State of Affairs

Oh So Many cats out there this morning. My first spot on Parsells, where crazy Lisa was messing with my stuff a few months ago, there was more than the usual one kitty waiting for me. At my next spot just a few houses down, the Three Muscateers were waiting for me, as usual. One is very fluffy Black and White, looks EXACTLY like Sylvester the cat in the cartoon, the other is the opposite colors, and very fluffy. The third is a pretty little orange and white kitty. Then there is a beautiful very light, almost white kitty that has the same coloring as a Siamese with a collar that greets me each day. When I pull up to this spot, the three of them (not the red) come out from under a latticed porch in the front of the house, and run to the back to wait for me to bring them their cherished wet food, fresh water and dry food. I don’t know if there is a heating duct somewhere under there, because otherwise there are three very nice huts in the back for them, that I am not sure they are using.

Just around the corner on Stout is the black kitty that is not as friendly to me, and another kitty that is friendly, waiting for me. This is where I boarded the windows up of this garage with no door, that is detached from a vacant house on the corner, the same house that I called Animal Control and my police friend to check out due to a very friendly, overbred pit bull that had no shelter, water or food in the outdoors where it was kept. These scumbags moved out long ago and the house of horrors has not been occupied since.

Then around the corner is Talkie, Neck Wound kitty (I’ve got to think of a better name!), and Lucille. Talkie gobbles that water down – they need their water in the winter, as well as the summer. The water turns to ice in a matter of minutes in temperatures like we have now. So they gulp that fast. Bugsy has a habit of being there in the morning, and usually I plop him in the car and drive him around the corner to Hayward, but he was shy this morning and wound up running with my car all the way over to the next spot. It was very cute, he was keeping up with me while I was driving, running on the sidewalk next to my car. At this next spot was Boots, a black cat with tortoise markings, another kitty that hangs, but this time there was a white kitty too. Very dirty, but very friendly. There are three bowls here, and not enough to feed them all, so I went back to the car and got another paper plate and poured more food down for the white kitty.

Next is Baldwin, where I see at least one baby kitten, if not two. Its dark, and they hide until I leave. At the next spot is Webster/Ferndale, where I spotted the little white dog two mornings ago. No sign of him again, but I can’t help but wonder, what are these people living in a house that has a condemned sign on it. “not to be occupied’ or something like that. Does anyone know the city violations and what this sign means?

On Short, where there is a very nice shelter set up, I rarely see a cat inside, although one could be in the wooden hut there, but they usually go scampering out when I pull up.

I got to thinking…. If there were a shelter such as the one that Kristin and Darrin built, out of a coffee table, and the nice heavy wooden huts that were built by Bob, Kristin and Darrin, and my friend Mary’s husband Mike. They are sturdy heavy shelters that could house up two at least five cats. If these shelters were placed all over the city, and were kept up (i.e. keep adding straw to it each year ) by the communities, we would have better ‘living conditions’ for these homeless cats, instead of them under porches, abandoned houses, etc.

Each of the rest of the eight more locations I went to were pretty much uneventful except for on Sixth Street, I saw at least five young cats come scampering off the porch, where I have shelter set up. This is the same location from where I recently rescued Hercules, and Mr. Whiskers. I was glad to see that the shelter is being used, but so sad to see how many more cats there are out there. Each new one I saw this morning had no ear tipping, which means they are producing babies.

I seem to be running out of food by the time all is done each morning. There are more and more cats out there and something must be done. I will need help this spring to trap, neuter and return, and its going to cost money to do each cat. Lollipop’s grant that was extended to me last year is done. Each cat will cost $50 to neuter and get shots. But we must keep this up if we are ever going to get this problem under control.

"You may delay, but time will not."