawns in boredom.

All claws point to Lulu
-----------------------
"Thank God we have such a big house," says Zarif.  "I don't know what 
I'd do.  This is Mama Fatouma.  That's her son, Ramses.  Ramses, and 
Rambo, his brother.  Where's Rambo?  He's around here somewhere.  That's 
little Baboos.  Since we've been here, they've started attacking Lulu.  
They won't leave her alone.  In fact, Rambo put her in the hospital 
once.  So they spend the day out here in this area we call the terrorist 
training camp, and then in the evening they come in.  It's driving me 
crazy, if you want to know the truth."

The truth is that Kay Zarif, the brains behind the 1992 Saudi Arabian 
Cat Calendar, may be having the time of her life.

After 16 years as a proper, abaya-shrouded Jidda housewife, Zarif landed 
in south Florida last fall.  Her Lebanese husband, Salim Zarif, an 
engineer she met when the two were university students in Tucson, Ariz., 
remains overseas tending to business and relatives.  But as last year's 
war clouds rumbled over the Middle East, he decided it was time to get 
his family out.  All of it.

"We were worried sick every night, thinking we were going to get hit 
with a chemical attack," says Kay Zarif.  "And Salim -- he's just as 
nutty about cats as I am -- said, 'Look, you want to save your babies?  
You'd better get out now and take them with you, or else we'll have to 
make a run across the desert, and we can't do it in a convertible with 
all these cats in the back.'"

It is better not to ask exactly how many cats there are here.  Just know 
that it cost Kay Zarif more to ferry her pets from Jidda's King Abdul 
Aziz Airport via Frankfort to south Florida than to buy her own ticket.

Castoffs and wanderers
----------------------
"A lot of these cats were abandoned, or a lot of them were wild," says 
Kay Zarif.  Abdulah was rescued from a Jidda dumpster by neighbor boys.  
She found Chico wandering along the Medina Road.  Pepito tumbled from a 
box full of kittens rounded up for extermination by a pest-control 
official.  Clint Eastwood and Faisa both suffer from feline AIDS and 
must be kept separate from the others.  She fell in love with the 
orphaned Billy Babalu at the vet's and bought him for 500 riyals.

So you can understand that producing a calendar starring her own pets 
"had been my idea for quite some time."  Bank-rolled by her husband and 
helped by her visiting cousin, Pat Thompson, Kay Zarif plunged.  
Shooting the cats' portraits took a month.

"Clint was easy.  Faisal was so passive and sweet.  Rambo and Ramses 
were difficult.  Of course, we used a lot of catnip."

"We don't mean to be disrespectful in any way," says Kay Zarif.  "This 
is not a political statement.  This is cats from Saudi Arabia.  I think 
by showing them with all these carpets and Bedouin jewelry that I've 
been collecting for 16 years, this shows the richness of the culture."  
Other cultures get a shot, too:  St. Patrick's Day, Christmas, 
Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King's birthday and Passover are listed 
along with the Muslim holidays of Ramadan and the HAJ.

The calendar is priced at $12.95 for everyone but retired Gen. H. Norman 
Schwarzkopf, who got his free.  Even though "we don't expect to get 
rich," Kay Zarif already is plotting a 1993 edition.

"Maybe Pepe goes to Moscow."

    I'm dying to get a copy -- where do we write?  Is there tax and
    shipping?
    

    I'ld love a copy also, where do we order the calendar???
    
    Gloria
    

    I don't know where to order it.  I checked the end of the article
    and it didn't say anything.  Maybe the San Jose Mercury News would
    be able to tell us.  I'll see if I can find a phone number and give
    them a call.
    
    Jan

    Well, I'm currently on the phone attempting to talk to someone at 
    the San Jose Mercury News.  Please don't try this at home.  I have
    so far been transferred to a voicemail box that was full and the
    operator has tried to transfer me to other numbers twice now and
    each of them just rings endlessly until I get back to the operator.
    I'm bound and determined to get to someone now so I'll keep you
    posted.
    
    Jan

    Just spoke to the editor of the Lifestyle section, finally.  He is
    going to try to track down the address by contacting the author of the
    article and he says he will get back to me.  Hopefully, I'll be posting
    the info soon.
    
    Jan

    I have discovered that dealing with the San Jose Mercury News makes
    me feel like I'm invisible.  
    
    I called again today to speak to the Lifestyle editor since I had not 
    heard from him in over a week.  The phone rang off the hook.  I hung up 
    and dialed again and it was answered immediately.  I was transfered to 
    the editor and got his voicemail box which says he is not there to take
    my call.  Same as last time I called only then his box was so full I 
    couldn't leave a message.  This time I was able to leave one.  
    
    I know that in the grand scheme of things, finding information for 
    ordering a cat calendar is probably not #1 on someone's list of 
    priorities, but it sure would be nice to at least get a call back stating 
    he could not get the information or was having trouble locating it or 
    something.  
    
    Honestly, when I talked to him last time I got the impression he was
    going to call me right back (after all I did spend a 1/2 hour bouncing
    around between the operator and his voicemail and all the other places
    she tried to transfer me to).  What happened here?  Not exactly what
    I would call quality customer service.
    
    Will let you guys know if I ever come up with anything useful on how
    to get this calendar.
    
    Jan

    Jan,
    
    I have an idea...why not write to Action Line at the Mercury News and
    ask them to find the address for you?  That's what they do for people
    looking for other things. :^)  It would be funny to have them looking
    for something that there counterparts in the Lifestyles section
    couldn't provide. :')
    
    Jo

    There's an add for the calendar in the back of the November Cat Fancy
    magazine.  No, I don't have the magazine with me, but I did see the ad
    there.
    

    Any chance your could make note of the information and post it here?
    Its very obvious to me that this guy doesn't want to be bothered, I
    haven't received a reply to the voicemail I left him yesterday yet.
    
    Jan

    I finally remembered to bring in the information ...
    
    	Send $12.95 in check or money order, plus shipping
    	and handling (U.S. $3.50 Canada $7.00 Hawaii $7.50)
    	to:
    
    		The Gatito Company
    		260 W. Crandon Blvd. Suite 21-119
    		Key Biscayne, Florida  33149
    
    

    Thanks for the info.  I finally got a call back 3 days later and
    all he could tell me was that they weren't able to find the 
    information.  I can't believe it.  I think I should have written
    to Action Line after all.
    
    Jan