Judging from this scene, its probably not a good idea for us to introduce another cat to our household.
And no, its not that there are two many pictures of them on Facebook. (There are, but thats a discussion for another time.) My husband and I have owned cats for over twenty years (2 different ones); theyve always been kept inside, although the first one was briefly allowed to sit on t he roof of the third floor apartment we had at the time.
It wasnt until we bought out house that I noticed the rather large number of cats who were either free agents or had owners who let them loose in the neighborhood. We often find them skulking around our pond, begging near the front door or sometimes even trying to get matey with our cat (as shown above). The actual animals themselves dont bother me that muchI feel sorry for the ones who seem hungry or neglectedbut it has to be said; cats and gardening dont mix. At all. While urban dogs are walked, supervised, and (mostly) picked up after, urban cats treat the world as their litter box. In my small garden, it can be very annoying, and recently, Ive been trying different things to keep them out. First, there was a sonic device that didnt seem to do much. I also have a movement-activated sprayer I may hook up this spring. Finally, Ive thought of just trapping them and turning them in. (Thought of it, havent done it .)
The problem in Buffalo is serious enough that the city is actually convening a cat task force. Animal advocates are suggesting that rounding up unowned cats and getting them spayed/neutered, then releasing them would be part of a solution. Personally, I think people should keep their pet cats indoors. And I became even more convinced of this after readingas many of you must havethe recent reporting on how many birds cats kill per year. Depending on which study you readheres another oneit can be up to 4 billion a year, killed by a combination of feral and domesticated animals. Thats a lot of birds and there are even more small mammals. Its enough to cause extinctions, according to a number of studies. This is not the natural way of things; basically, an invasive species has been translocated by humans worldwide with predictable results.
Theres nothing new about the data, but other than the trapping and neutering idea, no one has come up with a solution. Nobod y wants to see species disappear; nobody wants to kill cats. I doubt the situation will be addressed in any serious waybut I hadnt realized how big of a problem it was.
Oh yesand as with everything, there is a funny way of looking at it!
Via: The cat problem
