It ain't the cat's "fault" pur se, but if the cat owner refuses to be responsible...or if the dog owner refuses to be responsible....

A dog, or a cat running loose in a neighborhood in town can be a tolerable annoyance. When every one on the street owns a dog or cat they allow to run loose, or turn loose at night when they don't realize insomniac gardeners like me are out looking at the stars and can witness the indignities being perpetuated -they all seem to think they are the only person letting the animal out to roam at will in the wee hours - plus, as I have ranted about many times before, I have an irresponsible neighbor with 4 dogs and an indeterminant number of cats (4 when I moved in - then they disappeared, presumably dead of neglect and disease, and now are building population again -plus a growing feral cat population...well.)

I do not suffer in silence. Offending neighbors are always apologetic but "helpless." God forbid they limit the number of animals they own or allow those animals in the house, or build a fence, etc., etc. Or horror of horrors, recognize that even if they own only one cat and/or dog, so does every other family in the neighborhood, and most of them have the same attitude, so it is really busy in my yard at night and....I'm pissed.

I have trapped cats in box traps and taken them to the pound, after warning the neighbors I would do so if they did not confine their pets. I have allowed my son to shoot dogs and cats in the butt with plastic airsoft bb's, and told the neighbors if they don't like it they need to keep their animals out of my garden beds and away from my bird feeders.

I'm the neighborhood bitch. I am also the only neighborhood gardener and birdwatcher.

Working class neighborhood in a small southern town, surrounded by farmland and people one generation removed from living on 2-4 hundred acres of farm where the dogs helped control the groundhogs and chased the deer away from substantial gardens that could tolerate a little trammeling, and where nearly feral cats kept the mice and rats in the barn under manageable control. Same problem, however, when I lived in places where people were 2-3 generations removed from that reality.

I've lived in the country. On a 140 acre farm, surrounded by other 140-400 acre farms, low population density, etc., our three dogs ran loose. In town, never. Took responsibility for giving the dogs long and vigorous walks on leash twice a day, and when we went up into the mountains on rough camping trips, let them run there. didn't "scoop poop" originally, when we moved to town, but as town got more crowded, and more crowded with people with dogs also walking them on leads, we recognized, without anyone having to say something, that we needed to do that due to the increased population of pet owners. Sadly, when I divorced a few years ago, all the pets went with my ex who was self-employed in a home-based business. He wasn't much concerned about the neighbors, but was very mindful of the needs of the animals, which boiled down to responsible urban pet ownership where the dogs were concerned - less so in terms of the cat.

Simply boils down to two things. Common sense and common courtesy.

I would never poison an animal. I don't think I would ever shoot a pet with something that might kill it, or would be likely to cause bonafide injury. You better believe I will attempt to trap cats, after warning to the owner, and turn them over to the pound, and will also call animal control about dogs - although it isn't effective since they are not going to come out at midnight to pick up the neighbor's dogs after the "invisible fence" is turned off. You had better believe that if I have talked with you about the damage your pet is doing in my yard and had you blow me off, that I will shoot the dog or cat with plastic bb's or rock salt, doing my best to not actually injure the animal, but if it happens, I'm sorry, but that is your issue, not mine - is the life and well-being of your cat, a non- native species and not at risk as a species due to habitat destruction, worth more than the lives of the native birds at my feeders, simply because those threatened birds are not pets?

I've shot groundhogs who menaced my gardens in the country. Then skinned them and used the hides for drumheads and the meat for a stew. I've shot deer or trapped rabbits in box traps and done the same. I will say, from those necessary experiences, that I would be a vegetarian if it meant that eating meat routinely meant having a personal acquaintanceship with what is involved with the steaks or chicken breasts I buy at the grocery store. Either that, or I would become inured from repeated experience.

I don't think I could eat a human being if my very life depended on it, but only the dire experience of that being necessary could really assure me of that. Ditto cats and dogs, because of the close socio-psychological way in which I experience them.

Rationally, however, why should the taking of the life of a dog or a cat, or even a human, be more precious than the life of a fish, lobster, or song bird?

I identify strongly with cats and dogs