Are there any Animals in the city?

Why yes. Indeed there are.

There are nice fat rats that make a good living on the garbage that people put outside their houses in heaps for the trash collector to come and get. And if they didn't look so big and mean and diseased with bubonic plague they might actually be cute.

There are the bats that fly around at night. There are birds. Mostly just city birds though, like the invasive house sparrow. These birds are originally from Europe but have managed to hitchhike with humans or escape captivity and have taken over the entire world.... except for Antarctica... they left that one alone. Who wants to live there anyways.? No offense Pengu.

Then there are the feral cats. A lot of cities around the world have a problem with dogs. Feral dogs becoming wild and forming packs and then turning into a pretty big problem for the locals. Thankfully people here love their dogs (my grade 4 class voted it their favorite type of pet!) and are wealthy enough to afford caring for dogs so there isn't a stray dog problem here. But feral cats is a different story all together.

I noticed the cats right away, during my first few days in my neighbourhood. Most people don't pay any attention to them and for the most part they try and avoid contact with people. I think to catch one with your bare hands would be a pretty mean feat. Overtime I have come to recognize the cats that consider my street their territory. The old orange and white tabby male is my favorite, he is dirty and limps and has one eye. So badass. But yeah, none of the cats here would be of a particular breed and none of the cats would win a prize at the Eastern Minnesota cat show.

Figure 1. A typical cat Felis catus from Surabaya (right lateral view).

This "typical cat" is white and orange. The grey-brown areas are to represent dirt. The cats here are nothing if not real dirty. I am sure that they do groom themselves, but its got to be tough sledding for them considering how dusty the streets are and that they basically live in garbage all the time.

All of their tails are shortened and crooked in some way. I am not sure if that is because the breed of cat that was introduced here from the Dutchmen's ships had a shorter tail or what, but they all have short tails and in most cases they are crooked, like they have been broken by one thing or another.

A lot of them have other scars like a missing eye or a chewed up ear. I am guessing that this is from a vicious cat fight over females, food or territory, or possible a tangle with one of those fat rats.

The cats here are also really skinny. Their ribs show and they are much smaller than the typical North American house cat. Probably this is due to their life style, who would grow really big on a diet of garbage? or really fat when your supplementing your diet with contaminated water?

They are also pretty skiddish and are on alert 24/7. Only once have I seen a cat splayed out in the sun on my driveway and as soon as he saw me coming he bolted. As such they have these really watchful eyes and some of them look really mean.