No cats!

„Do you have a cat? “, is what this poster is asking. Well, it seems like most Finns – at least the ones living in Helsinki – would have to answer this question with “no”.

In most other cities you always see some cats strolling around. Not so in Helsinki. Here you barely get to see any of those animals. The only time I ever got to see a cat here on the street was a few weeks ago. It was on a leach and walked by its owner. That’s another reason for me to believe that Finns are in general more dog people. And if they happen to get a cat by any weird circumstances they apparently try to train it to behave like a dog.

Asking a Finn why I don’t get to see any cats here I was told that first of all it would be way too dangerous for them in the city due to the traffic and second of all they couldn’t handle the extreme winter temperatures. Hundreds of cats in the streets of St. Petersburg – it has quite the same climate and the traffic in Helsinki is nothing compared to what you see there – clearly disprove those arguments.

This leaves me to the conclusion that cats probably just don’t fit the Finnish mentality. Being reliable, following the rules, carrying social responsibility as a part of a group - those are all highly appreciated values in the Finnish society and are all not really characteristics for a cat.

If anyone knows any other explanation, please let me know. Otherwise I will have to accept that Finns and cats are just not made for each other.