The Social Contract for the Urban Cat
Is it getting too hard to own a pet these days?
If you ask a cat owner they’ll tell you that the amount of affection you get in return more than compensates for the cost of a pet, however, let us take the illustration of a Tail of Two Cats. On a positive note, close to 100 percent of the cats who come to the Cat Clinic are desexed, vaccinated, microchipped and registered (unfortunately there’s one or two exceptions of course!). Congratulations to every single one of you as in general only 40 percent of Sydney cats have these minimum requirements performed.
The Tails of Patricia and Yvette
The first feline is a young female we will call Patricia (names have been changed to protect the innocent of course!). She was born because her mother, Catarina, was not desexed before she was 6 months old, and once she was pregnant, her owners chose to let her have the litter. They also elected not to vaccinate her and her kittens. After Catarina produced four healthy kittens during December, her owners gave Patricia to a neighbour, and then decided it was all too much trouble and took Catarina and the three remaining kittens to the Cat Protection Society.
Unfortunately, Catarina and her remaining kittens caught cat flu before they got there, and as December is the height of the kitten season, and with hundreds of cats and kittens to choose from, hard decisions have to bemade. Sick females and kittens have the odds stacked against them.
Patricia fared a little better. Her owners took her to the vet for vaccinations and microchipping, but forgot to get her speyed. They thought maybe she would not come into season as young as 6 months old, but she did. She wailed and yowled at midnight one Saturday and she was sent outside by her owners. As a result, one of the young tomcats in her street was more intent on courting her than watching traffic and he was run over while on his way to woo Patrica. You see, despite only being nine months old, Romeo was not desexed so he followed his instincts. However , he was lucky and survived , ending up with a broken leg. An expensive first trip to the vet for him. Another suitor had more luck with the traffic and he had a successful tryst with Patricia, who got pregnant. Her babies arrived in September . Fortunately there was space at the Cat Protection Society because there were fewer kittens around at the time, and the babies were healthy, so they were able to take them in! Patricia’s owners had her speyed so they would not go through the same bother again and Patricia lived an ordinary cat life for a couple of years until her owners moved. Patricia stayed away the day the movers van came, and then she hung around the house for a few days after her people had gone. Eventually, she was picked up and taken to the council as a stray. Her microchip could have saved her life – it at least meant someone had owned her - but her owners had forgotten to update their address on the database. Uncontactable. December again, too many kittens and cats looking for homes. So Patricia had nowhere to go, and she lost her life. What about Patricia’s kittens – the ones who got to the CPS in September? Well, they made it to the Cat Clinic, and one was called Yvette. The third generation was lucky, because once these kittens get to us, they stay till they find a home, occasionally for months, usually only for a week or two.
The kittens from the Cat Clinic go out into the world already desexed. Kittens as young as 7 weeks old can be safely castrated or speyed so new owners do not then have the fear nor inconvenience of their young feline friend having to spending a day in hospital. Just as important, the owners don’t have to worry about timing the spey before the cat’s first season, which can be as early as 4 months old in a well-fed girl. It’s a sad fact that one in three kittens do not make it to their first birthday if they get outside (and another one in three does not make it to their second birthday!). All young cats will roam once they reach 7–9 months old but at least the sexual impetus is removed if they are speyed or castrated. And if they are kept indoors, well, they are as safe as houses! So Yvette was speyed, and vaccinated, defleaed, dewormed and socialized. She got her microchip and second vaccination when she was three months old, and her owner’s information was entered on the private database. She lived in a nice house, with her brother Castro, who had had the same things done for him, of course. Yvette and Castro grew up and destroyed a few furnishings, as kittens will do, and lived happy cat lives.
But the story does not end there.
After a couple of years, Yvette and Castro’s owners moved and their new house backed onto a Wildlife Reserve in Willoughby. Their owners updated the microchip database with their new details and to protect the wildlife, built a Catpark in the backyard. Yvette and Castro could watch the birds but not kill them! One day, Yvette got out. It was a terrible error, a broken window and a big scare which caused her to run into the Wildlife Reserve. Yvette loved people, so she naturally asked the Ranger for assistance. He checked her microchip details and called her owners. While the owners had to pay a fine, Yvette was home that night, happy and promising NEVER to go outside again!
Wildlife zones
Willoughby Council has recently declared several areas to be Wildlife zones. This means no pets at all are allowed there. There is a small map of these locations here, and on the council website www.willoughby.nsw.gov.au.
If you choose to live with a cat in an environmentally sensitive area, then responsible ownership requires that you confine your cat. Pigeons are fair game anywhere else!
Minimum Maintenance for the Urban cats
For some people, a cat only needs to be fed, but that is not responsible ownership as too many things can go wrong for the cat. The minimum responsibility that you have to a cat in the urban environment is to prevent unwanted litters by desexing, reduce wandering by regulating confinement, identify your pet and preventing the most common diseases such as cat flu. Whether or not you let your cat sleep on your bed is up to you! The East Chatswood Cat Clinic, with the help of clients and their friends, have homed out over 2,000 kittens and adult cats since 1994. We have done this only through your support, individually and collectively, as we only take the kittens from the charities. We do it because, well, the light in the eyes of an owner of a new kitten is – priceless!
Green points
Ever heard of Environmental Green Points? Some years ago, the East Chatswood Cat Clinic financed the purchase of 34 acres in the Atherton tablelands. The area backs onto a World Heritage site and was to be logged. It is now safe from logging and the Queensland Government has requested survey access as it is an important Cassowary corridor, as well as a supporting other endangered species. Even better, the trees are pumping oxygen back into our environment. Which means that your support of the Cat Clinic provides the land for 1,500 tonnes of trees to breath oxygen back into the atmosphere. So (drawing a long bow) caring for your cat at the Cat Clinic counteracts the effects of your car’s consumption of about 300 litres of fuel each year. Imagine that!