Stray cats are all over the place in Thailand and some of them are less stray than others.
At my friend's apartment building there is a cat that has a string around its neck which i've been told indicates that the cat has been "claimed" or something and that it is not to be rescued or relocated. This can seems to be well looked after and because I fed it a couple of times it follows me whenever I go to my friend's building.
I do not know this cat's name and neither does my friend who lives in the building. He did tell me that it is well looked after, has a bowl of food at the front desk, and plenty of access to water. All the residents apparently give her a lot of snacks and stuff too and even though I am only here once in a blue moon she comes to say hello every time I am there.
When I was petting her this time I noticed a belly bulge. It could be pregnancy or it could be some food fat. I hope it is the second thing because it could end up being a problem if this one resident cat all of a sudden became a bunch of resident cats. I don't think the owners would be cool with the place being kind of overrun with mewing and Thai people are kind of known for having less than ethical methods of solving problems like that. I'm just going to try to stay positive though.
She has alarmingly beautiful eyes, don't you think? I find them piercing and lovely.
I have never had a cat as a pet in my life and since there are so many caretakers here I think this cat has a pretty great life. She has run of the house and everyone pays attention to her and once as I was leaving I saw that she was sitting on the front counter right next to the person who works reception, so I guess that indicates that everyone is totally cool with her being here and that is a good thing.
Thailand has a pretty bad problem with stray animals so it does make me happy to see that this one is looked after as well as it is. According to my friend she is the only resident cat and there is something like 50 apartments in his massive complex. That's a lot of snacks and attention, much more than it would get from just one household.
I just call the cat "meow meow" and I think you could call it anything and it would still approach you. BTW, "meaow" is the Thai word for "cat" and I will never not find that amusing.
Meow meow has a wonderful attitude but I still remembered to not give too much attention to the belly when giving scratches because I have learned my lesson from other cats in the past. They don't mean to hurt you, but for whatever reason they seem to bite and scratch when you rub their belly for too long. Maybe even more so.
So that's my entry for the "Crazy for Cats" contest in the community. I hope you enjoyed it!