Monday, June 8, 2009

As a trap, neuter, and release cat myself...

Hi. My name's Kasey and I'm a Trap, Neuter, and Release cat. Except then I found a home. I sometimes miss the olden days when I could rip a little bird like this one to shreds, and I'll never forget the cool sensation when I chomped through their bones. But I also remember the tapeworms and roundworms, the fleas and lice, and the cold and rain and fighting with other cats to get a nice safe sleeping spot. I remember running for my life from foxes and coyotes. I love being an indoor cat, and getting to knock around chess pieces and other toys to my heart's content without my very life depending on successful kills and the cheap dry catfood they set out that we're supposed to share with every other TNR cat around.

Inside, in my cushy life, I've learned that predators only thrive at the peak of the food chain when there are a LOT of animals on the lower levels. But these TNR programs subsidize us, turning what's supposed to be a food pyramid on its head. I can't help wanting to chase things. It's hard for me to remember that that White-throated Sparrow out there is not a chess piece for me to push around. So you've got to do that remembering for me. If you're really humane, your sympathy should extend to the birds we subsidized cats love to toy with, shouldn't it?

Look, people. If you care about cats and want to create a world that is really sustainable for us, for wild birds, and for you, take one or two strays in and encourage others to do their part, too. And read this: http://wildlifeprofessional.org/blog/

No one--least of all us cats--wants people to have to euthanize unwanted strays. But guess what. We cats are predators--lean, mean, killing machines. We can't help it. And so guess what--we understand death and accept it. It's what happens in nature. You deluded humans romanticize nature and think that just because we want to play outside, that we should be allowed to. But I don't see you letting your toddlers play outside unattended. Love us? Take us in and take care of us and protect us from toying with birds like so many chess pieces, or soon this planet will go all to hell and we'll all go down together. We cats aren't rocket scientists. But some of you humans are. It's time you started acting like the most intelligent species on the planet.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yea, then get right out there and kill all those cranes and nasty raptors.

Kasey said...

My, my, aren't you testy? First off, even when I was feral I wasn't stupid enough to go for a crane with that dagger beak, or a raptor with both talons and a killer beak! You nuts??

But you just don't get it, do you? When I'm full, I still love to toy with things, and bird bodies are not as sturdy as these chess pieces. When people fed my colony, I could get by even when there weren't any birds handy, but when they were, I was in top condition. I was a subsidized killer. Cranes and raptors kill for food, to keep themselves and their young alive. They don't play with their food.

I have to admit it. My ancestors were domesticated. I'm domesticated, even though I love to play Jungle Cat. Cranes and raptors and this White-throated Sparrow are wild through and through. It's not a game for them.