Vietnamese cats are mostly lean, short-haired, and look like they’ve seen things. They’re not the fluffy pampered indoor cats of Western Instagram. They’re street cats and shop cats and alley cats and temple cats. They eat rice and fish scraps and whatever falls off the table and they do fine. They’ve been doing fine for centuries.
In Vietnamese culture, cats are considered lucky. Mèo (cat) sounds like a word associated with prosperity in some dialects. In the Vietnamese zodiac, the Cat replaces the Rabbit (which is used in the Chinese zodiac). So while the rest of Asia had the Year of the Rabbit, Vietnam had the Year of the Cat. This makes Vietnam one of the only cultures in the world that gives the cat its own zodiac year. The most recent one was 2023.
“Having a bunch of cats around is good. If you’re feeling bad, just look at the cats, you’ll feel better, because they know that everything is, just as it is.”
5may26
I want to take them all home.