I loved this book when I first moved to the city, because Marcovaldo was very soulful and had a craving for a natural sort of life, and he sought it out in the nooks and crannies of the harsh city. For instance, in one of the stories (I believe - it's been a long time!) he finds a mushroom growing in the city and he gets very excited and tries to protect it as it grows. My favorite story, the one that has stuck with me over these many years and the subject of this long introduction, is called "The Garden of the Stubborn Cats". In this story, Marcovaldo befriends a cat near his work, and he starts following the cat around, seeing the city from the cat's point of view. This eventually leads Marcovaldo to the titular garden, the last free space in the city for cats to gather. There's not much too it, narrative-wise, but it's a lovely story. It's actually available online (maybe some grad student's translation?) here. And if you like it, I highly recommend the book, which I just saw is available new on Amazon for a whopping $2.60!
Which brings me to the real topic of this post -- my trip today to the Jardin Botanico in Buenos Aires. This park, perhaps the nicest in the city, is about a half-mile from my apartment, and it is the home to many abandoned cats. I had some time to kill today, so I did what I've done many times, and went over and hung out with the cats. I love to do this. I find it incredibly charming when there are cats lounging around a public place. Mind you, I like dogs just fine, but I wouldn't want a hundred stray dogs in a big park. A hundred stray cats, though -- it's kind of sweet.
I found two nice cats who wanted to be my friend today. There were actually many cats out today, but I got enough action out of these two, so I didn't go looking further. Here is the first cat:
As you maybe can see, this cat was very clean and healthy-looking. Perhaps it had not been in the park too long. Most of the cats are no doubt abandoned by owners, and some of them can get pretty scruffy. This cat was very pretty and seemingly healthy. Unfortunately, this cat seemed to be more interesting in doing the self-petting routine in my presence than in actually having me pet him. It's a strange habit of cats, something to do with spreading their scent, I guess. Anyway, this cat took off, so I focused my attentions on the other.
The second cat was also handsome in his own way. He had beautiful black fur, and seemed relatively clean. He was very, very skinny, though -- definitely not well-fed. And there was one other thing that you might notice if mr. black cat came up to you for a little pet -- he was totally missing one eye:
This was not a damaged eye, this was a missing eye. Like, a sunken, kind-of-puss-encrusted eye socket with no eye in it. So of course my heart goes out to the disadvantaged kitty, and I tried to be as nice to him as I could. These park cats tend to be a little wary though, so you often don't get to spend too much time with one before it slinks away. This one actually went away and came back a few times, which is how I managed to get the picture. Poor kitty -- I'm going to have to start bringing some food down there and feeding them. I hope I can find this one again.
I'm clearly not the only one who likes going to the park and hanging out with the cats. It's kind of heart-warming, actually, there seems to be quite a number of people who come to the park regularly to be with the cats, and sometimes to feed them.
And speaking of feeding the kitties, I saw a lady today who the cats really seemed to know. As I said, they're usually a little wary, even when there's food around, but not with this lady:
This was great, and I wasn't the only one who thought this was hilarious. A nice moment in our own little Garden of Abandoned Cats.
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