Cats have been roaming neighborhoods all across the world, both in search of food and for a mate. In my local neighborhood, cats are roaming wild, and I learned that this is true for many other neighborhoods around the globe.
But first of all, what are cats? Cats are warm blooded mammals that can be domesticated, which means they can be pets. They live up to 13 – 20 years if they are domesticated, 2 – 5 years if they are strays due to the exposure to predators, disease, and vehicle accidents. According to the Study International, “Cats can be great stress relievers. The simple act of petting a cat or being around one can trigger the release of oxytocin, a hormone associated with feelings of happiness, relaxation, and comfort.”
Thankfully I have my mom to consult for more information and this was what she had to say, “What I know about cats are that the cats are domesticated pets that love to be around humans, and humans get affection and love in return. Domesticated cats love to eat meat especially with fishy smell and for stray cats, they can eat live animals like mice, birds, and bunnies. They have their survival instinct to prey and catch. Also most of their time they spent their lives sleeping, playing around, and grooming themselves. There very curious and adventurous animals too. Also the cats are quadrupeds because they have four legs and they are vertebrates and carnivores. Domesticated cats are the descendants of the big cats. For the cats to relieve their stress, they like to play around humans, and they like to scratch at things.”
Cats appeared in Montenegro, where they were put in ships and were nicknamed “sailors” because they helped keep rats and mice away from the supplies and goods in the ship. In Montenegro, hundreds of stray cats live freely in Kotor all over the city. Kotor is known as the “City of Cats.”
So many cats live in Houtong Cat Village in Taiwan, as well as the Hemingway Home & Museum in the Florida Keys. In Ainoshima, Japan, there are supposedly more cats than humans! The British Museum in London has cats that practically work at the museum to keep away mice and other rodents!
Though many cats live in public places and towns, we don’t know why some of these locations are so filled with cats, which is why I also asked my father and this is what he had to say: “There are many cats wandering the streets because there are people who mostly raise them and then abandon them, then those abandoned cats breed and that’s why there are many cats on the streets.” Good to know!
