Trapped Cat

Trapped Cat
Originally uploaded by Oliver Leveritt

There are a LOT of feral cats in our neighborhood. Every time a female goes into heat, the night-time hollering, howling, and wailing is enough to drive a person out of one's mind. Sleep is an impossibility. The start up at around 11:00 p.m., just when you ting you are asleep, and carry on for a while. then, they start up again around 5:00 a.m., when you want that last little bit of sleep. They destroy an 8-hour sleep, turning it into a 4 or 5 hour sleep. That gets old after a while.

Now, compound that numerous times with the presence of many, many female cats. On the other hand, there is the issue with the male cats. Some of them probably belong to residents -- people who don't accept responsibility for their animals, leaving their tom-cats to roam the neighborhood at night. The toms fight. They compete for the females. The holler and howl. They "talk" to each other face-to-face, sounding like a child who is being mercilessly beaten. They destroy sleep and sanity.

So, I trap cats . . . and take them to the animal shelter. . . . and hope for sleep. I also wait for the day that tom-cats don't piss all over my motorcycles in the process of marking their territory. When they do, it ruins the clear lacquer on the wheels. Cat pee can destroy most anything, it seems.

If you have a cat, neuter it. There are too many cats running around. It is estimated that there are half a million (give or take 100K or so) feral cats in this city. That's too many, by a loooong shot.