Mamiyaroid 69

Street Cat Care

This will be my last dispatch from Taiwan. I leave July 10th and I admit I’m excited to return to New York City despite…you know.

Last week I went to an older female cousin’s house to help her feed the street cats she cares for. I said I’d help but I mostly took photos. I guess documentation is a form of help.

This is in a more rural part of Taichung with rice fields almost at the end of their growing season. It’s beautiful and I would have liked to spend more time there as it’s more walkable than where I stayed this trip but there is always next time!

The one negative about this day was a man roared up on a motor scooter and set loose his dogs to terrorize the cats. My cousin says he does that all the time and she doesn’t know why. Some people hate others caring for others no matter where they call home. (Most of the cats had been abandoned by neighbors and my cousin couldn’t stand to see them go hungry so she persists despite some minor hostilities. I’m proud to be related to her.)

Cats were born to pose

Mise-en-scène

Cousin and her granddaughter feeding the cats. She said she cares for about 20 in addition to her two house cats.

I loved this tiny pineapple. In Taiwanese the word for pineapple “ong lai” is a homonym for wealth coming.

At this section my cousin said I shouldn’t follow because there are snakes in the rice fields. Two snake stories: 1) One snake got into a fight with a cat and then the other cats backed it up and the snake lost. But then 2) A big fish used to live in the canal along this field but then a snake ate it.

A wider view to give you a sense of the rice fields.

Up close photos of the cats to give you a sense of their scrappy personalities.