Rocky, Minutia, Simba

Adopted 31 July 2001 in Tulsa – died at different times betw. 2012-1015 in Tulsa

Rocky

These brothers and sister are one example of the innumerable crawl-space dramas that play out every day. Stray pregnant female crawls under a structure to give birth. She and some of her kittens fall victim to the street’s many dangers, but one or more survive.

In early 2001 I became aware of three juvenile cats in my neighborhood. They were old enough to start having litters of their own and I endeavored to trap them in order to sterilize, innoculate, and return them to where I found them in my vicinity. Rocky was easy and, in fact, he kept on returning to the trap after being vetted. Simba was next and the female, Minutia, who was my greatest concern, didn’t enter the trap until 18 May 2002, miraculously not becoming pregnant, probably because she stayed close to her two neutered brothers in my garage. It was territory worth defending, stocked with high-grade cat food, fresh water, heated beds, and a cat door to come and go at will. Very importantly, they had each other.

Minutia

Rocky, a classic-gray tabby with a reddish tint, wanted to be tamed ... some neighbors claim they almost touched him, but not even I devoted the necessary time to give him a chance to decide. Simba, the black long-haired male, and Minutia, the gray tabby female, were satisfied with their luxury community-cat existence. They were the rare lucky ones.

Simba

It is the lot of stray animals to become sick, poisoned, run over, shot … and worse. In early 2012 Rocky stopped doing his rounds or sleeping in his heated-pad bed in the garage. A month or so later, a neighbor was casually commenting about having retrieved a dead cat from under her house. By the description, it was Rocky and he had been dead for approximately the length of time he had been missing. Born and died in a crawl space, his overtures to people unheeded.

Lanette Dietz, who took over their care in my absence, reported that beautiful and mysterious Simba just disappeared in late 2014. It was not like him to wander off far from his siblings but he was not seen again. I hope he didn’t suffer.

The saga of the three garage cats concluded in May 2015 with the death of Minutia at the jaws of an urban fox. And this was, in my opinion, the kindest death: fast, as Nature intended, and not caused by humans.

Community Cats are the result of human ignorance: The fertility of domesticated animals must be checked or the “surplus” end up in the streets and fields. Cats, however, can adapt surprisingly well and become natural wildlife. With few predators other than humans, they continue to multiply. In semi-civilized societies like ours, the management of these feline colonies is well understood. It is in our best interest to financially support or volunteer at organizations like https://www.alleycat.org. Their Trap-Neuter-Return method is the only one proven to control feral cat populations. If as with Rocky, Minutia, and Simba, an individual is willing to take personal responsibility, nothing is easier, as explained above.

NEVER take a feral or unfriendly cat to the local shelter. The facts are cruel: (1) one cat is killed in US shelters every 15 seconds, (2) 7 out of every 10 cats who enter a shelter die there, including (3) virtually 100% of feral cats.