It started with a Facebook wall post. I was writing while frustrated:
To the owner of the cat that continues to sit on my car at night: you should just know that her days are numbered, should I actually catch her up there. P.S. I know she’s the one who threw up a quarter of a frog on my car roof. I’m not happy. Soon, she won’t be either. She’ll be boxed up and headed to the pound. And no, I’m not sorry.
It resulted in comments from one end of the spectrum to the other. Many agreed with me. Several indicated that perhaps I need to lighten up. But here’s the deal: if you love your pet, why in the world don’t you care enough to keep it protected and inside?
Here’s some back story on this particular cat: she’s basically without a permanent owner. The person who took in this cat’s mother when she was pregnant kept this kitten, got her spayed and then left her with the house when this person moved in with someone else. The last tenant rented the house and inherited an indoor cat (which was sent to Animal Services), an outdoor cat and a dog. Who moves away and leaves pets behind?!
Now that tenant is gone and there’s a new one. This one inherited the dog and the outside cat.
The cat uses my car as a lounger. There’s constantly muddy or sandy footprints all over it. It leaves tiny scratches on my car.
There are people who don’t understand why I’m worked up over this. Frankly, I don’t understand them.
Since when did pet ownership mean that your animal was entitled to be a nuisance to your neighbors? If I wanted a cat to scratch up my car hood, I’d buy my own #$^&ing cat. If I wanted frogs thrown up on my hood…well, who wants that??
I have two dogs. They are inside except when I let them out to do their business. One dog- I say she’s from the wrong side of the tracks- loves to go on a hunt for partially buried cat crap if I don’t watch her closely. If people kept their cats out of MY yard, I wouldn’t have that problem.
My point is this: I love dogs and I own them. Or they own me. Whatever. But I realize that if my neighbors wanted dogs, they would get their own. They don’t need mine roaming their yard or keeping them up with their barking all night. I take measures to ensure that doesn’t happen.
I just wish other pet owners would do the same.
Bio: This is a creative outlet and soapbox for Lorrie Delk Walker where, at times, she has stuck her foot so far into her mouth, surely she has quashed any hopes of ever being elected to public office. Lorrie is a writer, avid recycler, small-time chicken farmer, SPCA foster parent and fan of all things Downtown Lakeland. Posts from Delk Walker's popular blog, Takes From the Delk Side, were added to the Lakeland Local archives and can be found here.
Worth just what it cost ya
9 months ago
I have deep scratch marks in the paint of my beloved Jeep from when a cat, roaming at a friend’s home, marked the inside of my wheelwell; and later that night, my dogs were literally trying to chew in the Jeep, to catch the varmint that left such significant scent.
The neighbor’s dog “marked his territory” in our home under construction a number of years ago, because our builder couldn’t barricade it adequately to keep her cats or dogs from spraying urine all over the interior.
I worked for a sage old vet with over 50 yrs experience in our county and city (and has the accolade certificates to prove it from the Pets Uplifting People program – which he started- and 2 county sheriffs, for his care of K-9 dogs). He said he never treated an animal who was run over by a car in its own yard. Admittedly, when Henry ran over our “Bear” in our yard, it died instantly. We all cried, children and adults in the family, as well as Henry.
Bottom line, keep track of where your beloved pets are. Terrible things happen to strays – whether their owners care about them or not. A friend’s husband was a circuit judge here, who was sternly adjudicating 2 hoodlums for “skinning cats” who were strays or feral cats.
“Any raccoon on the Eastern/Atlantic seaboard should be considered rabid” according to a sage infectious diseases physician, a previous boss of mine. How in the world can you protect your animals from exposure to rabies, if you don’t even know where they are part of the time?
If you love them, confine them, keep track of where they are and what’s happeing to the pets. If you don’t want them, take them to the pound, the humane society, or somewhere where they will, at least, be mercifully put down, rather than fed antifreeze, shot, run over by cars, or tortured.
I believe, God’ll get you for the way you treat old folks, children, and His lesser creatures.
Just my opinion,