Kitty Colonization
In Italy there is no such thing as the Humane Society, there is no public organization to keep, as Bob Barker says, “the pet population down.” There is Giorgio Armani on TV giving a gentle reminder to not kick out a pet while on holiday. That’s what the Italians do. House pets, cats and dogs, become street animals on a whim of escaping responsibility.
Cats were esteemed by the Egyptians as gods of fertility. Looking out from my comfortable stone stair I see no less than ten cats. Ten cats seen. Ten cats unseen. For an Americans the problem is simple, get them spayed or neutered. That would coast me, for the ten I see, €600. Added to the ten I don’t see that would be €1200. Let’s see what that is in American dollars: $1760. That’s no pocket change.
A neighbor said government funding was cut. But if The States can afford it, why can’t Italy, older and wiser? Too attached to their image; street cats, hungry and expanding, must be part of it.
I feed the cats. Another neighbor came by the other week to complain. She wants us to put a litter box in the front of the house. She thinks this will solve the problem: cat shit in flower pots, cat shit in the street. I feed them and in doing so take ownership to some responsibility, but I can’t solve the problem. The vet can’t solve the problem. Nature can help to solve the problem but there are more strong than weak.
The answer: Let them breed! Let kitties swarm every nook! Cute, lovable, fuzzy kittens! Tourists snap photos on the stairway as sour-faced, life-hating neighbors glare. Kitties kitties everywhere!
Kitty Colonization is part of the regular Fridays in Bracciano series. Thanks for reading!
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