(via iisabelle)
I hate to be a Debbie Downer, and the story about the white kitty is fucking awesome, but I just wanted to mention that if you’re putting out food for the stray cats in your neighbourhood, you’re probably worsening the problem. Animal populations are smaller when there is a shortage of food, and they have been known to reproduce at a higher rate when there is an abundance of food. So, by putting out food, you’re allowing more kittens to be born into what seems to me to be a pretty tough, miserable life of an urban feral cat. It’s tempting to want to feed them and I understand why people do it, but I think that doing so increases the total amount of animal suffering in the area. I guess it’s just one person’s opinion, though.
What would be even better for the feral cats in your neighbourhood, that would probably allow you to continue to feed them and not increase their suffering, is if you managed to get your hands on individual cats by trapping them, got them spayed and neutered, and then released them again. I think some cities have low-cost spaying/neutering services for this purpose, and those that don’t generally have vets who will charge you much less if you let them know what you are up to. If you did this with a few cats, it would probably offset any population increases due to feeding them. :)
I have 12 acres, and all of the cats have been spayed and neutered. I just don’t let them inside.
Sorry for my assumptions. I’m overly cynical about other people’s common sense. It’s a breath of fresh air to learn that I’m wrong for once…
