thomo the lost posted this in 
April 5th, 2007Never seen so many of the buggers before. They are everywhere. There are no dogs in the Kingdom to speak of (I believe the exceptions are guard dogs, sniffer dogs and hunting dogs) so the cats rule the streets. I’ve never seen a dog here in over six months in Jeddah (and the time I spent many years ago in Riyadh as well).
The cats are, behaviour wise, like dogs, taking over the role of the alpha scavenger in the various garbage bins around the city. If I had not seen a rat in the roof of one of our ex-favourite North Indian Restaurants I would have thought that the traditional vermin count was down in this town but it seems that the cats are happier scavenging than they are biffing rats.
And yes Doyle, the rat in the restaurant may well have been the classic “nimble-footed roof rabbit”. 
Can anyone tell me why there are not so many dogs in this part of the world (that’d be Saudi Arabia)?
Tags: 
Muslims consider dogs to be unclean animals.
Of course, after not having seen a dog in over 6 months in the Kingdom, today I had to see two running around near the office. They were gone again 20 minutes later.
there are few dogs, as the cats eat them, no really its too hot here for dogs, the saudi dogs, the salukis are the only dogs that sweat
the reason you don't see many dogs, is because the cats eat them:} actually it is too hot here for dogs, the saluki is the only dog that sweats.
OK – so now I know all there is to know about unclean animals. See Unclean animals in Wikipedia for an discourse.