Cats in the Park!

Okay, cuteness alert here! There's practically no reason for this post except to show cute pictures of cats in a public park near my apartment. Except that I guess it is interesting that they have cats living in some of the parks here. Or at least in two of them.

This is the second park I've seen with a group of cats comfortably lounging around and apparently being fed. Earlier I posted one picture of the cats in Parque Chacabuco. But the Jardines Botanicos, the Botanical Gardens, right by my house has a much bigger group of cats. Here's a group of five cats all doing what cats do best -- lying around sleeping:


The cats in this park are almost an attraction. People seem to come by the park to look at the cats, and sometimes to feed them. There's a fence that runs along the sidewalk next to the park, and on any given weekend day, and sometimes weekday, you'll see one or a few people stooping down at the fence trying to pet the cats or feeding them. Here's one wondering if I've got any food for him:

As I said in my earlier post on Parque Chacabuco, there's something just charming about having these gorgeous little creatures lounging around in public parks. Certainly one aspect of that charm is that these cats are obviously fed -- they're not eating birds and mice. You sometimes see little trays of cat food left by the fence, and I think also that the people running this park may feed them in a more official capacity.

This park is just a sidewalk away from a big street, Santa Fe. Sometimes the cats go through the fence and hang out on the sidewalk, or, in this cat's case, on the benches:



And sometimes a cat is just plain cute. Click on this one to see the big picture, and look at how much this cat appears to be looking forward to a nice scratch. I did say cuteness alert, right?