[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]Let me start with a relatively, or at least somewhat, easy topic. \u00a0 I’m a dog person, always have been.\u00a0 Matter of fact I’m allergic to cats so have never had one.\u00a0 But, as usual, things change. \u00a0I had a very large dog, 95 pound Rottweiler\/Shepherd mix named Buddy when I moved the townhouse that I live in now, I moved in 9 years ago.\u00a0 When I moved in, within a very short time, I became aware of the large colony of feral cats that were roaming around our complex.\u00a0 There were at least 10-15 of them wandering around and reproducing, the colony was growing at a crazy rate.\u00a0\u00a0 They were always in my yard, teasing my dog thru the window, and of course using the garden as a litter box.\u00a0 I started doing some research on the problem and what could be done about it.\u00a0 Needless to say I was very surprised about what I found.<\/p>\n
Cats used to have 1 litter of kittens per year.\u00a0 This has changed dramatically with the changes in the weather.\u00a0 Now they are having 2-4 litters per year, and in each litter there are on average 4-6 kittens.\u00a0\u00a0 One of my friends that has had cats for years has had several that actually had 6-9 kittens per litter so the 4-6 is low.\u00a0 And they can get pregnant as early as 4 month old.\u00a0 One article that I read said within 7 years close to 500,000 feral kittens are born each year, and I’m sure that this number is way low.\u00a0 When I looked at several of the SPCA website and others, the estimated population of feral cats in the us is about 40-70 million.\u00a0 Can you image that many wild cats running around.\u00a0\u00a0 It is a major problem.\u00a0 And it is one that we as humans are causing.<\/p>\n
Here’s the problem.\u00a0 People get animals thinking that they want the companionship.\u00a0 What people don’t think about is what that is going to mean in their lives.\u00a0 It is a huge responsibility.\u00a0 It’s nice to have the love of an animal companion, but it is a lot of work, and can be quite expensive.\u00a0 There is the cost of the purchase, then all the things needed ~ bowls, food, litter if a cat, flea meds, beds, treats, clothing if your that kind of owner, vet bills, and daily care to start with.\u00a0 If one is a traveler then there is the need to have them tended when out of town, which means either a sitter or taking them to a facility that does this service.\u00a0 This is just to start I’m sure there are other things that I’m forgetting in the moment.<\/p>\n
So after adopting the pet and getting them home guess what, it doesn’t work for the human.\u00a0 What do a lot of people do, they just dump them out on the street, into parks, along freeways, in all sorts of assorted areas.\u00a0 And even worse, unfortunately it is done before they get spayed\/fixed.\u00a0 What happens, as animals are apt to do, they hook up with others and start producing.\u00a0 Ergo, population explosion.\u00a0 This is especially true with cats.\u00a0 But it is also valid for other kinds of animals.\u00a0 I live by a park where I used to walk my dog.\u00a0 I’ve seen parrots, parakeets, ferrets, guinea pigs, rabbits and other assorted beings just dumped there.\u00a0 It is especially bad with the rabbits after Easter.\u00a0\u00a0 I guess people think its cool to have an Easter Bunny until you get it home, then its off to the park to get rid of it.<\/p>\n
Here is the reality.\u00a0 The animals are bred for pets, they are not wild, there is no food chain where the population is kept under control.\u00a0\u00a0 It is cruel to both the animals and the people that are around.\u00a0 So, what is to be done.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ve started in my little area with the cat colony.\u00a0 You do a trap and release.\u00a0 It takes some effort but I’m here to say that it works if you are willing to work at it, and there are many organizations that are there to help out.\u00a0 In my area it is Community Concern for Cats ( they are awesome ), and the Feral Cat Foundation.\u00a0 They will loan you the traps so there isn’t any cost there.\u00a0 You trap the animals, meet up with the group, they take them and get them fixed.\u00a0 You have to keep them inside for 3-4 days, then let them go.\u00a0 They can live out their lives which are usually only 5 years with the wild ones.\u00a0 It isn’t their fault that they’ve been abandoned and in my opinion wrong to murder innocent beings.\u00a0 I’ve gotten my colony down to 1 that has stuck around with me after the release and I consider her my companion.\u00a0 It’s taken 5 years but she is now friendly, lets us pet her to some extent, and is nice to have around.<\/p>\n
So, moral to this fairly long story.\u00a0 We as humans have a responsibility to the animals that we take into our lives.\u00a0 If you do adopt one and care for it, blessings to you.\u00a0 There are so many out there that need a home.\u00a0 Don’t go to breeders if you can, go to the various organizations that are trying to get homes for the ones that are out there.\u00a0 If you do adopt an animal and find that you just can’t handle it, be a responsible person.\u00a0 Please don’t just dump them.\u00a0 Get them to an organization that will find a new home.\u00a0\u00a0 Call the SPCA in your area, find out what rescue organizations that are around.\u00a0 If you do have a problem with the feral cat population start doing the trap and release.\u00a0 You can even get your neighbors involved and take turns, brings the community together too.\u00a0 Lets do something about it rather than turning your back, abandoning innocent beings, and leaving the problem for someone else to tend to.\u00a0\u00a0 Meow.
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Let me start with a relatively, or at least somewhat, easy topic. \u00a0 I’m a dog person, always have been.\u00a0 Matter of fact I’m allergic to cats so have never had one.\u00a0 But, as usual, things change. \u00a0I had a very large dog, 95 pound Rottweiler\/Shepherd mix named Buddy when I moved the townhouse that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"
Let me start with a relatively, or at least somewhat, easy topic. \u00a0 I'm a dog person, always have been.\u00a0 Matter of fact I'm allergic to cats so have never had one.\u00a0 But, as usual, things change. \u00a0I had a very large dog, 95 pound Rottweiler\/Shepherd mix named Buddy when I moved the townhouse that I live in now, I moved in 9 years ago.\u00a0 When I moved in, within a very short time, I became aware of the large colony of feral cats that were roaming around our complex.\u00a0 There were at least 10-15 of them wandering around and reproducing, the colony was growing at a crazy rate.\u00a0\u00a0 They were always in my yard, teasing my dog thru the window, and of course using the garden as a litter box.\u00a0 I started doing some research on the problem and what could be done about it.\u00a0 Needless to say I was very surprised about what I found.<\/p>
Cats used to have 1 litter of kittens per year.\u00a0 This has changed dramatically with the changes in the weather.\u00a0 Now they are having 2-4 litters per year, and in each litter there are on average 4-6 kittens.\u00a0\u00a0 One of my friends that has had cats for years has had several that actually had 6-9 kittens per litter so the 4-6 is low.\u00a0 And they can get pregnant as early as 4 month old.\u00a0 One article that I read said within 7 years close to 500,000 feral kittens are born each year, and I'm sure that this number is way low.\u00a0 When I looked at several of the SPCA website and others, the estimated population of feral cats in the us is about 40-70 million.\u00a0 Can you image that many wild cats running around.\u00a0\u00a0 It is a major problem.\u00a0 And it is one that we as humans are causing.<\/p>
Here's the problem.\u00a0 People get animals thinking that they want the companionship.\u00a0 What people don't think about is what that is going to mean in their lives.\u00a0 It is a huge responsibility.\u00a0 It's nice to have the love of an animal companion, but it is a lot of work, and can be quite expensive.\u00a0 There is the cost of the purchase, then all the things needed ~ bowls, food, litter if a cat, flea meds, beds, treats, clothing if your that kind of owner, vet bills, and daily care to start with.\u00a0 If one is a traveler then there is the need to have them tended when out of town, which means either a sitter or taking them to a facility that does this service.\u00a0 This is just to start I'm sure there are other things that I'm forgetting in the moment.<\/p>
So after adopting the pet and getting them home guess what, it doesn't work for the human.\u00a0 What do a lot of people do, they just dump them out on the street, into parks, along freeways, in all sorts of assorted areas.\u00a0 And even worse, unfortunately it is done before they get spayed\/fixed.\u00a0 What happens, as animals are apt to do, they hook up with others and start producing.\u00a0 Ergo, population explosion.\u00a0 This is especially true with cats.\u00a0 But it is also valid for other kinds of animals.\u00a0 I live by a park where I used to walk my dog.\u00a0 I've seen parrots, parakeets, ferrets, guinea pigs, rabbits and other assorted beings just dumped there.\u00a0 It is especially bad with the rabbits after Easter.\u00a0\u00a0 I guess people think its cool to have an Easter Bunny until you get it home, then its off to the park to get rid of it.<\/p>
Here is the reality.\u00a0 The animals are bred for pets, they are not wild, there is no food chain where the population is kept under control.\u00a0\u00a0 It is cruel to both the animals and the people that are around.\u00a0 So, what is to be done.\u00a0\u00a0 I've started in my little area with the cat colony.\u00a0 You do a trap and release.\u00a0 It takes some effort but I'm here to say that it works if you are willing to work at it, and there are many organizations that are there to help out.\u00a0 In my area it is Community Concern for Cats ( they are awesome ), and the Feral Cat Foundation.\u00a0 They will loan you the traps so there isn't any cost there.\u00a0 You trap the animals, meet up with the group, they take them and get them fixed.\u00a0 You have to keep them inside for 3-4 days, then let them go.\u00a0 They can live out their lives which are usually only 5 years with the wild ones.\u00a0 It isn't their fault that they've been abandoned and in my opinion wrong to murder innocent beings.\u00a0 I've gotten my colony down to 1 that has stuck around with me after the release and I consider her my companion.\u00a0 It's taken 5 years but she is now friendly, lets us pet her to some extent, and is nice to have around.<\/p>
So, moral to this fairly long story.\u00a0 We as humans have a responsibility to the animals that we take into our lives.\u00a0 If you do adopt one and care for it, blessings to you.\u00a0 There are so many out there that need a home.\u00a0 Don't go to breeders if you can, go to the various organizations that are trying to get homes for the ones that are out there.\u00a0 If you do adopt an animal and find that you just can't handle it, be a responsible person.\u00a0 Please don't just dump them.\u00a0 Get them to an organization that will find a new home.\u00a0\u00a0 Call the SPCA in your area, find out what rescue organizations that are around.\u00a0 If you do have a problem with the feral cat population start doing the trap and release.\u00a0 You can even get your neighbors involved and take turns, brings the community together too.\u00a0 Lets do something about it rather than turning your back, abandoning innocent beings, and leaving the problem for someone else to tend to.\u00a0\u00a0 Meow.<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ascorpionstale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ascorpionstale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ascorpionstale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ascorpionstale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ascorpionstale.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ascorpionstale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161,"href":"https:\/\/www.ascorpionstale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ascorpionstale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ascorpionstale.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ascorpionstale.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ascorpionstale.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}