Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Kittens are great, but...


...this is frustrating! You know how thousands and thousands of animals are euthanized because of overpopulation? People are irresponsible pet parents. Isn't it a maddening and frustrating situation?

The people next door... OK, first of all, they haven't grasped the concept of adopting a pet and making a commitment to it for the rest of its natural life. When they moved in, they got a dog. A big old barky mutt. A few months after that they got a cat, a little feisty stinker that we got really attached to (after all, we were taking care of it more than they were... feeding, visiting, and putting on Frontline for flea infestation). The dog was kept in the fenced back yard, but the cat received no care beyond having some food thrown onto the driveway. He was not neutered or given shelter.

After about a year, the dog got "stolen" (riiiight) and the cat disappeared, neither to be seen by us again. At almost exactly the same time, a new dog showed up, a Pomeranian which they leave outside a lot (even in bad weather!! a little fluffnutter!! what are they thinking?), even letting it run through the snake-infested back alley.

Shortly after that... TA DA!!! Another cat!!! This is a girl kitty, and she had sex in our yard a couple of weeks ago, so I'm thinking "Oh no, just what this neighborhood needs. More kittens that will grow up to be un-fixed roaming cats". Well, we just found out that she already HAS a litter of kittens over there and they are pretty good sized now (I wonder if the second litter will prompt a visit to the vet? What's more likely is that she will eventually get "stolen" too). grrrrr.

5 comments:

Coeur Mechant said...

I hope your irresponsible neighbors aren't parents. It's bad enough they can't take care of their dogs or cats.

Blueberry said...

Oh yes, they are parents! Another thing worrying me is that the neighbors one more house down are nearly as bad if not just as bad. We are raising one of their neglected rejected cats now. His lack of care equalled abuse. What I'm worrying about is it looks like they may be taking one or two of these kittens. They already have a big black lab, 2 cats that came from a mother cat they used to have (she disappeared one day), and a houseful of kids.

Anonymous said...

Hello my friend! This post got me steaming. It's heart-breaking, like the cat we've got trouble with because he's unneutered. Pedigrees you can understand, sometimes, but moggies - I love moggies, I would not part with mine but the world needs less, not more, as you rightly point out.

Blueberry said...

Heartbreaking is right, especially if they keep living with those people. The little guys have already discovered the joys of our yard and we are attached to them. I should have kitten pictures posted for cat-Friday. I hope they get some good homes eventually... a fool's hope.

Ptelea said...

We cat lovers can only take in so many kitties before their quality of life (and ours!) begins to suffer. "Millions of Cats" was one of my favorite books as a child. I always wondered what happened to the millions not taken in my the old couple.