Pets in Hong Kong

 I am now in Hong Kong. Can anyone guess what this tiny cage is for? Well you're wrong. You see the people who live in Hong Kong are cramped. There are 7 million of them on a tiny island. Unless you are rich you live in a 400 ft. apartment with 8-12 people.( That includes parents and in-laws.) So they have no room for pets. They can't fit a dog or a cat in their apartment unless they get rid of the mother-in-law, which would have been my choice, but hey this isn't about me. Yet, they want a pet. So off I went today with my guide to the goldfish and bird market. There are streets full of all kinds of goldfish and innumerable tanks as the chinese love goldfish as pets. They also love birds in cages. They can hang from the ceiling and don't take up important floorspace. Some birds are exotic and the Chinese believe that they need walking. So today I went to a park where men carry their birds in cages for a bit of fresh air. The men who are crammed in a 400 square foot apartment also need air. Sometimes the birds like a picnic and to visit with other birds while the men play cards or mahjong. Problem -- the birds get hungry and like a live grasshopper for a treat. So the men bring the grasshoppers in these one inch cages so they can feed them live to the birds. Believe it or not I saw thousands of grasshopper cages piled up in stores for just this purpose. ( SEE PICTURE ABOVE. I BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW THIS WAS A GRASSHOPPER CAGE.) There are vats with maybe 5,000 grasshoppers in them and you pick the one you want, cage it, take it home, pick up you bird in his cage, go to the park and then feed it his grasshopper. All cages are reusable and everyone has an outing, picnic and fresh air.

 Takes all kinds, Cathy