The communal cats of Singapore
Many apartment complexes in Singapore have communal cats that are fed by people who live in the various buildings. You’ll often find residents sitting at tables with benches in the open air communal areas on the ground level, feeding the cats and playing with them. These are the communal cats of Singapore.
How this cat hides from sun
It gets warm and sunny in Singapore, and the communal cats have a few favorite spots around the apartment complexes. On my morning commute which takes me through the parking lot to the bus stops on the other side of the road, I usually see this cat curled up in the shade of some motorebikes.
Sometimes I come home and see this cat, or its twin, laying on the tile of the pathway, hiding again but this time from the afternoon sun.
How this cat hides from rain
This is one of the biggest cats I’ve ever seen in my life. (S)he must be about 2+ feet long and a food wide…Also, this hole in the wall is around the height of my head, about 5 feet!
Big cat in a small hole
Walking out of our apartment building in the mornings, I would pass by him lounging on a bench or on the tables. I gave this cat the name of “king” cat, as he seemed to preside over the whole complex. He had a haughtiness to him that seemed to give him an even bigger presence than his size already gave him.
He’d look over at me lazily, like he couldn’t bother to pay me any mind. On this particular morning, it was pouring. Not so bad that I couldn’t go to campus, but heavy drops coming down pretty fast anyway. I walked through the open air elevator area of the building next to mine and stopped when I saw the King cat resting in the cubby hole in the wall. Wondering for a moment, I’d never seen him move quickly but he must have jumped quite gracefully to get up there.
After a while, I stopped seeing this fellow around the buildings. I don’t know what ever happened to him/her, but I’ll always remember how shocked I was at seeing such a large cat. A cat that probably never thought about me twice.
