Window Meower

Window Meower surprised me Thursday night when I was on my way home. He was sitting in a wide-open window in an apartment on the corner of my block. Usually there are little kids in that window, watching the world go by, so it was fun to see a cat. It was crouching, but when I greeted it, it sat up and meowed at me. After I took a couple of pictures, it decided enough was enough and headed behind the curtain.

City Kitties Travels: Die Katze

So it isn't a real cat, but isn't this the cutest graffiti you've ever seen? This was near where I was staying in Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany last June.

Chinatown 貓

Ok, I have no idea what the title for this post actually says, but I googled a Chinese translation for "cat" and this was one of the first things that came up. Anyway, I saw this cat in October of 2008... a long time ago, I realize, but at least I'm finally getting around to writing about him! I think I saw him somewhere on Bowery because I had just met one of my friends coming from Baltimore on one of the Chinatown buses and we were walking toward the subway to go to my apartment. He was just chillin on the sidewalk next to an abandoned lot.

And just for giggles, here is another character I found for "cat:"

City Kitties Travels: The Nyack Napper

Yesterday afternoon my boyfriend and I rode our bikes up to Nyack, New York in Rockland County. On top of being a really quaint and beautiful town with lots of restaurants, shops, and nice views of the Hudson, Nyack also has adorable cats. Here is one, the Nyack Napper, who we saw sleeping on some books in the window of a bookstore. She is calico, so I can confidently state that she is, indeed female. I just make up the sex for most of the other cats on this blog...

City Kitties Travels: Gatitos Puertoriqueños

There is a strong Puerto Rican connection to New York, so I felt it is only appropriate that I share some of the pictures of the cats I've met on my trips to Puerto Rico.

As much as I LOVE kitties and other cute animals, it is important to remember that a lot of the cats featured here are strays. Like New York, Puerto Rico has a huge homeless animal population. The first time I went, I was very surprised at how many skinny dogs wandered on the beach, in the streets, and generally just followed me around. This is why it is important to adopt! There are too many cats and dogs that need a home to buy your pet in a store.

I was Sunset in Aguadilla this past January. My boyfriend and I decided to stop at a little rest area with a look out over the ocean off the highway to watch the sun go down and apparently Sunset had the same idea! She mostly kept to herself and didn't seem too thrilled when I tried to take a picture, so I left her alone.

We spent a night in Old San Juan and saw a lot of cats there, especially in one plaza where there weren't a whole lot of people. They were more friendly than Sunset, though the picture I got of one of them makes it look a little intimidating.

On our first trip to Puerto Rico, we stopped by Rincon because my boyfriend, a seasonal surfer, wanted to rent a board and check out the area's infamous surf. We didn't end up renting a board (long story!), but I did get a shot of the cute cat that lived at the rental shop.

And finally, here is a cat who lives at a shell shop in a boat in La Parguera. The owner of the shop is a diver who finds her shells around La Pared. She makes souvenir-like trinkets and jewelry out of them. Her cat tends the front of the boatstore while she smokes cigarettes (... why a diver would do that, I do not know...) and watches television in the back.

I can't wrap up a post about the Puerto Rican cats and the importance of adopting from shelters without a picture of quite possibly the cutest dog I have ever encountered. We were sitting on some random beach south of Aguadilla on the last night of our stay this year and this little dog just desperately wanted to be our friend. It sat with us the whole time. I would have taken it home with me if I could! And, for your enjoyment, the pic also includes my knee, grossly distorted in size by the camera. I guess it gives some scale in the picture so you can see how little the dog was.

Security Cat

This cat lives at the same pet store that Pet Store Kitties were, only Security Cat isn't for sale. He mostly sits in or around the doorway, watching people go to and fro on the street.

I always wonder how people get their store cats from running away through an open door. Scribble and Doodle have an obnoxious habit of running out of the apartment when I open the door and running up and down the stairs inside the building...

"Kitty Kitty"

Sometimes I stop by a building supply store in Chinatown to get things for work (e.g. goo gone... really useful product, by the way). A really cute cat lives there and spends most of its time sleeping on a box on the floor in one of the aisles. The store is so crowded with random things that I almost didn't even see him; he blended right in! When I asked one of the men working in the store what the cat's name was, he shrugged and said "Kitty Kitty?"

Once and a while when I walk by the store Kitty Kitty is sitting in the window. God only knows how he even gets to the window because there is so much stuff in the way!


Here is Kitty Kitty waking up from a nap on his favorite box: