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- Aug 4, 2014
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I’m so sick of people, and I just need to vent to others (or just to a safe abyss) who I know understand, because no one in our real life would, and if I have to hear the overpopulation of homeless cats be referred to as “the cat problem” one more time, I’m going to scream.
It is not a cat problem. It is a people problem.
People made cats an invasive species all over the world.
People refused, and still refuse, to spay and neuter their cats.
People advocated the culling strategy even after research confirmed it only exacerbates the issue by creating a vacuum effect, and that there was a more effective, more humane, and more affordable alternative.
People adopted that cute little kitten and then abandoned it the moment it wasn’t cute anymore or became too inconvenient.
And people are the ones threatening and trying to stop those of us who give so much of our time, money, energy, emotional labor, and space in our homes actually trying to fix it.
It’s not a cat problem. It never was.
Cats didn’t put themselves in this situation, we did. These cats are victims of circumstances borne of human error, ego, callousness, carelessness, ignorance, and apathy.
We created this problem. Only we can fix it.
But some humans are so hell bent on not only evading this responsibility, but actively sabotaging those of us who are trying to do something about it.
Last November, I finished TNRing a massive colony for some folks and could finally start focusing on the two new colonies I had stumbled upon over summer.
I set out traps to start trap training them, and by the end of the week, I had very unexpectedly relapsed from a chronic illness and couldn’t even feed them (boyfriend had to take over).
By January, I was in the hospital. I spent most of January - May in the hospital. During the summer, I was still bed bound, tethered to an IV pole and air tank, receiving home infusions every few weeks, and on over 40 prescription pills a day.
And that colony I was just about to TNR over winter? They went from 7 cats to now over… well, I couldn’t even tell you (most are black and indistinguishable), but I’m guessing over 20.
But a couple months ago, I was finally mobile again. I was on blood thinners and oxygen during a pandemic with a virus that really does not bode well for those two things, but hey, I could finally TNR!
So, we TNR’d our first two from the colony, and trapped 5 out of 6 of the new kittens from the last two litters. They were a bit older and more intensive to socialize, however, all but one has come around now.
But in the two weeks I was trying desperately to trap that last one, I resorted to withholding food (something I only rarely ever do when trapping), and as I headed home one night after checking yet another empty trap, I saw him - in my headlights, laying on the ground, his broken body flailing around.
I jumped out of the car. It was Thursday, the male we had TNR’d weeks ago, the one we were closest to in all of our colonies.
He died there in my arms, as I held him and bawled my eyes out, collapsed in the middle of the street as cars drove around me.
These cats never come into the street. They always stay in the woods. And I couldn’t help but feel that the only reason he’d left the woods was because he was searching for food since I didn’t feed them that day.
We had him privately cremated the next morning.
A few days later, an unknown neighbor drove by as we were feeding and screamed obscenities to us.
So now we get up at 4:45 AM every day to try and avoid whoever that was.
Not long after, at another colony, we see a sign posted on the fence - “Please stop feeding the stray cats. If you continue to do so, I will trap and relocate them.”
I wrote back kindly explaining what we were doing with the cats who were there long before we were, and described how the colony had already gone from 8 cats down to only 2-3 (with one pending adoption once we TNR and socialize, as a neighbor really wants him) by spaying all the females there, adopting out the kittens and two of the adults, who we socialized. I told them we strive to work with neighbors and encouraged them to please contact me with any questions or concerns. I taped the note on top of theirs.
Two days later, the notes were gone. It’s been two weeks, and I still haven’t heard from them.
Do they understand now and are they okay with it?
Did someone else entirely remove the note, so the original person never saw?
Are they still planning to trap this whittled down colony?
I have no idea. But I think about it every day.
Then comes last week.
We notice an ongoing diarrhea problem (previous stool random samples came up clear) with the cats/kittens in the house getting worse, so we send out some more fecal samples.
Turns out, one of our populations (10 cats) has coccidia, and another (9 cats/kittens) have giardia. Never a dull moment.
Later in the week, we find a colony at a gas station. Turns out, they’re in trouble.
An employee at the gas station had been feeding them and was threatened with her job to stop. Management has supposedly called animal control.
We are these cats last hope. Not only must we take the three kittens (and possibly a newborn litter), but we must also take the four adults and relocate them to our house colony.
We have 24 cats and kittens in the house (most fosters), so the only room to contain the four adults in will be the bathroom. We’ll integrate the kittens with the ones we trapped a few weeks ago.
In the meantime, we are feeding and trapping. But unless the employee who was feeding them is working, we can only feed them after the gas station closes after 12 or 1 AM.
So, we feed (and trap) at 12 or 1 AM at the gas station, then get up at 4:45 AM to feed our other colonies, then spend the day disinfecting the house in between work. It is as much of a cluster as it sounds and more.
Then yesterday, I noticed an entirely new cat at one of our colonies too. Luckily it’s likely a boy given the ginger coat, or at least I hope.
But then this morning happened.
We were feeding one of our normal colonies, and I heard it. “Mew, mew, mew.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. My vision tunneled, and I felt a sudden need to kick up a liter on the air tank strapped to my back.
How did we miss it? We were looking for this, it’s why we trapped the female we did here last month.
Another litter, still young. Who knows where, they sound young enough that I probably won’t see them for at least a couple weeks.
But for whatever reason, it was the straw that broke the camel’s proverbial back.
I had a meltdown today, followed by a pretty comprehensive shut down.
I don’t know how we’re going to get through this.
If this problem people created wasn’t already bad enough, the fact that people are actively - and sometimes aggressively - trying to stop me from fixing it, and also forcing me to shoulder the responsibility for at least 7 more lives just because they and their customers can’t be bothered with the sight of cats, well, that’s just the nail in the coffin here.
And if any of you have actually stuck around to read to this point, I know you understand. I know you do.
I feel so alienated from other people these days. Even friends and family, who I can’t breathe a word of this to, lest I must tolerate everything I’ve said here being written off and minimized by “crazy cat lady” rhetoric for the hundredth time.
People don’t get it. People created it, contribute to it, make it worse or just look away from it. But they don’t get it. They don’t even try to.
And as always, the buck stops with us. The very tiny minority of us who care and take responsibility for others mistakes.
The problem is with the cats,
and we’re just a bunch of crazy cat ladies.
I suppose saying those things is infinitely easier than actually doing literally anything about it.
Here’s a little cat tax to end this depressing post on a happier note:
Five more lives saved.
It is not a cat problem. It is a people problem.
People made cats an invasive species all over the world.
People refused, and still refuse, to spay and neuter their cats.
People advocated the culling strategy even after research confirmed it only exacerbates the issue by creating a vacuum effect, and that there was a more effective, more humane, and more affordable alternative.
People adopted that cute little kitten and then abandoned it the moment it wasn’t cute anymore or became too inconvenient.
And people are the ones threatening and trying to stop those of us who give so much of our time, money, energy, emotional labor, and space in our homes actually trying to fix it.
It’s not a cat problem. It never was.
Cats didn’t put themselves in this situation, we did. These cats are victims of circumstances borne of human error, ego, callousness, carelessness, ignorance, and apathy.
We created this problem. Only we can fix it.
But some humans are so hell bent on not only evading this responsibility, but actively sabotaging those of us who are trying to do something about it.
Last November, I finished TNRing a massive colony for some folks and could finally start focusing on the two new colonies I had stumbled upon over summer.
I set out traps to start trap training them, and by the end of the week, I had very unexpectedly relapsed from a chronic illness and couldn’t even feed them (boyfriend had to take over).
By January, I was in the hospital. I spent most of January - May in the hospital. During the summer, I was still bed bound, tethered to an IV pole and air tank, receiving home infusions every few weeks, and on over 40 prescription pills a day.
And that colony I was just about to TNR over winter? They went from 7 cats to now over… well, I couldn’t even tell you (most are black and indistinguishable), but I’m guessing over 20.
But a couple months ago, I was finally mobile again. I was on blood thinners and oxygen during a pandemic with a virus that really does not bode well for those two things, but hey, I could finally TNR!
So, we TNR’d our first two from the colony, and trapped 5 out of 6 of the new kittens from the last two litters. They were a bit older and more intensive to socialize, however, all but one has come around now.
But in the two weeks I was trying desperately to trap that last one, I resorted to withholding food (something I only rarely ever do when trapping), and as I headed home one night after checking yet another empty trap, I saw him - in my headlights, laying on the ground, his broken body flailing around.
I jumped out of the car. It was Thursday, the male we had TNR’d weeks ago, the one we were closest to in all of our colonies.
He died there in my arms, as I held him and bawled my eyes out, collapsed in the middle of the street as cars drove around me.
These cats never come into the street. They always stay in the woods. And I couldn’t help but feel that the only reason he’d left the woods was because he was searching for food since I didn’t feed them that day.
We had him privately cremated the next morning.
A few days later, an unknown neighbor drove by as we were feeding and screamed obscenities to us.
So now we get up at 4:45 AM every day to try and avoid whoever that was.
Not long after, at another colony, we see a sign posted on the fence - “Please stop feeding the stray cats. If you continue to do so, I will trap and relocate them.”
I wrote back kindly explaining what we were doing with the cats who were there long before we were, and described how the colony had already gone from 8 cats down to only 2-3 (with one pending adoption once we TNR and socialize, as a neighbor really wants him) by spaying all the females there, adopting out the kittens and two of the adults, who we socialized. I told them we strive to work with neighbors and encouraged them to please contact me with any questions or concerns. I taped the note on top of theirs.
Two days later, the notes were gone. It’s been two weeks, and I still haven’t heard from them.
Do they understand now and are they okay with it?
Did someone else entirely remove the note, so the original person never saw?
Are they still planning to trap this whittled down colony?
I have no idea. But I think about it every day.
Then comes last week.
We notice an ongoing diarrhea problem (previous stool random samples came up clear) with the cats/kittens in the house getting worse, so we send out some more fecal samples.
Turns out, one of our populations (10 cats) has coccidia, and another (9 cats/kittens) have giardia. Never a dull moment.
Later in the week, we find a colony at a gas station. Turns out, they’re in trouble.
An employee at the gas station had been feeding them and was threatened with her job to stop. Management has supposedly called animal control.
We are these cats last hope. Not only must we take the three kittens (and possibly a newborn litter), but we must also take the four adults and relocate them to our house colony.
We have 24 cats and kittens in the house (most fosters), so the only room to contain the four adults in will be the bathroom. We’ll integrate the kittens with the ones we trapped a few weeks ago.
In the meantime, we are feeding and trapping. But unless the employee who was feeding them is working, we can only feed them after the gas station closes after 12 or 1 AM.
So, we feed (and trap) at 12 or 1 AM at the gas station, then get up at 4:45 AM to feed our other colonies, then spend the day disinfecting the house in between work. It is as much of a cluster as it sounds and more.
Then yesterday, I noticed an entirely new cat at one of our colonies too. Luckily it’s likely a boy given the ginger coat, or at least I hope.
But then this morning happened.
We were feeding one of our normal colonies, and I heard it. “Mew, mew, mew.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. My vision tunneled, and I felt a sudden need to kick up a liter on the air tank strapped to my back.
How did we miss it? We were looking for this, it’s why we trapped the female we did here last month.
Another litter, still young. Who knows where, they sound young enough that I probably won’t see them for at least a couple weeks.
But for whatever reason, it was the straw that broke the camel’s proverbial back.
I had a meltdown today, followed by a pretty comprehensive shut down.
I don’t know how we’re going to get through this.
If this problem people created wasn’t already bad enough, the fact that people are actively - and sometimes aggressively - trying to stop me from fixing it, and also forcing me to shoulder the responsibility for at least 7 more lives just because they and their customers can’t be bothered with the sight of cats, well, that’s just the nail in the coffin here.
And if any of you have actually stuck around to read to this point, I know you understand. I know you do.
I feel so alienated from other people these days. Even friends and family, who I can’t breathe a word of this to, lest I must tolerate everything I’ve said here being written off and minimized by “crazy cat lady” rhetoric for the hundredth time.
People don’t get it. People created it, contribute to it, make it worse or just look away from it. But they don’t get it. They don’t even try to.
And as always, the buck stops with us. The very tiny minority of us who care and take responsibility for others mistakes.
The problem is with the cats,
and we’re just a bunch of crazy cat ladies.
I suppose saying those things is infinitely easier than actually doing literally anything about it.
Here’s a little cat tax to end this depressing post on a happier note:
Five more lives saved.
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