Wow. Morocco. I had the most fortunate opportunity to travel to Morocco in February. Such a beautiful country, culture and cuisine! I was on a tour with 18 other people and we went to most of Morocco's greatest hits over a two-week period of time. Casablanca, Rabat, Merzouga, Erfoud, Fes, Marrakech, Essaouira... Morocco was indescribable. The scents... from the cooking to the riads, the smells were of the seven most used spices in Moroccan food to the tantalizing perfumes of amber (my favorite), verbena, orange blossom, rose, and other exotic fragrances.

I can't even begin to describe what an amazing experience it was. It turns out, Morocco is the most traveled country in Africa. I suppose its welcoming of tourists, not to mention its close proximity to Europe, makes it a popular destination. We came back Feb. 26... Coronavirus was on the mind but didn't turn into a pandemic until after we returned and Morocco actually closed its border, into and out of the country.

So what I noticed in Morocco, animal wise, was there were a lot of stray cats. But though they weren't as puffy as my two cats, people seemed to take care of the strays. They lived in the medinas, the walled cities, and seemed well fed from the shopkeepers and residents. Donkeys and horses were used to transport goods throughout the medinas. And monkeys, the Berber macques, were used as entertainment. Now that pained me. We also got to see some monkeys in the Atlas mountains that were used to humans feeding them. And camels. No camel is wild in Morocco, our tour guide told us. There aren't a lot of dogs unless they are in the desert. I ran into a few puppies at one of our stops and gave them the entire bag of dog treats I had in my bag.

If you want to see my entire trip to Morocco, you can look at my Facebook page.

But here are a few animals I encountered along the way. The wild and the domesticated.