Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The Worst Drop Off Year To Date





If you give any credit to my main indicator theory of Economic decline than the signs show the economy is getting worse.

What is this magical sign that accurately judges the economic health of at least the region around the Small-Hold you may ask?

Well it's simple really I just add up the number of stray animals that show up around here looking for a home. I find it is usually a pretty good indicator of just how bad things out there have gotten.

The Small-Hold has a lot of cats. Most are barn cats and a couple more think they are rough and tough outside cats until it gets cold anyway so we are not over run by the little vermin but it is to the point that I have stopped naming them and just assign them numbers. Thank the Lord for those little $25.00 Spay and Neuter vouchers the local cat lover associations give out. These groups are quick to demand no kill shelters and refuse to take any kittens off our hands but they do give out those vouchers pretty generously.

We also have some kind of symbiotic cat population going on with the neighbors too. Our last two barn cats left over from last year's dumping vacated the barn and moved next door when this years batch showed up. 

I am not even going to tell you what our yearly stray cat Vet bills run these days. In fact I am in complete denial and refuse to actually tell myself.

This year's total stray cat numbers came up to seven kittens and one mother cat. Two kittens showed up individually spaced a week or so apart but the other five showed up together and were safely hidden in the barn by the mother cat. I think they were there a good week or so before I discovered them and only came out after the mother cat got hit on the road and they were on their own. They were not born in the barn though because they were not feral, only shy and skittish. Within a few days three of the five were already purring and expecting to be petted while the two really shy ones couldn't help but be drawn to where ever people were even if they didn't want to be caught. They would always be within 20 feet or so playing in the open.

The two individual kittens were so happy to see a person they climbed up my pants legs and shirt all the way to my shoulder when they were discovered.

So far all but two of them (The really shy ones) have been captured and either delivered to their new homes or taken to a local shelter via a lucky family member who lives in town. The wife spends hours trapping and taming them so she can find them all homes or they have a good chance of being adopted.


Anyway this is the largest volume of strays we have had dumped on us to date. Last year was five but this year is really eight with one fatality. Considering kittens don't travel very far out here it really means someone is almost pulling up into the driveway and dumping these cats too. I am sure this last batch was dumped in my driveway and mom herded the entire brood to the first available building she could find which happened to be the barn. Small cats don't last long in the open fields here with all the hawks.

One of these days I am going to catch someone doing the deed and there are going to be dead bodies to take care of I swear. This constant stray issue is something that has really just developed since about 2008. I mean it has always happened out here but the numbers have ballooned drastically since 2008 to where it's a sure thing each Summer through Fall.

Whomever dumps these cats and dogs is about the lowest form of  life I can think of.  Rating only slightly better than cannibals, democrats and feminist in my book. I must admit though my buddies known as Sasha, Penelope and Pantheon wouldn't be here to follow me everywhere I go around the place if it hadn't been for the lowlife dumpers.

In a grid down situation population control will become a major issue I imagine but for right now we can still take the easy way out and use the adoption services. There is no more room at the inn I am afraid.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!


16 comments:

  1. http://catrecipes.com/

    your friend kimber

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Kimber-troll It's funny how many people fail to understand how the pet populations take a nose dive when the societies they are attached to decline. For whatever reason.

      Several local breeds of cats for instance that had peculiarities like say the ones down in Key West suddenly disappeared in England and Russia during WWII. The same thing happened in Cuba as well during the embargo years.

      When people get hungry and all that.

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  2. There is a special place in hell for those who dump adult domesticated animals.

    And thre is an even specialer place for those who dump baby animals.

    Those people need to be airdropped into a deep forest in the Amazon or the African bush far from any civilization and left to fend for themselves....and then shot.

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    Replies
    1. B - The only time I might give a dumper the benefit of the doubt is when they are serviced by a community humane society that decides to go "No Kill" but then also turns away people who bring them animals. Sometimes people do get into a hard spot with no where to turn. I say a slight benefit of the doubt though because anyone who's life was that precarious really shouldn't be committing to pets. Then again I have known those who got them dropped on them as well and never voluntarily went out looking for a pet but ended up with one anyway and then suddenly found themselves homeless as well.

      It's a touchy situation and those types of instances are few. Mostly they are just idiots not thinking ahead and pushing their problems off on others.

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  3. At one point we had four drop offs we doctored and loved. Very expensive. Now we have one that had lived 2 years in an apartment parking lot. A most wonderful cat and so well behaved!

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    1. JMD - I have found that the best pets we have are strays or drop offs that found us. They just seem so appreciative and unassuming. At least at first lol. We had a kitten that appeared here two years ago that turned out to be a semi-munchkin cat. She was actually a bit older than I thought because she was so tiny. How she found her way into the barn is still a mystery but these days she has become my constant companion. She is draped around my neck as I type this actually.

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  4. We had that problem here until I told an old woman who couldn't keep her mouth shut, how I had installed hidden cameras(which I didn't, yes a lie was told) along the road and that I was going to prosecute the next person who dropped a cat here and that they would regret the day that they ever saw a cat or me. Of course I told her not to tell anyone since I had invested a lot of money in catching the scum that was dropping cats. We didn't get any more cats.

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    1. Sf - I tried that trick. Even put up a sign and a fake game camera earlier this Summer. Both of them disappeared within the week. The trouble is we have so much road frontage on the property and it's all pretty open so when someone stops just long enough to throw out the animals they are alone and scared and they head for the first available structure they see that they can get into. Our barn. Mother cats with kittens especially are drawn right to it as the only shelter within a mile or more. Sometimes they will go to the loafing shed but eventually the food always gets them into the barn.

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  5. Our last three cats were dumpers. They are the best cats we ever owned. I wish I could take in all the strays and unwanted cats out there. People who dump or abuse animals are the scum of the earth and should be chained to a tree and left to die in the weather. There must be a special place in heaven for you for taking in so many.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Tewshooz - I was stopped at an intersection Monday morning holding up traffic as this poor bedraggled Siamese mother cat attempted to get her kittens across the busy street into a grassy area to hunt. It was so heart breaking to watch and I just know those kittens didn't make it. I was stopped and holding up traffic until a cop came up behind and flipped on his lights. I know I pissed off a few drivers. The poor dirty mother cat still had a collar on too. If I thought it would have been remotely possible to catch em I would have tried but I knew there was no way.

      We actually have overall less cats now than we did last year. Or will once we get rid of these last two. We had a very old stray die and last years mother cat that was dumped on us and took over the barn simply disappeared. Still not sure why she stayed around for months after we had her spayed and got her shots but she was an independent one and a scrapper so she may have gotten herself into trouble.

      We try and keep them as barn cats if we can't find homes for them but as I said there is simply no more room at the inn these days.

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  6. PP - i left a long comment and it said it had published. but it isn't here. are you moderating comments now? just asking buddy?

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    1. kymber - I didn't see another comment from you and no the last thing I would ever do is turn on comment moderation.

      Thanks for stopping by hon!!!

      Delete
  7. how sad, people don't think about how their dependant animals will affect them in hard times. That little kitten soon grows into an adult and they aren't as cute any more. Very sad. The cat and dog homes are over run with pets. Especially the dog homes with Staffordshire bull terriers. They seem to be this decades must have dog.

    All those poor kitties.

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    1. Sol - No they don't. Many people just refuse to see how quick their lives can change. Of course many do and in times such as these we are seeing the repercussions in other areas like reduced childbirth. It just doesn't seem to stop the cats though :(

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  8. PP,

    I would love to strangle people who dump their animals. We had continuous dogs being dumped. Usually it's when the college kids leave to go home for the summer or end of a term, they drive out of town and just dump them.

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  9. My grey cat was left behind by neighbors that moved out. They went on to become meth heads.

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