Sunday, October 3, 2010

Kitties in New Jersey

While New Jersey is an expensive state to live in, the actual area I was in last week is about as reasonable as you’ll find in the state. That meant my per diem for hotel was a measly $70 per night (I work on a government contract). You can’t find much for that price and so the best of the bad lot was the Days Inn in Bordentown.

Directly behind the hotel, the land fell away into a ravine with a creek at the bottom. It was pretty wooded and overgrown, plus people used it as their personal dumpster. It was also the home of at least three cats.

I saw them when I drove in and out of the hotel parking lot, and got slightly close to one of them before the rain drove me inside (the picture is from the hotel and I'm pretty sure that "feature" isn't supposed to be in the middle of a moat). But I didn’t get any kitty pictures; they were feral and wouldn’t let me get very near them. They were interested in me, and would stop moving away if I stopped moving toward them. I think the gray tiger with creamy blotches was the mother, although she had to be a pretty young cat herself. The other two were tuxedo kitties; those two were about the same size and smaller than the first, and all three sort of hung out near each other. They had tiny bodies with small heads, much like the feral cats I saw in Hawaii.


Our kitties bring Kent and me so much joy by living with us; when I see feral cats like these in New Jersey or the ones in Hawaii I get a bit sad. I can guess that someone somewhere dumped a cat who got pregnant by another feral cat and boom! You have a feral cat colony, living short lives, getting run over or killed by equally feral dogs or whatever and generally becoming a nuisance.

I don’t understand people who don’t get their animals fixed and I definitely don’t understand people who just dump pets somewhere else if it doesn’t work out for them. At least the person who dumped Wally and Eddie did so at our vet’s which gave them the chance to be found by someone who wanted them.

7 comments:

Jeanne said...

There are so many abandoned cats that it's hard to know what to do sometimes. When we volunteer at the shelter, it sometimes breaks our hearts that we can't bring any more home (we're at full cat territory capacity at my house). And when we don't volunteer, we worry that there's not enough help at the shelter.

Abandoning cats--at least around here--seems to be one remnant of old-time farm culture, where animals were only kept for what they could do for you.

Unknown said...

I don't get it either.

I also don't get that our neighbors have an indoor/outdoor cat. I literally watch it leave their house in the morning and go down into the sewer. Sorry. Nothing that goes in the sewer comes back into my house...if you want a pet, feed it and protect it. If you don't want a pet, don't have one.

Jeanne said...

Kevin, I don't really get people who could let their cats go outside but don't. Yes, inside cats live a longer life. But it's often less full. (And it's not like inside cats don't twine themselves around the rusty back of the toilet to see if they can drink out of the bowl.)

edj3 said...

I can't speak for your area, Jeanne, but Boston is a rough place for cats to go outside. I know people still let them out, but between the rats and the cars I don't think mine would survive long.

We had a cabbie who told us a truly sad story about his favorite kitty he got after his wife died. He saw the rat kill his cat (we both cringed hearing that story).

It's also partly guilt. I had a cat who picked up a virus he could have avoided. So yeah I get the whole let them go outside and roam around (we've done that in the past too). I'm just a lot more reluctant to do so any more.

Unknown said...

Well, and I really only have experience with dogs, and I'm very protective of them, as neither have any sort of survival instinct left in them. Our basset hound couldn't cut it, and our mutt is just not smart. So, I'll defer to cat people on this, but...no sewer and then back in my house.

I think it's like Elizabeth said, probably depends quite a bit on where you live.

edj3 said...

Your basset is sweet but yeah, no way Scout would survive.

Jeanne said...

When we lived near a metropolitan area, we had inside cats.

Here we give them access to the cat door after breakfast and call them in for canned food before dark, when the raccoons and coyotes come out.