My gf and I are both decidedly cat people (if given the choice between cats and dogs, we would prefer cats). Dogs are fun and friendly and lovable and loyal, but way too much work for me and too much of a commitment (shhh....I'm not big commitment guy!) and from what I understand, a little dirtier than cats (certainly smelled like it when I went to the animal shelter with my gf. The dog cages were almost unbearably bad smelling). Not sure I could handle a dog. And walking the dog all the time and pooper-scooping? Not worth it. Also going on vacation and finding a dogsitter? Wow it sounds expensive just thinking about it.
Cats though......seem a little more manageable. And I've now been humbled in that I know close to nothing about animals and adoption and whatnot, so I'm open to learning. My gf and I recently started running by a group of feral cats (野良猫) around where we live, and it's been pretty interesting......the cats live near a dumpster and run away behind a caged area as we approach, so we never get a really good look at them. I now know the difference between a feral cat and a stray cat, being that ferals live out in the wild and don't approach humans (and are active largely at night, which is when my gf and I have seen them) whereas strays were raised among humans and do approach humans. It's almost all about how the cats were when they were kittens, whether they were raised by humans or not.
I didn't even think about the ramifications of feeding feral cats, just how cool cats are and aren't they hungry and let's feed them!, but apparently Los Angeles has a pretty big problem with feral cats, in that they are bad for the ecosystem, killing birds and mice and disturbing the food chain in that you have these wild predators out there eating little things. But sadly, the feral cats can't become housecats as they don't work interact well with humans anymore, so if they're caught and picked up sometimes they get euthanized, which sounds pretty horrible. Seems pretty unclear through my research so far whether people should catch them and allow them to be killed or just leave them alone out there (even though it's damaging to the environment), but what seems like a general consensus is to not feed the feral cats at least.....it attracts other predators like raccoon and coyotes, etc, if you're not careful, and property owners don't like it (if it's not you're property that you're leaving the food) because it keeps the feral cats coming back for them. It's a tough situation. I totally understand why some people would want to feed the feral cats (they look cute and just like normal housecats!) to the point of there's a woman in LA who goes around to different spots around LA to feed feral cats, but on the other hand science shows it's not a good idea, and there's laws in different areas prohibiting feeding the feral cats (we saw a sign in San Pedro explicitly banning feeding feral cats).
One day it's pretty likely I will end up adopting a cat (or two!) and share and love the cat and feed it all the food that it wants (I'm all about having a fat cat) but for now I think I will use my head and not my vulnerable sentimentality to stop feeding cats out in the wild.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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