Feral and Stray Cats Problem

Eventually, winter will come. Adequate shelter and food are next to none then. Cats can, and do, die of hypothermia. 

When I was a little girl, and a stray cat came into our yard, my mother never said, "Love that cat." She didn't need to. My heart melted when I saw a helpless, hungry, thirsty, abandoned life. My first reaction was that I wanted to save the cat. I tried to feed, love, and help it because love came easy. Maybe because my walk to greet the cat was uninterrupted by adult words or actions telling me how or why I shouldn't bother with another life in need, especially a wild one. I was careful. I knew what "wild" meant—possible diseases. And there was getting attached. Strangers dropped cats off all the time. 

I never listened to adults regarding animals, which I now know can be dangerous. My experience does not mean you should go out and allow your kids to handle feral cats. I was a little mom in a way, wanting to nurture not just the animal but the necessary natural emotion inside me (maybe because I somehow knew I'd need more of it in an unkind world where love sometimes takes the backseat and hate is the driver). Love is health, I learned over the years. It is also accessible at any time and is infectious. It flows naturally like a river through an unguarded heart. And no matter how much we have of love, we will always want and need more of it; sometimes, when we give it out without receiving it, or when a beloved pet dies, the storage unit inside us feels like it will never fill up again. But it does.  

Since I was small, the cat population has soared, with tens of thousands of cats homeless with no shelter or food and a high chance of getting a communicable disease or being hit by a car. And hundreds of thousands are euthanized in the United States every year because they never find homes. We didn't get this having-a-pet thing right. We got it all wrong. It is not a myth that there is an overpopulation of unwanted pets in the area. Female cats come into heat every year from February to October. Please spay and neuter your animals. It is a critical part and the most humane way of controlling a problem that, if not addressed, leads to homeless animals who suffer. There are local veterinarian services that offer low-cost spay and neuter surgeries. As philosopher and professor Jeremy Bentham said in 1789, "The question is not, Can they reason? Nor, Can they talk? But, Can they suffer?" Suffering is physically painful when cold, hungry, or/and ill.