Cats and dogs

Jill has asked another question (thanks Jill), this time about animals - prompted by the photos of the hostel dog I think. What is the attitude towards cats and dogs as pets?

Well I’ve seen both, the hostel has one of each (photo of the cat to follow). But attitudes seems slightly different to each.

Dogs tend to get a lot of attention, many are smaller breeds (although I’ve seen bigger dogs about), and often of the fluffy variety! Many seem to be treated like children, with coats and are often carried. I saw a lady sat outside a cafe with her little ball of fluff in a coat on the seat next to her, after she’d taken a bite from her lunch she offered it to the dog (photo on its way - I couldn’t resist!!).

Cats are a different matter, they are certainly kept as pets; you see them in shops and temples. But also there are hundreds of strays living in the bushes and woodlands of the parks - generally they seem to stay hidden, but you only have to look and you’ll see them.

These too are ‘looked after’, I’ve seen people feeding them, and when I went for a wander in the woodland in Beihai park yesterday in all the bushes there were loads of polystyrene boxes with bowls of cat food around - the cats were all off basking in the sunlight!!

I’ve seen many people in parks stop and ‘talk’ to the cats - and one man ‘stroking’ a cat with a big handful of twigs - the cat was loving it!!