Today's Video Link

The headline on this video states that "L.A. Crawls With Up To 3 Million Feral Cats." I'm not sure who arrived at that number or how and it does seem high to me. But it may be so and even if the actual number is a third of that, that's way too much…

VIDEO MISSING

The number of them I feed is two, down from a high of four. When people ask me why I do it, I tell them, "Because they're out there and they're hungry" and I wonder why anyone would ask that question. (Then again, I'm trying to not feed the raccoons that come around because a lady at the Animal Control Board — or whatever that department is called — convinced me that feeding raccoons was not in the best interests of the cats or even the raccoons themselves.)

I think it's great that people go out like the woman in that video and feed feral cats. I know another person who does it — a gent I've helped with donations a few times. I wish these animals didn't have to rely on the kindness of strangers. I wish the city would spend some dough on this problem.

Then again, I wish more that the city would do more about the homeless human beings.  We have three or four who routinely sleep on the sidewalk around the other end of the block I live on, and I occasionally see them rooting through my trash cans. Given how those people go largely without any official aid, I'm not surprised there's no civic effort on behalf of pussycats.

Something I don't think some people understand about feral cats: Every time I mention the ones I feed, someone writes me and asks, "Well, why don't you adopt them and bring them indoors?" Most cats cannot be un-feraled. I tried that with one and she was miserable, howling all night. Also, the aroma of her litter box practically drove me into living outside under bushes.

Bob Barker used to close The Price is Right by urging people to have their pets spayed or neutered — a tradition Drew Carey continues. That's a nice sentiment but the real problem is not the animals who are someone's pets. A cat kept indoors is not going to get preggo unless you arrange it. The problem is all those cats who belong to no one…who live outside. The two cats I feed are both fixed. I personally trapped one of them, took her in and paid to have it done. The other one has a notch in her ear indicating that someone else did it. Perhaps that's why I'm not feeding two dozen of 'em out there.