cats don't belong here

the woman is told that cats are not allowed as pets in hdb.

she remembers reading something like this on an expat website and presumes it misinformed as it sounds ridiculous. she even laughed at the misconceptions ang mohs have about tight-assed singapore. but now she hears it from the officer at the town council.

the woman is calling town council about the people who came round to investigate the complaints about stray cats. she wants to know what they do with the animals that are rounded up if it ever comes to that. the officer is sympathetic enough. it is the town council's job to investigate complaints but it is a grim detestable job rounding up cats and they rather not have to do it. so they hope crusading cat-loving people like the woman will clean up after the cats, sterilise them and keep them out of the way of crabby cat haters.

i wonder if people appreciate the irony here. so hdb cat lovers gets to own all the responsibilities but not the pet. so when is a cat a pet? i would assume if you feed it, care for it, it is a pet. presume they mean to draw the line at keeping us as indoor pets. the reason being, cats cannot be kept indoors, they tend to roam and cause nuisance to residents. so the solution is to keep them all outdoors and roaming. i'd like to pick that brain.

Streats Cat Welfare Society Asia Homes Wild Singapore

i am a cat illegally kept in a 3-rm hdb and have no power or influence whatsoever on anyone about this mind-bloggling policy. in fact, as a cat, i have a case against myself as an easy pet to keep. La Idler is much too kind to say that after spaying (sterlising) we don't go for walks, caterwaul and we don't drool. period. well s/he hasn't met me, and i have been spayed twice.

if we sneak into your house uninvited, caterwaul, fight, give you the evil eye, please remember that we are just being our god-given selves. if we are particularly errant, please remember that even for humans, a neglected life makes anyone a little paranoid and a little desperate.

i have a great home and am well fed, but i am not dead. i don't do many of the things that strays do but i have a natural curiosity and i protect my territory because after all i am a cat. i drool because i am old and can't always control my facial muscles.

fromhell strikes the right note. you build the city the way you want and we are stranded in it. cats have no natural habitat. star tortoise can at least claim the indian semi-desert or forest as their rightful home. so if you must blame someone for our detestable existence, blame the eqyptians for domesticating us back in 4000BC.

or the people who dump their pets on the streets. especially them.

i never thanked the uncles and aunties enough for leaving food out for strays those long days i spent on the streets. they help keep us sane. i remember an auntie getting an earful from this guy who claims that she is attracting more and more cats into the neighbourhood and thus more noise/mess/trouble.

if i had the words i would tell him that if auntie did not feed us, we would not quietly go away because cats have all available urban territories covered. there are 80,000 of us out there. we will be hunting, scavenging and fighting for survival and that is much more trouble than he can imagine. worse, more of us get diseased.

of course, many cat haters would like to see us rounded up and culled. i say culled because what are the chances that we are claimed or adopted? even if there are irresistable cats in our demographics and gene pool, hdb rules out 86% of the population as potential adopters. thankfully, culling is a danger word in the govt's vocabulary. the govt been there done that during sars and was rewarded with scathing local and international press for an uncompassionate, unprogressive singapore. Sydney Morning Herald Singapore Veterinary Association CatSite.com

but the woman remains paranoid that there might be discreet ways of getting rid of cats because no one keeps track of us.

she can't understand how someone can love their families and not have compassion for the rest of humankind. how they can love their kids without an ounce of sympathy for living breathing animal life. love is compassion and empathy. if you can extend to one why not to all. of course, humans are limited and naturally selective and can spread their love only in varying degrees. but an about-turn calls into question the quality of the way the person loves. it tells you the person expects returns on their love and so it is bestowed only on those that directly benefit their lives.

another sterling example of Singapore's apathy towards animals Singapore Govt Strikes Again Noah’s Ark Natural Animal Sanctuary (NANAS) now resides in Pekan Nanas, Johor.