Cats and Dogs

Kathmandu is home to more street animals than I have ever seen before. Dogs sleep in the streets by day and roam wild at night. We are rarely out in the evenings, but when we are, it’s a bit scary, as there are more dogs than people on the street. Some dogs have nasty wounds, or are super thin. A lot of people have dogs as pets, and most leave them locked up outside at night. There is a part in One Hundred and One Dalmations where the dogs all talk to one another and relay messages across town. To the humans in the story it just sounds like a lot of barking. This happens here every night. If I can, I will try to record a conversation and post it. It is insane.

We have a family of cats that live on our roof. A mom, dad, and 2 kittens. One of the kittens has an eye infection, and we have taken to feeding them saucers of milk every day. The sick kitten is a lot smaller than his brother. We took him to the free street animal clinic the past 2 Saturdays, and have been giving him eye drops to clear the infection. He is very comfortable with us now, and comes for pets whenever we come to the roof for a visit. The momma cat will rub on my legs, but won’t let me pet her, and the other kitten is scared of me. They like hanging out, though, since they get milk from us. It’s no substitute for Oscar and Meeps, but it helps.

Last night the momma cat and kitten were meowing at our bedroom window looking for more milk. This morning I found them on the roof eating a bird that the momma had captured . . . so maybe they don't need so much milk after all.