There're something like a million (? well, a lot of) wild cats in the Twin Cities.
One of them's been lurking in the unkempt bushes next door.
I've been feeding it cans of tuna.
Quite possibly it's entirely feral--it has a wounded ear and shows negative interest in getting warm and fuzzy with me.
I called the Humane Society, and they told me that in the summer, they handle seventy incoming cats a day.
70 x 90 days = 6,300 cats
They also told me the dreadful risks facing cats in the wild:
endless pregnancy for girl kitties; kitty AIDS; maggoty wounds following vicious fights; cruel children (say no more); etc. etc. etc.
If a cat has never been handled by humans, they said, it will never make a pet. Nor are cats equipped to live in the urban wild, unlike squirrels, and they only survive a couple years.
It is better, they said, to euthanize such vulnerable creatures.
If I would catch it in a live trap and bring it in, they would perform that service.
I am sure they're right, in the abstract.
If I were on the city council, I would ABSOLUTELY, 100% vote for a "round up and destroy wild cats" bill.
I'm not particularly sentimental (about cats); and I'm half-Sicilian.
But on a one-to-one, personal level,
I can't get behind choosing death for a creature I know, even if it is for its own good.
I suppose my mother's suicide comes into my thinking.
I understand I understand I understand why she did it; but I just can't say yes to death, if there's any other option at all.
Sometimes there's not. Believe me, I know that.
But here there is.
As of yesterday I named the cat Henry Rollins (though it looks like a girl).
Because it's wild and good and seemingly impossible to live with.
I hope to catch HR, take it to the vet, get it neutered & innoculated (fuck the money), and then release it.
Maybe it would hang around like a barn cat, living on my tuna, before it gets killed by a car or something. Anyway, it would have a fighting chance at life.
Maybe a bad life, but life.
__________
P.S. Turns out the city of Saint Paul does this with wild cats: Trap- Neuter - Release
