Spay to Play!

When Mrs. FlatBed and I moved to Parkside, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a stray cat. There was a mess of felines out back, and if you're like us, cat people, it's impossible not to take pity and feed them. And frankly, if we didn't, someone else would. Cats find the suckers, and there's a sucker born every minute.

We knew we had to do something. Bootsy begat baby bootsy and baby bootsy begat grandbaby bootsy and pretty soon we were knee deep in pussy cats. We called the ASPCA and they told us about TNR - trap neuter return. So we took the simple course, borrowed a bunch of their traps, and embarked on an adventure that's been extremely rewarding and we can't recommend it enough. If you dig cats and care about their quality of life, this is the only way to go. (To join the TNR Nation go here: TNR)

We trapped 13 cats, two squirrels and a raccoon in just 24 hours! Since we had more than 10 kitties, the ASPCA brought their mobile van right in front of our house. One by one the cats got snipped or spayed and a couple days later we released them back to the wild, save a couple that were clearly not wild. They needed homes and we saw that they got them.

Since then the ferals have become beloved residents of our garden and environs. They don't make babies, they don't howl, and they're generally just cute and goofy, though they still don't really want to be touched. Every so often another feral shows up and we have to deal with it. But cat's are colonic creatures, er, rather they like to live in colonies and ours are living out their lives in relative peace. The winter is tough on them, but the "dogloo" helps, and when they snuggle up with each other they seem to do just fine.

We won't lie. It was a lot of work and takes commitment. But if this is the kind of project you could really get behind, shoot us an email and we'll be glad to walk you through it. Or just contact TNR and soon you'll be a Trap Star. Tootles!