Best Cats of Koh Lipe Island: Father vs Son, Abyssinian in True Homeland, Village Beauties

May 2023 · 5 MIN READ

6.4882° N · 99.3079° E

I came to Koh Lipe, Thailand (April 2023), expecting to see a great variety of birds. Instead, I found the cat lovers' paradise...

Dad vs Son??

Passing by a resort yard, the two of us noticed a cat adolescent.

He was exploring and playing in the grass and we immediately started helping him in this venture:

Suddenly, an adult came out from behind the bushes of a nearby resort:

His scratched nose proved his fighting nature, and his posture was saying he was hostile as if our little ginger friend had violated the boundaries of his territory:

We were afraid for the adolescent but decided to watch what would happen, ready to intervene if there would be too much aggression.

The youngster took up a hunting position too but everything about him was demonstrating that he considered this collision was only a game.

The two of them looked so alike that we amused ourselves with the theory that they were dad and son, and we wanted to see how this drama would unfold.

This was what happened when the father ran up to the son:

They started spinning their heads like if they were shaking off water from them... (Could it be a strange form of the flehmen response?...)

Then, the kid fell into the grass in a playful way:

And the dad... Just look at his loving face, saying "I was an idiot who thought he was a threat, this is just a kid, moreover, he is my son!" 😁:

😁

All the dad-and-son line is fictional, we can't know if he was the boy's dad, not an uncle of an older brother, cousin, etc. But we can surely say that the hostile scene ended in peace and love, and that was adorable.

Abyssinian Cat in its True Homeland

I can imagine a dreamer who's asking themselves "what do cats in an tropical island in the Indian Ocean look like? Are they the same as in Helsinki or Beijing or they are something different?" If you are that dreamer 😀, I'll answer: I've visited such an island and witnessed everything. And look what I've found out. 🙂

A miniature girl hiding under a rusty motorbike carriage. A tabby which is already awesome but, look, it is like covered with ginger sand...

This reminds me the Abyssinian cat (wiki). And this is what wiki says about the origin of this breed:

The source of the name is not because Ethiopia, formerly Abyssinia, is thought to be the original home of these cats, but because the first "Abyssinians" exhibited in shows in England were reported to have been imported to England from there. Its true origin — according to genetic studies — is likely to have been the coast of the Indian Ocean in parts of Southeast Asia, and its introduction to Abyssinia (and others) was through colonialists and merchants stopping through Calcutta - wikipedia.org.

So, Koh Lipe is exactly the mentioned "coast of the Indian Ocean in parts of Southeast Asia"...

We've encountered another such ginger sand tabby cat (with a racoon-ish tail):

So, it could be that these cats has the same ancestors with ones that belong to the Abyssinian breed...

A hypothesis! 🙂

Village Beauty

We were on the way to jungle, passing by a small village in the morning

when a cat blocked 😁 our way:

It was surprising because usually we approach cats and not vice versa. And this one came to the middle of the road and spoke to us. 😀

It's so cool that Koh Lipe people treat their pets with such care and love. Look how clean the cat is, how she trusts people...

Ginger Darling

I quietly approached this pensive cat and took a photo of his profile... (It was at a small shop).

Soon, he noticed some slight motion or sound that disclosed me...

And finally he gave me this penetrating gaze, full of curiosity... And trust to the world...

-- Who are you, hooman? And what is your mission in the world?

😀

Another Village

We were walking through another village, ready to encounter an adorable cat any moment... 🙂

This one was found there:

A smokey girl that regularly polishes that sexy green corner, as you can notice. 😃

What blue eyes! She was chilling out on the sand resting in the deep shade while her friend was inside a hut lying down on the mat like a tropical princess:

Not an Authentic Cat Landscape Though

A toy-looking serious cat on Ko Lipe Walking Street

We spent only three days in the island, and met so many different cats. Though, I think this is probably not an authentic cat landscape of Southern Thailand, and I have a feeling that those Abyssinian-like cats could be natives... To get sure, I must visit a less touristy island in the same region... Maybe, this will happen this year, who knows...

And this one is a hostel cat. Not a villager at all, a socialite pampered by the attention of the hostess and numerous guests... We were sitting at a table on the veranda of lovely Sangchan Hostel with our packed backpacks near us, waiting for a ferry from Koh Lipe to the mainland, and I was entertaining myself by photographing this boy. 🙂