Stray Cat Blogging

Back in December 2004, my fifth post on this blog dealt with the subject of cats in S'pore. S'poreans who live in "HDB flats" (which is most of the people here) are allowed to keep small dogs in their apartments, but not cats. The ruling has never made sense to me, and so S'pore has a small stray cat population. The cats live off of the generosity of people (mainly women) who will purchase cat food for the strays. (In the past, I've also seen rats eating the cat food - with the cats waiting their turn. Fortunately, the number of rats here is even smaller than that of the cats.)

I do love cats, but since I can't keep one at home, I do take the occasional picture of strays. This little beauty had its picture taken near a hawker center just south of the Bedok Community Library.

Cats

OK, here's the first thing that irritates me about S'pore...the fact that residents of HDB flats can't keep cats. S'pore is filled with stray cats, but instead of letting HDB residents keep the cats that they care for in their flats (cats are frequently fed by compasionate people), the gov't would rather cull those they find. (Small dogs are allowed in the HDB flats, but not cats!) This doesn't make sense to me. I think that a culture can be judged partially by how well they treat animals. In this regard, S'pore is flunking. PM Lee, are you listening? This is a small issue, but it's big in my eyes.