My Ideal Cat World

[crazy4strays]

I've been giving some thought as to what it would take to work myself out of a job. (I'm a cat foster mom)

Here would be my ideal world:

In my ideal world, there are no free roaming cats. Everyone's cat is a loved indoor companion and is spayed or neutered, unless engaged in responsible breeding or showing. Feral cats are unheard of, because nobody dumps animals. Because of nobody dumping animals, there are no abandoned cats either.

Every cat (and dog) has identification. The main purpose of Animal Control is to scan microchips (which are always kept up to date with current information) or look at tattoos or ID tags and send that lost animal home. The only sheltering that animal shelters do is for those lost animals and for any animal that had its owner suddenly die or get disabled. Because of the scarcity of cats to adopt, there is a mile long waiting list for those few cats and they rarely sit at the shelter for more than two hours before going to a new forever home. Other than these few cats that need rehoming, everyone else keeps their cats until the end of their natural lives. The cats get regular vet care, good food, clean water, and a happy healthy environment.

Animal hoarding is unheard of in my ideal world, because it would be hard to find enough stray animals to hoard and cats to adopt are so scarce.

The only other place to get cats, is responsible breeders and in my ideal world, there are no kitty mills. All breeders care for their cats and give them a healthy environment.



So, have you ever dreamed up your ideal cat world? Feel free to share.

 

[margd]

You've covered a lot of bases, there.  In my imaginary world, since there wouldn't be a surplus population of cats, cats would live much longer than they do presently!  

 

[crazy4strays]

I think that in my ideal world, every supermarket would carry premium canned cat foods at

 

[wafflesnomnom]

That there aren't 'cat' and 'dog' people and everyone loves all animals and no one responds with 'ew I don't like cats, why didn't you get a dog'. 

 

[crazy4strays]

In my ideal world, everybody would immediately pick up every free roaming cat they saw and check to see if they were an indoor cat that got lost. If the cat wasn't wearing a collar and tags, they would immediately drive it to the nearest vet to scan for a microchip.

 

[plan]

In my ideal world, everybody would immediately pick up every free roaming cat they saw and check to see if they were an indoor cat that got lost. If the cat wasn't wearing a collar and tags, they would immediately drive it to the nearest vet to scan for a microchip.

This is a good sentiment.

I know ferals have it tough, but I really feel bad for loved pets who got separated from their owners or lost, and their lives completely change. I'm no expert on these matters, but I can't imagine house cats have good chances without the hunting skills and general "street smarts" that are ingrained in cats who were raised wild from when they were kittens. They might not know about social hierarchies, how to interact with other cats, where to find food, how to find shelter. And all that on top of the loss of the people they love, their human friends who are no longer in their lives. It's awful.

There are always going to be strays, but I would hope that in an ideal world, everyone respects animals like cats and dogs, and as you said, would try to return them to their owners or find them a home.