Soaperlol ([info]soap_committee) wrote,
@ 2008-05-07 12:07:00
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There's a random litter of kittens on our front porch, well-guarded by their single teen mom (seriously this cat is tiny).



She stares at me for a bit, I say GTG and walk around the house to go through a different door.



Glancing out the back porch window - I've been followed! She sat there for a few minutes until I came out to give her water and cat food. She's not terribly friendly, just hungry and cautious.......and I'm a sucker.

Past stray cat experiences have been unkind: The first was a white kitten who was dying of various conditions on our lawn. We took it to the vet, where they proposed a $300-400 bill that I couldn't possibly pay...so they pressured me to pay to put it down. I didn't know what to say, definitely not "NO let's let it suffer horribly for another day until it dies." SO they put to sleep. And then AJ and I got scabies.

The next was a very friendly stray that we liked a lot, and took to the shelter. The plan was, if she had no diseases and no one adopted her after a week or two (it would be a few months of holding her before putting her down), AJ's mom would take her. But after one week they euthanized her due to random a mistake of theirs. AJ's mom had to call her way up to the top over a couple of days to get an apology and an explanation.

Today I get upset when I think too hard about those two cats. Clearly, feeding a new set of strays is an RAD IDEA.

There doesn't seem to be much of an animal control here, I called several months ago and they don't deal with cats [edit: Rather, they only deal with threatening animals, despite the diseases an overpopulation of feral cats can bring - I dunno]. Does anyone know about this kind of thing?

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[info]whowasthat
2008-05-07 05:30 pm UTC (link)
AHHHHHH they are so cute!! She sounds like she's feral. We had kittens once at our front door and the mother was feral. Would let them eat but wouldn't let us come close. Eventually they went away. I'm not sure about animal control usually they will set traps and get them.

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[info]soap_committee
2008-05-07 06:42 pm UTC (link)
Hahah, your icon is awesome here

This county's Animal Control won't set traps themselves unless the animal is a threat. They said something like, "If you want the cats gone then you can rent a trap for 40 [or was it 20?] dollars a day, then bring them in." Gee golly gosh sign me up

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[info]dragontrap
2008-05-07 06:26 pm UTC (link)
An animal control that doesn't deal with cats? That's the first I've ever heard of that one.

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[info]soap_committee
2008-05-07 06:30 pm UTC (link)
It's actually that they won't trap for an animal on their own unless it's dangerous (like uhhh a bear or something). For cats, I would have to pay 40 dollars per trap, and even then I have to drive across town and back for it.

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[info]dragontrap
2008-05-07 06:31 pm UTC (link)
Wait..... You have to PAY for them to trap cats? Geeze talk about rip off....

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[info]soap_committee
2008-05-07 06:34 pm UTC (link)
Despite the severe overpopulation of feral cats in this area (many of which have diseases), they don't consider it enough of a problem to have the county to fix it. :/

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[info]dragontrap
2008-05-07 06:35 pm UTC (link)
~_~ I would bet to wager anyone else would think it WAS a problem. Sounds to me like your AC is in need of funding and finds that they can cut corners this way.

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[info]digitalwar
2008-05-07 08:11 pm UTC (link)
Well, just be glad they don't use the British solution and shoot them all.

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[info]soap_committee
2008-05-08 07:27 am UTC (link)
I went jogging after you said this, and then saw strays EVERYWHERE. On every doorstep, porch, yard, it was Where's Waldo except Waldo was everyone in the picture. T_T

No county-run programs will/can afford to trap and care for them, and while that solution sucks from the girly awww perspective...looking at it rationally, I see why that sort of solution was used.

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[info]rms_141
2008-05-08 06:33 am UTC (link)
Uh-oh. You need to break off contact with me right now, because this is my fault. Kind of.

You see, every cat I've ever owned--currently three, but there've been others in the past--are all either abandoned or were born in my general vicinity. My oldest was born when his mother walked into my grandparents' motel one day. My next-oldest was born at a hospital my mother used to work at, and we adopted him. The next-oldest was literally dropped off in front of our house; car pulled up, door opened, cat came out, door closed, car sped off.

So yeah, sorry, Soap. You now have to draw even more stuff to afford cat food. (And believe me, kitties can eat.)

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