When Manila went into lockdown the street cats of Tagiug took over.
In 2019, I was living in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), one of the many barangays that make up the metropolitan monster of Manila, Philippines. At that time, BGC was one the fastest developing cities in South East Asia. Within four years of living there I saw six skyscrapers built, and another half dozen at varying stages of construction, within a two mile radius of my apartment. In February of 2019, construction stopped.
At the onset of the pandemic, the Philippines imposed on of the strictest and longest lockdowns on record. Everything stopped, including construction. The towering skeletons of would-be skyscrapers became high-rise dens for the multitude of feral cats that plagued the streets and alleys of Taguig. Without the roar of machinery and the constant presence of construction workers they were left unchecked for two years.
When the lockdown finally lifted in 2021, construction started back up with a vengeance, and the cats were driven out of their unfinished luxury apartments. But these were not the same cats who moved in. An entirely new generation of feral street-cat was born; raised amongst concrete and rebar, completely unafraid of humans. They took over the parks and parking lots, streets and doorways.
Now, they graze where they please, not at all concerned with their human neighbors.
We are nothing more to them but another animal grazing on the concrete savannah.
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