This morning on my way to our apartment, I passed DCU’s cat, sitting in the snow. She’s a longhaired black and white “Sylvester” type. I petted her for a little bit, then she followed me to the building. And I let her in. It was freezing cold outside and I felt sorry for her. I figured it wasn’t so bad, since I’d seen her perched on the steps inside our building several times before.
I’ve always had a soft heart for cats, and it seems like I fit in just fine in Ukraine. Cats are everywhere, both running around outside like stray dogs, and in unusual places where you don’t expect to see them. For instance, the DCU cat. I think her name is Masha. Her home base, as far as I can tell, is the DCU cafeteria. In the kitchen, with the cooks. I’ve seen her rubbing against their legs as they stir the borsch and slice the bread. No one seems to worry about the cleanliness or health issues that might, in other places, accompany a cat’s presence in the kitchen. She occasionally wanders through the dining hall, but never begs for food. I suppose she gets her fill from the cooks’ scraps.
What gets me is that in Ukraine, you don’t just see pet cats in people’s houses. A few spots we’ve spied them: the bakery near the auto market - according to the owner of the cat there, kitty can tell when the pastries coming out of the oven have meat in them or not. (I don’t know how she signals this knowledge) At the state university - while finding my way to a session during an English-teachers conference, I glimpsed a cat darting down the hallway. In the airport - This was the most quintessential Ukrainian cat sighting yet to date. Upon returning from MCC retreat in France this summer, as I walked through the baggage screening area in the Dnieperpetrovsk airport, there, perched on its very own chair next to the human luggage screener, was a calm-looking tiger cat, doing its part to oversee the luggage traffic. Maybe a drug-sniffing cat? A note: Dnieperpetrovsk is a city of more than a million people, and although their airport is not what I would call classy or particularly modern, it is nonetheless a hub of international transport for central Ukraine. And yet, the cat has access. If only I could own a cat in Ukraine, then I could fit right in. Unfortunately, DCU’s apartment rules state that the only pets we may own must be contained in a cage or bowl. But even these rules don’t keep the cats out … our neighbors next door have a beautiful little kitty, and a family downstairs just purchased a kitten for their kid’s birthday …Laura
