Free roaming cats are believed to be the vector that introduced
feline leukemia into mountain lion populations. As improbable as it
sounds, cat feces washed into storm sewers are linked to an
outbreak of disease among sea otters.
It’s a testament to the adaptability and resourcefulness of cats
that some of them seem to have found their way into our storm
sewers. There, safe from dogs and cars, they can roam Hollister.
But what kind of life do they have?
City’s going to the cats
Some time before dawn one morning last week, I remarked that I felt as if we were living the children’s rhyme that begins, “There once was a woman who swallowed a fly.”
I wrote here some time ago that wood rats had come to inhabit our wood pile (where else for a wood rat?) and that, like other city residents, we believed they had arrived via Hollister’s storm sewer system. We aggressively encouraged the vermin to move along.
Then, at about 5 a.m. one day last week, a memorable catfight erupted at the foot of our driveway. We lay awake, certain that the fracas would soon end. When it didn’t, I padded downstairs and into the driveway. The cats continued brawling in the gutter until they noticed my approach. One ran off while the other slipped into the storm grate with practiced ease.
I went back indoors, and not long after I settled in, the fight resumed, working its way up and down the streets of our neighborhood.
Hollister maintains an easement through our back garden, and the storm drain underneath us has a grate in the southeast corner of our modest property. Our dog, Sparky, recently has dedicated himself with fervor unique to Jack Russell terriers to barking into that grate at every opportunity.
We chalked it up to terrier tendencies until the cat incident, when we realized the felines probably had been taunting the dog, secure in the knowledge that he was on one side of the grate and they were on the other. Nyah, nyah, nyah!
Wakeful, we wondered: first rats, then cats. What’s next? Are we to expect roving bands of subterranean pit bulls in search of kitty prey?
Later that day, one of us checked with the city, while the other mentioned the cats to coworkers. On both fronts, our suspicions were confirmed.
Storm sewers make ideal networks for feral cats. Secure from traffic and attacking dogs, the pipes are a highway network around town, offering entry into locations almost anywhere.
Since it had been wet and our home is near the top of a hill, the pipes closest to us offered relatively dry comfort.
I Googled “feral cat sewer” last week and 7,370 hits came back. Across America, people had become aware of cats making like the Phantom of the Opera.
A coworker who makes her home in Gilroy said she commonly observes cats there bouncing in and out of the sewers.
Pedaling in to work a few mornings later, I passed the fresh corpse of a cat on Hillcrest Road. It was well fed, its sleek coat smeared with blood. The cat was clearly a family pet.
When will people get it?
Allowing domestic cats to roam free is wrong. If you disagree, don’t call. Don’t write. Your justification will only ring hollow. You are wrong.
The cats in our sewer either strayed from home or are the offspring of cats who did because they were allowed to roam.
Free roaming cats live, on average, markedly shorter lives than those confined to homes.
Free roaming cats are believed to be the vector that introduced feline leukemia into mountain lion populations. As improbable as it sounds, cat feces washed into storm sewers are linked to an outbreak of disease among sea otters.
It’s a testament to the adaptability and resourcefulness of cats that some of them seem to have found their way into our storm sewers. There, safe from dogs and cars, they can roam Hollister. But what kind of life do they have?
Scratching out an existence on vermin and refuse, unprotected from disease, left to claw at one another, they surely lead short, brutal lives.
Some people leave food out for feral cats in a misguided effort to help them. Their kindness only gives cats the fuel they need to produce more feral cats, condemned to the same life.
About once a year, we get a letter to the editor from a grieving cat owner, raging at the driver who left their cat for dead. I’ve yet to see a letter apologizing for the cat owner’s thoughtlessness, that led to ruining the unfortunate driver’s day or week.
The answer is simple enough. Anyone who purports to love cats needs to love them enough to keep them indoors.
