March 04, 2004
We woke up this
We woke up this morning to an extremely pungent odor of male cat. We have a male outdoor tom cat (Kramer) that disappeared last year, and was gone for several months. When he showed up again recently, we could hardly believe our eyes. He was huge, and had certainly fared well -- wherever he had been all that time. Well, it didn't bother us that he was back. We have had nothing against him -- you just can't pet him or anything. He's not even a "pet", really. All we do is feed him when we feed Tipper -- our ancient outdoor male (fixed) cat. Tipper didn't care. He just eats, and then naps the rest of the day.
But now that Gammie (our indoor female cat) has gone into heat, he must have noticed. I guess he thought the prudent choice would be to spray the entire underside of our house -- especially near the ventilation ducts so we would all be aware of his existence. And I think he must have sprayed the outside of the house by the doors and underneath the front porch as well. So it has been almost unbearable to be here today -- almost as bad as when skunks get under the house.
So now I come to a very controversial topic. What does one do with nuisance animals? It becomes very foggy in these times of "animal rights" activism. Don't get me wrong, I love animals. But sometimes there are those animals that are way more trouble than they are worth to keep. The answers used to be simpler. If you read older books, you realize that these problems are not new. Here is an excerpt from L.M. Montgomery's Anne of the Island:
"We must get rid of him," agreed Anne, looking darkly at the subject of their discussion, who was purring on the hearth rug with an air of lamb-like meekness. "But the question is -- how? How can four unprotected females get rid of a cat who won't be got rid of?"We must chloroform him," said Phil briskly. "That is the most humane way."
"Who of us knows anything about chloroforming a cat?" demanded Anne gloomily.
"I do, honey. It's one of my few -- sadly few -- useful accomplishments. I've disposed of several at home. You take the cat in the morning and give him a good breakfast. Then you take an old burlap bag -- there's one in the back porch -- put the cat on it and turn over him a wooden box. Then take a two-ounce bottle of chloroform, uncork it, and slip it under the edge of the box. Put a heavy weight on top of the box and leave it till evening. The cat will be dead, curled up peacefully as if he were asleep. No pain -- no struggle."
At that time, it was perfectly acceptable to chloroform a nuisance animal. It was a fact of life. Now you would probably go to jail for it. But how is it that shelters can kill a huge percentage of the animals brought in, and that's okay? How is that any different?
But I personally see no point in taking a cat to a shelter. Dogs are a different story, of course. But Kramer obviously can survive quite well in the wild. Actually, most cats can unless they've been de-clawed. So as much as it may irk someone to read this, Kramer has -- shall we say -- become part of the "Kitty Relocation Program".
Posted by 2Flower at March 4, 2004 10:39 PM | TrackBack