Arizona, the Land of Cats. Part 2: The Bystander

You’re awakened every night for a week by yowling cats performing acts in your front yard from which you have to cover your toddler’s eyes. Despite the fact that you don’t own a cat, your yard has become a litter box. There are streaks of tomcat urine on your front door. And your car has little footprints and claw scratches on the hood. Is the neighborhood going to hell? Well, no. But your neighbor is feeding a colony of feral cats.

If you don’t like the cats around…

You’re not alone. Most of the neighborhood feels the way you do. And there are a few things you can do. But be aware that as long as someone in the neighborhood feeds the cats, you’ll never be completely rid of them.

Manage your property. Keep your property free of clutter. If the cats don’t find any place to hide on your property, they’re less likely to hang out there. To prevent the cats from using your yard as a litter box, experiment with different products. There are lots of cat-repellant products out there. Sprays are designed to smell bad to cats, discouraging them to come around. Garden spikes are small clear plastic spikes that you can cover your garden with to prevent cats from walking there. There are other tricks out there, so do your research and be prepared to put in some time. Some work for some cats but not others. You may have to try a few to find the right combination.

You’re allowed to humanely trap cats on your own property and remove them. But here’s the rub. No shelter will accept feral cats for free. Just as they’re a burden to your neighborhood, they’re a burden to the shelters, so shelters have started asking for funds to help with that burden. So call your local shelter before you start trapping to find out what the fees are. They may be too high for you to decide to trap all the cats and you may just decide to focus on a particularly troublesome kitty. You cannot take the cats out into the desert to release them. If you plan to release them anywhere other than to a shelter, you must release them into an environment to which they’re familiar. Basically, this means taking them to someone else’s neighborhood. While it solves your problem, it creates one for that neighborhood, which isn’t fair to them.

You cannot poison, shoot, or otherwise cause any harm to the cats. Squirting them with a hose on a warm summer day is okay. Drowning them is not.

Contact your city councilman. Or your congressman. Or the mayor’s office. The people who make the laws need to know that feral cats are a problem. Use your voice to make them aware of the problem. Ask for laws regulating the movement of cats. Maybe we need laws requiring that cats be licensed and neutered. Maybe we need laws that require cats to be indoor only, or contained to the owner’s property, like dogs. Government agencies are not likely to devote any funding to cats if they don’t have to. The only way to get them to respond to the cat problem is to pass laws that require them to respond.

No matter which side of the argument you find yourself on, remember that the other side exists. The cats are stuck in the middle of the human debate. So keep an open dialog going with your neighbors. Come together to develop a solution that works for everyone.

Arizona, the Land of Cats. Part 1: The Player

A feral cat. Image available from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feral_barn_cat.jpg.

In a state where cats are unregulated (meaning cats don’t have to be licensed, altered, or contained by their owners) cats have taken over many neighborhoods, leaving residents frustrated and angry. At least once every day, we respond to an ambulance call for a sick cat.

When we arrive, we find a feral cat suffering from severe upper respiratory symptoms. These include thick eye and nose discharge to the point where the cat can’t see or smell. This lack of sight and smell has led to a loss of appetite so the cat has lost weight and is severely dehydrated. Upper respiratory infections (URI) are extremely contagious to other cats, so there’s usually a significant portion of a colony that’s all sick at the same time. URI are like head colds in an elementary school. With a high concentration of bodies sharing a small space, disease spreads. And while URI is easily treatable when caught early in cats that can be handled, in feral populations it can be devastating.

The person who has called us to get the sick cat is on one or the other side of the argument. He is either the person in the neighborhood feeding the cats, thus encouraging them to stay around and new cats to arrive, or he is the grumpy neighbor of the person feeding the cats, and does not want any of the cats to stay around. Either way, as we pick up the sick cat (with a net, because even though these cats are sick, they still try to bolt and then bite) we explain the person’s options to him, which are limited.

If you feel the need to feed your neighborhood cats…

Realize the enormity of the task you’re about to take on. Like adopting any other animal, you’re making a commitment for that animal’s lifetime. There’s no such thing as feeding a single cat outside for a couple weeks and then stopping. That single cat will realize the good fortune he’s found, and he won’t leave. He’ll also call his friends, and they’ll come over for food like a pack of teenage boys. Other cats will sniff out the easy meal and they’ll arrive too. Before you know it, you’ve got a frat party of cats in your backyard, complete with fighting, sex, and poop on the patio.

Take early steps to prevent pregnancy. If you want to take care of the cats, get them fixed. Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) is a popular and common program available to trap feral cats, have them spayed or neutered, and return them to your property with a promise from you that you’ll care for the colony. There are a couple benefits of this. Obviously, keeping your numbers down is one. Another benefit is that the decreased levels of testosterone in male cats mean less fighting and territorial spraying on their part.

If you see illness or injury among your colony, address it. Trap the sick cats and either treat them or have them euthanized. Allowing diseases to spread amongst your colony is dangerous and unfair to those cats. It encourages predators to come in, because slow cats are easy targets for a snack. It also adds danger to your neighbor’s cats that go outside once in a while. And you don’t want to anger your neighbors.

Recognize that you’re neighbors may not love cats as much as you do. Take steps to minimize the impact that the cats make on their property. Put litter boxes on your own property to help keep cats from using your neighbor’s yard. Keep food and water dishes clean to prevent insects from invading. And be open to hearing your neighbors’ complaints. Courtesy begets courtesy. They’ll be much more likely to work with you if they know you’re sympathetic to their issues.

See Arizona: the Land of Cats Part 2, the Bystander

Desert Hiking for Dogs

While the rest of the country is still in the grips of winter, southern Arizona is quickly rushing through spring in a hurry to get to summer. This is the perfect time of year to be out hiking our many trails. In fact, our county’s mountain rescue team has been running nonstop for a week, rescuing people who, in their haste to enjoy the outdoors, end up victims of the outdoors, with injuries and illnesses born of too much enthusiasm and too little planning. So in the spirit of keeping all hikers safe, here are a few tips to keep your dog safe on the trails this spring.

Tip 1. Leash

You need to keep your dog on a leash at all times when on the trail. This not only protects your dog, but it protects other hikers, cyclists, and horsemen on the trail. Do not count on your dog being friendly and therefore being fine to greet every other creature on the trail. Many dogs are not friendly (which is why their owners have them on a leash). Many snakes are not friendly. And no cactus is friendly. Keeping your dog on a leash ensures that you’re aware of everything your dog may encounter.

Tip 2. Identification

Microchips are fantastic and I can’t sing their praises enough. But a good old fashioned ID tag will get your dog home much faster in case you happen to lose him. (This is much less likely to happen if you follow Tip 1.) People can see and read a tag and therefore call you immediately. Bonus: multiple tags rattle together and make noise. While this is super annoying at three o’clock in the morning at home, that noise may help you track down Fido in the desert, and may make wildlife nervous enough to stay away from Fido.

Tip 3. Water

In the desert, this is a life and death matter, for people and pets. Make sure you bring enough water for all of you. The recommended rate of water consumption for people in the desert is 8 ounces for every 15 minutes of activity. Plan on the same rate for your dog. Dogs may not actually consume that rate, but you need to take into account how much they’ll spill in the drinking process. Keep in mind too, that dogs don’t sweat, so it’s not difficult for them to overheat. Keeping their heads, ears, and bellies wet can help bring their temperatures down if they get too hot.

Tip 4. First aid

This can be region specific, so check with your local experts for the nuances of the area. Southern Arizona is a land of cactus and sharp rocks.

• Make sure your first aid kit includes tweezers or hemostats to pluck out large cactus spines if your dog gets stuck. Duct tape or medical tape works well to remove the pesky tiny spines that no one can see but that are nevertheless painful.
  

  My dog's feet protected by booties, held in place with duct tape.

• Duct tape is also convenient for making temporary booties for your dog. A nonstick bandage placed against your dog’s pad, rolled bandage material covering that and wrapping from the toes up the leg, and duct tape to finish tracing the rolled bandage can make a torn, burnt, or bruised pad comfortable long enough to get off the trail and to the vet. (Make sure that the duct tape has minimal contact with the fur to minimize the pain of removing the tape later. Only the top ¼ inch of the duct tape should actually stick to your dog’s leg.) Make sure to remove any temporary bandage booties as soon as you’re back at the trail head.

Tip 5. Common Sense

Use your head. Your dog’s is in overload so he won’t tell you when he’s had enough.

• If you’re on the first hike of the season, remember that your dog has been laying around the house all winter. He’s not in shape yet. Pick a trail that’s appropriate for your fitness level and his. Gradually work up to longer or more difficult hikes as you both progress.

• Know where you are. Take note of the trail name or number on which you’re hiking, and know approximately how far you’ve traveled or for how long you’ve been traveling.

Tip 6. Call 911

If you find yourself or your dog in an emergency situation that you can’t resolve, call 911. Emergencies include severe injuries or heat- or cold-related illnesses. They do not include you being tired and not wanting to hike anymore. If you can tell the 911 dispatchers where you are, then they can get the appropriate resources to you to help.

For more tips on staying safe in the great outdoors, see the Twelve Essentials at mountainrescue.org/education

Fools in Love

I recently had the chance to view an animal welfare worker from the outside. A woman kneeling on the sidewalk, hand outstretched, making kissy faces that I assume were accompanied by baby talk at a small terrier. The terrier appeared to regard her in a friendly manner, sitting up, facing her attentively, and wagging its tail. Someone who hasn’t spent their career chasing animals might wonder why the woman just didn’t walk up to the dog and scoop it up. Why on earth was she wasting time creeping ever so slowly in its direction?

I have been bested by many a “friendly” dog, cat, pigeon, sheep, and chicken.  And I have learned a few things.

One. If a person says the animal can’t run, that animal is guaranteed to bolt over the fence as soon as I approach. Broken leg, two broken legs, broken pelvis…it doesn’t matter. Adrenaline is the friend of mobility and even with a broken leg, a cat still has more working legs than I do. Until I get bitten by the magic spider that got Peter Parker and gave him super powers, I will not catch these guys.

Two. An animal can evade a person for over an hour within the relatively small space of a backyard. Take away the fencing and put that animal on the open sidewalk and you’ve got a marathon ahead of you. (I have chased a pigeon that couldn’t fly for twenty minutes. From above, it looked like a game of Frogger as I waddled behind him.)

Three. A cat can evade a person indefinitely by simply sitting under a car. Especially a car with low ground clearance. The ultimate chess move on her part, she only has to take a few calm steps in any direction to remain permanently out of reach.

Four. The reflexes of a cat are also shared by birds, rodents, and small dogs. Just when you think you’ve got them cornered, they pull a ninja move, pull your shirt over your head as they fly over and make their way back down the sidewalk. (See point Two.)

Five. We may never know why the chicken crossed the road, but I wish the dog would follow. Dogs that trot through busy traffic will not, for all the biscuits in the land, get out of traffic. Nor will they ever be caught. I can stop traffic, recruit helpers, and narrowly miss being hit by cars myself, and that happy dog will still trot down between the lanes, weaving in and out and never making it safely into a quiet neighborhood where I know he’ll be safer.

Six. Small dogs love to tease you. They’ll approach you, sniff you, accept treats from you. But as soon as you lift a finger to put a leash on them, they skitter off and you’re back to square one.

So as I passed the woman sucking up to the terrier, I smiled. Every day our jobs are different. Every day we save the lives of the animals we love so much. And every day we look like fools at least once while we’re doing it.

Not as Simple as Gandhi

Gandhi once said something to the effect of, “You can judge a society by the way it treats its animals.” Gandhi may not have said that if he worked in an animal shelter. Our society does not, as a whole, treat animals in one way or another. There’s a wide range of treatment. So Gandhi’s statement becomes less precise.

View A—Intake

Thousands of animals are turned into shelters around the country every day. There are good reasons and there are bad reasons. Good reasons include:

• Stray animals. Folks are just trying to do the right thing and get this homeless pet off the street and out of danger.
• Financial hardship. Whether Fluffy has a major illness and vet care is out of financial reach, or folks are out of money and it’s a toss-up between food for Fluffy or food for the kids.
• Aggressive behavior (on the animal’s part). If Fluffy keeps biting everyone, the owner is not only risking the safety of himself and his family, he’s also risking a lawsuit by keeping Fluffy.
• Aggressive behavior (on the human’s part). Some people suck. A lot of them actually. Fluffy may be turned into a shelter for his own protection against an aggressive human in the household.

Shelters are happy to be there for these animals and their people in situations like this. This is why we exist. To help when no one else can. But we’ve also become a dumping ground for people who just don’t want their pets anymore. Bad reasons include:

• It doesn’t match the new furniture. You laugh, but we hear this one more than you’d think.
• It sheds.
• The new puppy doesn’t like it. (Devoted, steadfast, calm Fluffy gets turned in because the latest model of designer puppy has arrived and is more exciting.)
• It’s a Pit Bull. Joe Schmoe dropped a bunch of cash to buy a puppy from a guy on a street corner. Once the puppy grew up, Schmoe discovered it is not the purebred Lab that he was promised, but instead a sweet, loving, playful pit bull. Nothing else has changed. The dog is still a wonderful pet and part of the family. But it’s a Pit.

View B—Adoptions

While thousands of animals are being turned into shelters daily, hundreds are being adopted out of shelters. Shelter adoptions staff are faced with a dilemma as old as animal welfare. Is it better to place animals in any home, regardless of how inappropriate it may be? Or is it better to keep the pet in the shelter longer and risk possible euthanasia rather than send a pet home to a terrible match.

Wonderful families come to shelters to find a pet to enrich their lives.

• Shelters get holiday cards from these families years later that have pictures of everyone surrounding the dog who is wearing a Santa hat. Then we know we’ve done our jobs well.

But people with lesser intentions come to shelters to adopt pets too.

• Sometimes they want an ornament for the yard.
• Sometimes they want a bait dog.
• Sometimes they want a dog that they can breed to make money. (Responsible shelters put the kibosh on that one by spaying and neutering pets before they go home.)
• Sometimes they just want something cute, but they haven’t followed that thought through to see the nonstop responsibility that comes with pet care.

Gray

Animal shelters rarely see simple decisions that are black and white. Whether it’s turning in an animal or adopting one, people have a multitude of reasons behind their decisions. Sometimes they’re logical, sometimes they’re emotional, and sometimes they’re random. So while Gandhi’s statement about judging society by its treatment of animals seems pretty simple, it’s not so easy as black and white. Because American culture is gray. So shelters exist in a world of gray.

Loving Animals

“I could never do what you do. I love animals too much.“

People say this to animal welfare workers on a daily basis. And we hate it. It’s a matter of interpretation, or misinterpretation.

When Joe Schmoe says this to me as I’m scooping up Fluffy (who has just been hit by a car and is bleeding and whimpering), what he means is, “Wow, seeing this animal suffering is breaking my heart. I couldn’t stand that kind of heartbreak every day.”

What I hear is, “I really love animals so seeing them suffer would be too tough. I guess you don’t love animals or you wouldn’t be able to do this job.” Ouch.

The reality is that animal welfare workers do the job for no other reason than because we love animals so much. It is a largely thankless position. There’s little to no money going around. And our daily experiences include things like being vomited, urinated, and pooped on. All while trying to communicate with species that don’t even come close to speaking our language so figuring out how to help them can be an impossible puzzle.

Many times, we can’t figure out that puzzle. Our hearts get broken every day, several times a day. Because we can’t figure out how to make these animals better. We don’t have the resources to find a home for Fido who is so scared that he bites everyone. Or Lucky, who was lucky enough to survive being hit by a car but who now has a broken back. Each of these animals is a puzzle piece, but they don’t all belong to the same puzzle. There are societal puzzles, financial puzzles, and medical puzzles. Sometimes the individual pieces just don’t fit. And that means that sometimes we can’t save them. So instead we hug them and pet them and speak softly to them as we send them to heaven.

I ignore Joe Schmoe as I ease Fluffy into my ambulance, tending to his wounds and calming his nerves. Fluffy comes first, so I don’t have time to enlighten Joe. But if I did have the time, here’s what I’d say.

“I love animals too much to not do this job. I can’t turn my back on their suffering. So I’ll help them, even when it breaks my heart.”

Hello world!

With this post, I begin my blogging experiment. Stay tuned for insights into the complex world of animal welfare.