I commented on the large number of cats and dogs I noticed wandering around a European city and a woman said “we have cats like you have squirrels”. I thought that was an excellent point. The municipality takes care of the health of the cats (vaccinations, neutering, etc.) while the citizens feed them, or they snack on pests. It takes a moment to adjust to having friendly cats and dogs passing by on the street and parks and seeing how content they are. Once I got used to it, and trusted that the animals were covered by some kind of health-care, I have to admit it started to make the public areas seem more friendly and safer.