Did I ever tell you about the cats that come to the living room window to spy on us and to tease Charlie and Gus? There are a few of them: fluffy grey cat, ginger kitten, fluffy black, fluffy grey-and-white, white cat. Fluffy Grey lives in the doghouse in our yard, at least part time; I have no idea where the other ones come from.
They're generally skittish, so I've never been able to get close to any of them. Today I got close to one, but it wasn't a happy thing- when I left the house today to go pay some bills and to get milk and bread, there was a dead cat lying on the path just past the gate. Fluffy Grey-and-White was just lying there, fur wet and matted, eyes glazed. It was a shock- not like it would have been if it were my own cat, but seeing anything like that makes me sad. And a little nauseous.
I went and got my errands done, and after lunch I went out to clean up. I forgot how gross rigor mortis is; things that are dead and stiff are creepy. Dead things should be floppy. I didn't see anything wrong with the cat until I picked it up (wearing a rubber glove, of course), but then I saw the blood all over the other side of his face. AJ thinks that the cat was probably out picking at the garbage by the road last night or this morning and got hit by a car, and made it as far as our house before he died.
You know what? This sucks. Not only because the cat died, but because he shouldn't have needed to eat garbage to begin with. There are a lot of them out there without homes, and it's our fault- not me and you personally, but people in general. People who don't get their cats spayed/neutered, and then the kittens end up on the streets. People who think that letting the cat get pregnant is a great way to teach the kiddies about "the miracle of life", or who (like one person I know of) have a female cat in heat who's driving them nuts, so they have her get pregnant to shut her up. I don't have the numbers on how many kittens a single un-spayed female cat can produce, but within a few generations, it's an insane number.
The problem's not hard to fix; it's getting people to get off their butts and do what's required that's hard. First of all, do like Bob Barker says and get pets spayed or neutered. If animal shelters weren't overloaded with strays, maybe they could even afford to offer low-cost spay and neuter programs. Secondly, people need to adopt more pets from the animal shelter/ SPCA. There are so many animals there, cats and kittens, puppies and dogs, who need loving homes. In fact, I'm going to suggest that pet stores shouldn't sell cats or dogs to begin with. Why? So many reasons, such as:
- Pet stores encourage impulse buying of living creatures that require at least 10 years (on average) of love and care. This is a decision that requires thought and planning; it isn't like picking up a Twix bar on a whim at the corner store.
- The sources are often questionable. I'm sure we've all heard about the horrors of puppy mills, so we won't go there right now. Those adorable puppies aren't generally coming from reputable breeders, and they don't usually have papers or family health histories.Breeding of purebred cats and dogs by non-professionals is almost always detrimental to the breed, as genetic diseases continue to be passed on. I'm sure there are exceptions in the pet-store world, but not many.
- Pet stores don't generally require that the animal be spayed or neutered after it's sold. This leaves the door open to the problems mentioned earlier, and to unwanted babies. The SPCA requires that an animal either be "fixed" before it goes home, or that the operation be done soon after. They reserve the right to reclaim any animals for whom this is not done.
- There are so many animals out there who need homes. Both of our boys were adopted as adults from animal shelters, and they're the best cats in the world. We're partial to getting adult cats because we know what we're getting and because they're less "adoptable", but there are always kittens available. Our friends got a pair of baby brothers from the SPCA a little over a year ago, and they've grown into great cats, too. And yes, they had the little snip-snip.
Gus and Charlie---->
I could say more, but this isn't even what I started out writing about. It just makes me mad when people are irresponsible with their pets... and then they or their offspring end up like poor fluffy grey-and-white out there.
RIP- Fluffy G&W, ????-2007
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