Good morning, Riley

Closer, closer…

I think Riley either comes to our house very early or she spends the night here. Here she is, this morning, eating her canned food, at 4.30am. She is still treading very cautiously, which is typical of female felines. She ate the food and went out without exploring the surroundings. I’m trying to get her to feel more comfortable with the house first.

Riley has an amazing appetite, by the way. She can finish 1.5 cans of food at each feeding session!

For those who are new to this blog, Riley is a little street kitten whom I’ve been feeding from the street, to our porch and now, I’m trying to get her into our house so that I can eventually take her for vaccination and neutering. I’m not sure if Riley has a home in the neighbourhood, though.

Riley is best friends with Samantha, a adult female cat, who got pregnant and recently gave birth. Riley always hung out with Samantha and I was feeding both. Samantha most likely has a home down our road. I have rung the doorbell of the Rumah Yang Ada Banyak Kucing to ask about cats (with the hope of discussing neutering) but the occupants would not come out to the gate. They appear to be very private people.

Even in our old neighbourhood there was also a Rumah Yang Ada Banyak Kucing. His cats were allowed to roam freely but they were also not neutered. I approached the pakcik and offered to get his cats neutered for free (I would pay for it myself and take his cats to the clinic) but he was against the idea due to his personal religious beliefs. He said he would rather they just die on the road from accidents to reduce the number than to get them neutered. And yes, his cats often got run down by cars and he would say, “Good, at least there won’t be so many of them.”

Different strokes for different folks. For some, personal religious belief trumps all.

But we will continue to try and hope that compassion will emerge the winner one day.