I went down to the guardhouse to try Cindy’s WholePrey on Kelly this morning.
However, the guard had just fed her, so she wasn’t exactly very hungry.
Still, she eats the WholePrey! Good girl, Kelly. This is a complete food, it’s good for you!
I brought along a can of Cindy’s Original with Broth, tuna with katsuobushi, just in case. I gave her this too and she clearly prefers it.
After eating, we do our normal routine of playing.
Quite a majestic pose, won’t you say?
I thought Kelly wouldn’t be following me up the road since I’ve played with her at the guardhouse, but she still did, so I had to bring her up and do the usual routine until she settled down and knew it was time for me to go home.
She’s happiest being where she is.
While I was feeding Kelly, a food delivery rider passed by and stopped by to chat. He said he loves cats and his mother has 10 cats too, but all male (his mother doesn’t want any females as they would breed) and all her male cats were bought. I told him there are many kucing tepi jalan whom his mother could adopt too. Perhaps she could consider this, and he thought about it and said, “Ya, bawa balik, mandi kutu, ya?” I said, yes, he could do that, but I told him Kelly had no kutu at all. Perhaps it is the environment being clean and she gets plenty of sunshine daily. And I told him Kelly has been spayed. He asked how much it cost and I told him. He was thinking about it, which is a good sign.
But he did keep asking me to take Kelly home. “Kesian dia, bawa baliklah,” he said. I told him I’d already tried taking Kelly home to keep for a day, but she prefers to be free at the guardhouse. This is where we must be careful not to anthropomorphise – we humans might like to have a house to stay in, but some cats do not. They are happier being free in the natural environment. This is true of some adult street cats.
Take Gerald, for example. I’ve tried confining him for weeks (as long as 3 weeks, even) a total of four times. He just wants to be free in the outdoors.
The guard completely understands this, “Dia suka bebas, jangan kurung, jangan kurung.” That is what he kept saying when one neighbour tried to confine Kelly every night. That did not work out at all. Kelly was too afraid to eat, pee or poo. She was afraid of other cats too.
Kelly loves being an “only cat” in her environment. This is where she is happiest and we have to respect this.
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