Meeting the locals

I take Neo to explore two local cat colonies' territory

A photo of a white cat with cream colored ears and a ringed tail between some ornamental bamboo. His tail is fluffed up, but he’s calmly sit between the bushes. His body is facing away, but his head is turned, looking at the camera. He’s wearing a white and brown striped t-shirt. A brown leash pokes through its back towards the camera

As you can see by his fluffed up tail, he certaily was excited to smell this colony's marking spots! This one is based around a little plaza between some buildings. There were various safe boxes (plastic chests modified to be cozier, with food and water inside as well as a bed) but.... I don't think this colony is properly registered, it all looked like things the neighborhood did, rather than the protocol stuff. I'm not too worried though, I think they simply standarized the management as if this colony was the same as the other one we visited, as it was remarkably close.

I spotted two cats, but Neo spotted none luckily lol I don't think he would've tried anything, as we have spotted cats before and he didn't care, but I prefer it like this because I don't know how the other cats might react, and I wouldn't want them interacting close range even if they didn't fight for fear of transmittable diseases.


A photo of a white cat with cream colored ears and a ringed tail sitting on top of a picnic table in a park. The winter Sun shines behind him on top of the trees. The cat’s wearing a brown checkers harness, and a collar with a golden badge

This one was definetely registered! There were message boards with the standard warnings and contact numbers, and well hidden safe boxes and special feeders. I didn't see any other cats this time, but I'm not surprised, as this one's territory is inmense! It spawns a whole park, includind a dog park, a planetarium/museum, many different recreational spots and little trails; though it's mostly centered around one area of the park itself.

Since this park has many tables and our building has zero sun at all times, I decided we should just laze about in one of the tables and get photosythesizing. He certainly enjoyed it, especially because we only got approached once and the man was very polite- he and I don't mind people approaching per se, but sometimes they're very rude, touching him without asking and ignoring his polite "no petting now please!" requests, so he and I are happier if we can just chill around by ourselves.

I've noticed people tend to approach me less if I carry him on my shoulders (as I did today) than if I wear our backpack, which is really weird to me? I would guess the backpack would imply to people the cat is simply being carried, as well as hide him a little.... maybe it's because they can sneak around me to pet him literally behind my back? I don't know, but carrying him on my shoulders is only comfortable for short trips, so there's not much I can do to fix that....