Love Thou Some Animals!

I enjoy my mamak/tomyam stall jaunts, I would be lying if I said otherwise. I mean, what beats the odd roti chanai (or two) or nasi goreng usa with a cool tall glass of nescafe ais kaw right? There are moments when only these and nothing else hits the spot.

You go about the business of demolishing your plate of poison (seriously, roti chanai is bad for you, cardiologists often will tell their patients to lay off the roti to prevent return adventures to coronary land!), then you feel a gentle nudge at your pants leg. You look down and you see these pitiful eyes looking back at you, pleading for food. It does me in all the time, I often end up sharing a substantial portion of my food with the cats under tha table. Sometimes, I actually get some fried chicken or fish to feed them (if what I am eating isn't particularly cat friendly).

You see, I am an animal person (cats and dogs, and throw in some choice reptile) and I cant bear seeing these strays hungry.

I often wonder how is it that animals can be rail thin and starved despite living in the compounds of an eatery. How expensive can it be to feed these animals, I mean, what is the cost of 2 or 3 pieces of chicken or fish mixed in white rice (heck, they can even use the leftover bits, as long it is still good to eat) and offered to them. If nothing else, you would develop a symbiotic (not in the true sense of the word) relationship with the cat, take care of it, it will make sure you dont have rats/mice, or if you feed the stray dogs, it will watch your place for you.

I decided to stop by a mamak restaurant near my place and sure enough there were stray cats indeed. We frequent this place at least twice a week and thus my family has this easygoing relations with the Mapleyrs (did I spell that right? hmm.). Ordered my usual poison (no, not roti chanai, but chappati) and a Teh Ais. While eating this, a really mangy, flea-bitten, scar-ridden tomcat caught my eye. God, the cat looked nasty.

He was just lying there, minding his own sh*t, and faking cool, but he looked so hungry. I got up immediately and went to get a piece of fried chicken. Chose a nice big piece and got the man to chop it up into smaller manageable pieces. At my table I proceeded to feed the Tom and sure enough, he chowed down with gusto. I continued feeding him the pieces, removing the bony bits (bad for small throats and tummies) and suddenly realised I have created a small scene, some diners and the restaurant mapleyrs were like staring at me. I smiled them off (yes, nothing works better than a big smile to jar starers!) and continued with the task at hand. Just as the last piece was gone, another cat ambled by, a smallish kitten, yearling at most, and so went another piece of fried chicken being put to good use.

The mapleyrs had this amused look on their face when I went to get more chicken, but for me, I had to check the rising bile in my throat to bark at them for not feeding the kitties. Give it chicken, give them fish, give some meat. Come on, a mamak stall being a mamak stall, they had pieces of protein  that has warped and dried and no sane Malaysian would actually take it, so why cant they toss that bit to the cats? I must agree that feeding cats human food, what with it being seasoned with salt (cats dont really need sodium) and spices,  may not be ideal but those kitties are starving dammit! Feed them please.

It is often my rule to never come back to a stall/shop/eatery  that doesn't feed their stray kitties, to me it speaks volumes about the owner/operator-way too skinflint to even bother to feed a hungry animal. I was pleased to note that when I was leaving, the same fried chicken-chopper-man was feeding a different set of cats. Made me feel good to think that I may have, not inspired, but maybe just somehow, nudged him to do to the same.

The world isn't always a happy place, but I hope in my small insignificant way, in that moment I have made someone happier.

Love thou some animals!

P/S The photos are all not mine, and are used to illustrate my feelings.