The urban is a human-centric landscape, in which the natural ecology negotiates with human aspects of the space to survive.
Over the past 5 years of volunteering as a field nurse for stray animals, I have observed the condition of stray animals in varying typologies of spaces within the urban, ranging from gated communities, slums, to public spaces like railway stations, eateries, lanes bustling with food stalls, and such. If a Venn Diagram were to be devised to explain the distribution of space for animals and humans, they would almost be two separate circles. The infinitesimally small overlap is filled with series of 'nodes'. These nodes are where the vocabulary of the word 'stray' expands its realms to encompass events, items, persons as Strays, not limiting to the conditioned notion of a 'street animal'. The nodes include stray spaces (ones which are difficult to be occupied based on a human's ergonomics) like spaces under a footbridge staircase, under beds, on top of roofs. It includes stray humans, like street dwellers or a flaneur. These nodes are the ones we subconsciously identify when called for a case; a street dweller may help identify an animal, or our gaze reads through specific spaces where the animal might certainly occupy. These nodes are also the enablers, they serve as doorways/barriers which establish and make richer, the inter-species relationships.

Food procuring, spaces to rest, paths to walk across, all fight and flight decisions are taken based on human activities and interventions in the context. This aspect of the city, where the affordance of street furniture and objects, humans, activities, does much more than what it was designed for is the realm to focus on. The ecological parameter in the urban is grossly overlooked in construction and development. Growth of the city is articulated based on human needs, based on absurdly superficial understandings of 'success' and 'luxury', based on visual connotations of western architecture