Thursday, February 17, 2005

The Crazy Cat Lady

I actually know 2 Crazy Cat Ladies (CCL), but the one I'm going to tell you about lives across the street. I live in a rural area, and we moved here because we couldn't stand the neighbors at our townhouse, it was a street full of people with no respect for other's property, kids climbing on our cars, trash thrown everywhere, loud music all hours of the night, it just sucked. Anyway, we live on an acre right now, but there isn't much privacy between us and the people across the street. This lady feed cats outside, not cats that she "owns", but just strays. Her entire front yard will be covered with at least 75 cats, all up on her porch, on the grass, running around. The guy next to us has chickens, which come on to our property, and the kids like to chase them. The chickens are brave, because they also venture into the sea of cats congregating at chow time on CCL's yard. Chickens like cat food too, so it's just a major feast over there. Now, this wouldn't even faze me, except the cats then roam my property all the time, and I'm sure every other neighbor can say the same. Ever walk out your front door at night and see glowing eyes next your car? It will scare the living daylights out of you sometimes. They will also trip the sensor to our motion light, and I'll occasionally get spooked when 'm home alone, and the light flips on. I'm actually pretty used to it, my parent's house is in the woods, and had the same problem with deer setting on the motion light, but every once in a while it gets you. We've only talked to CCL a few times in the last 6 months, but we know she has an adult son who is handicapped and lives with her. Being out here, you don't see many people, and human interaction is scarce, so maybe the cats are her way of having company. I don't know how many she lets into her house, but it's not a large home, so I can't imagine she takes them all in. Either way, my 2 female cats are never allowed out, but when they drive us nuts we threaten to send them outside to live with the CCL, and never come back. The local strays probably spread the word that this is the place to get chow. "Hey Fluffy! Notify the contact chain, we've got a feeder!" Meow code? A meeting at the local scratching post? All I know is there are more each time I see them, and soon we humans going to be overthrown. If I suddenly disappear, you'll know what happened.