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This is a section where I speak out for or against things that come to my attention that I think deserve a public comment.
To comment on the following opinions please email me. Use Speak Out as the subject so I won't accidently delete it as SPAM. |
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IT’S ALL ABOUT CATS
I have a lot of stray cats in my neighborhood. Actually, some of them are not strays but cats that their owners let out to roam. I have had cats since I was a child and I never let my cats out to roam. I figured the vet bills from such an action would break me. Sure, I have rescued cats from the Humane Society that seemed to want to go outside desperately and would try to bolt out the door whenever it was opened but, I made myself aware and used precautions to keep the cats in, assuming just maybe I could be that much more clever than the cat. Eventually, the cats gave up and relegated themselves to sunny open windows with screens. Over time, they realized that there was nothing outside that was worth the trouble and were content to stay inside. We always feed the birds and have cultivated quite a variety coming to the yard and I was somewhat concerned about the stray cats attacking the new aviary friends. Another of our neighbors two doors down –whom we refer to as the Gestapo (husband a whistle-blower cop and wife a current police officer who won’t speak to us or anyone else) actually brought suit against a neighbor across the street for their cat pooping on their lawn. How they could discern what cat out of the many in the neighborhood made the offensive mess is beyond me. Apparently, the husband began a campaign to reduce the stray cat population in the neighborhood by setting out animal traps and catching the cats. One night one of my neighbors let me know that the trap had caught one of the cats and that the (X-cop) neighbor had bragged to him that he was catching the cats and taking them to fields and killing them. I had had a few glasses of Pinot Noir and my adrenaline began to flow. I snuck into my neighbors yard, released the cat, and turned the cage around so that a message would be sent and no more cats would disappear. The perpetrator of this heinous act blamed the neighbor across the street and she was happy to not say otherwise when I told her the truth. That was the year when all the stray cats disappeared, but it hasn’t happened since. That brings us to my current dilemma. My next door neighbor has decided to let his 18 year old cat out for the first time in its life. The poor thing is skin and bones, the size of a large kitten, and pure black. It really never leaves our yard as far as we know, and comes to be petted and to purr around our legs every time we open the back door. She also follows us around as we garden. We have started feeding it twice a day and have ordered a flea collar for it. I called my neighbor, the owner, and asked what they were thinking about when they decided to let it out for the first time when it was so old. Unfortunately, the cat was so old that it wasn’t using the litter box anymore and the wife didn’t like that. The excuse was that the cat wanted out and would dash out to quickly for them to stop. The cat is so old that it trips over itself, I can’t imagine that someone couldn’t see it coming and stop it from going out. The owner said that if the cat being in our yard bothered us we should just spray it with the hose and chase it out of our yard. I don’t think he was listening when I told him we were feeding it and had ordered a flea collar for it. I have always had cats but, I recently became aware that I am allergic. I am patiently and lovingly waiting for my last 15year old cat to pass away and just have non-shedding dogs. I don’t want to take in a stray, even if it is my neighbor’s. I just don’t have the resources to take the cat to the vet and I don’t have the space to make an area where the cat can live with her “not using the litter” problem. We don’t know what to do. We can’t turn off our hearts and yet we are hopefully praying that she “goes to sleep” before winter hits. We are trying to adjust our thinking by knowing that our yard is filled with fragrant herbs and plantings that the kitty enjoys lying in. Perhaps she has chosen our yard to die in. Perhaps not. What do you think we should do? The owner of the cat doesn’t want it anymore. He has stated that fact. If anyone wants to take in a sweet kitty who only has a short time to live please let me know. |
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CEGUR LIKES ...... CEGUR DISLIKES
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