Petting Cats in Places
Introduction:
There are many ways to rank cities; population, GDP, cheapness of alcohol, motorbike/car ratio, etc. But perhaps the most meaningful is the friendliness of the stray cats within. As a cat lover and vagabond, I have pet cats in many places and in each city, the cats have different vibes. This is crucial in evaluating cities and so with that introduction I present:
A definitive and objective ranking of cities by the experience of petting the stray cats within them:
Batam
Ho Chi Minh City
Bangkok
Manila
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Chiang Mai
Ithaca NY & other American cities
Stray cats?
Stray is perhaps not the right word to describe these cats. ‘Community cat’ is a term often used in Singapore news stories about them (of which there are many). These community cats have no single owner, sleep outside and are free to roam where they please. Most tend to stay within a small territory, however, and people who live nearby often get attached to the neighbourhood cats. People will regularly leave food out and act as ‘feeders’ or caretakers to the cats. Often a single cat will have multiple caretakers.
Manila
Pictured: petting stray dogs, not quite cats but also friendly creatures to pet.
Manila had very friendly cats, my only note is that they did a somewhat poor job of controlling the rats.
Manila also had quite friendly stray dogs. Interestingly, there were lots of people on the street selling puppies.
Singapore
Pictured: a cat that seemed to like water a lot that was found near Pasir Ris.
Singapore’s cats are very self-important.
Singapore is a small island with lots of people and, comparatively, not that much to do. So some people spend hours a day feeding cats, others write books about the cats in their community, and upon the demise of a cat, many people leave flowers and offerings.
It is very sweet that the cats get this much attention, but it leads the cats to think that they are absolute royalty and generally a class above me. My two local void cats would tolerate me petting them but would walk away after about 30 seconds of my attention.
Pictured below: Singapore cat memorials
Ho Chi Minh
This shop had around 15 cats lounging around outside it.
I don’t really have more to say about Ho Chi Minh’s cats. But I can’t figure out how to make the picture smaller, so enjoy the negative space in this blog post.
Batam
Batam had lots of very friendly cats and one boy with the absolute cutest kitten. The boy let me play with the little fuzzball before he ran off and the kitten bounded after him. Great experience.
A gallery of not-cats found at a petting zoo in a parking lot.
Chiang Mai
In Chiang Mai I found maybe 15 cats, and all of them — except one — were afraid of me and wouldn’t let me pet them. The cat that did let me pet it was lovely, but the ratio was off. To be fair, most of the cats were around Buddhist temples and I am not a monk.
A gallery of temples in Chiang Mai with cats nearby that did not want to be pet.
I also happened to be exploring the temples on Māgha Pūjā, a holiday that I do not entirely understand the history of, but it meant that the temples were open late and there were lots of things burning.
It also meant that there were vendors near the temples selling food, things to burn, and live birds. The live birds intrigued me and after a conversation with the vendor, I discovered that you release them for good luck (not keep them as a pet, eat them, or anything else: the birds go free).
I struggle with the morality of this a little. For all the things to do with a bird in a cage, releasing it is probably the kindest (assuming it was caught from nearby). But it also seems like if the bird was caught from nearby for the purpose of being released it would be a lot kinder not to catch it in the first place. Regardless, I thought I could use the luck, and walked away with two birds for 50 Bhat, or about $2.
To tie this back to the cat theme, I was told by a Singaporean cab driver that it is good luck to leave food out for stray cats — in a similar way that releasing birds is good luck. I have not been able to find a source for this online, so perhaps it is not a widely held belief but the general Buddhist belief of helping creatures I stand by.
That’s all for this post, but stay tuned for the next post where I crash a Thai Buddhist funeral, do not crash my motorbike, and meet some lovely people.
