Kitty Cat Survival Mode

The preferred pet here (by those wealthy enough to have one in their home) is hands down a dog. There are two that live here at the villa. They sometimes fight (?) outside our apartment at night. I mentioned this to our landlady and she explained that "one is a woman and one is a man" and this happens only at certain times of the year. I asked if she had ever considered having them spayed or neutered and she looked quizzically at me as if she had no idea what I was talking about. I tried to explain....oh, just never mind!

I have been told that there are veterinarians here but they mainly see dogs. Cats are a different story. There are MANY cats here in Bandung, but none that appear to be anyone's pet. They literally live and feed out of the garbage. And that is something that is never in short supply. Oddly enough, most are not as skinny as one might imagine, but few of them are sporting a complete tail. I have asked several locals about this but so far no one has been able to explain if this is done to them on purpose or if they are all victims of some type of freak accident. Hmm...

Needless to say, these cats are all wild. It's safe to say that vaccinations, spaying or neutering is definitely not the norm. I have noticed that the cats on our street are pretty much the same ones. Perhaps they are territorial and each has its own garbage dump it calls home?

Surprisingly, some do not look as mean/wild as you might imagine. I suspect it is because there are SO MANY PEOPLE here and they are all outside all the time, so cats are used to people around them all the time. Still, I can't get in very close to photograph them as they will always jump and run when I begin my approach. The Center for Disease Control for Indonesia warns visitors against petting stray animals because most of them carry disease (no surprise there) and if you do get scratched or bitten by a wild animal, they urge you should seek immediate medical attention.

perhaps you can see bird on left side of container

Here's something kinda wild. A few weeks ago when we were at the Hindu cremation ceremony, I was photographing in a crowd of thousands of people. Each set of bones that were brought in had a live bird hanging on the back side of the decorative container. If the bird was still alive when they reached the animal where the bones were to be cremated, the bird was cut lose. There must have been some kind of significance attached to this act. Of course the poor little thing was so traumatized that it could only start flapping its wings to try to get its direction and make its escape. Who knows how long the bird had been hanging upside down by its feet, so it had to have been terribly disoriented (to say the least). One of the birds that was cut lose flittered wildly down into the crowd and scratched me on the arm, actually breaking the skin just a bit. In a crowd of thousands, what are the odds?? Remembering what the CDC website said, I poured water from Ronnie's water bottle over my arm; then I forgot all about it until just now. Thankfully, either the bird was not diseased, or the minor skin break was not enough to do me harm. Come to think of it, I do feel a little funny....