People here love cats. I know I said they love babies—and they do—but they also really like cats. Let me introduce you to the 15 (plus or minus three) cats that live on our street. I would call them strays, except that they are really more like neighborhood-owned cats. A handful of people that live in the nearby buildings take turns feeding them each day. Sometimes there will be traditional cat food scattered all over the sidewalk and other times there will be a large bowl of black beans or pasta left for their enjoyment. Our street’s residents have also built little shelters for them as you can see in the pictures. When the rain started up this winter, they weatherproofed the shelters with vinyl tablecloths. Some of the cats still prefer a simple basket to the enclosed shelters. As you can see, these four cats were so interested in this specific basket that they all huddled in together. At least they aren’t cold!
I have a love hate relatioship with these cats. On the one hand, they are kind of cute (well, some of them are definitely mangy, but a few are cute). On the other hand, I don’t like dodging their poop or being restricted from walking down the section of sidewalk immediately in front of our building. I’m also convinced that the solid gray cat is going to bite me every time I walk by. That gray cat definitely gets the most likely to attack award. Mostly I think I would feel better if someone came and fixed all the cats so we don’t end up with 37 or 82 resident cats in the coming weeks.
Anyway, the cats aren’t going anywhere. People around here like them too much. I mean, when you live in a city where it’s apparently perfectly acceptable for this lady to take her cat for a little trip across town on the metro, you know the cats are going to win.
Anyway, the cats aren’t going anywhere. People around here like them too much. I mean, when you live in a city where it’s apparently perfectly acceptable for this lady to take her cat for a little trip across town on the metro, you know the cats are going to win.