The Creepy Cat Count

It's been one year since I left Brooklyn to earn back my birthright in the mountains. I started on a carefully chosen section of family land with nothing but a summer tent for shelter, a tight budget, and a rambunctious little puppy that would later grow into a horse. The land had to be tamed, and the territory and old yard where my grandparents raised numerous children, cleaned up. I haven't made any video clips of just how hard the years had been on this place, and how the property had been destroyed by a couple of individuals before it was finally abandoned.

I chose this place because of the creek that runs right past the front yard; a creek with more than one spring water source jutting up in the middle of the water in several places. It's a life line, and pure gold to anyone who's decided to slowly build a functioning, relatively self-sufficient retreat of any kind. I also chose it for its rich history. I admit I'm a silly romantic. But with its haunting charm, it came badly damaged. Two people in my family and myself have worked to save it and bring it back to life. It's finally showing signs of its old self with the milder season creeping in.

I purposely avoided exposing the destruction so much, but I'm going to touch on it now. I think its important for anyone who's environmentally conscious, and for all those who claim to be lovers and advocates of animals. I'll try to be as diplomatically vague as possible about any person, but the description of the situation may be a bit uneasy for some.

There has been, for decades to my knowledge, a multiplying stream of feral cats that reached into the hundreds here. They'd been allowed to breed out of control, and were not your most healthy colony of felines. The most unfortunate part of it was that the colony was protected by the very strong wishes of a person with a mental illness that none of us wanted to upset, as it always lead to an even more dire situation than the situation of the cats themselves. It took an entire year to get a handle on the cleanup and get everything under control. It still isn't over, but it's manageable. Now I understand some people feel both vaccinations and sterilization of animals is some sort of cruel, bad thing. Please, if anyone initially had this idea, I beg for your attention as I describe a true life scenario now that may change your mind.

Feline leukemia is extremely contagious, rampant, and becomes a slow, agonizing death sentence for these animals. It's basically AIDS to cats. Their immune system fails over time, and they have a hard time healing from simple wounds and sicknesses. Death is usually a response to a secondary complication if left untreated. Cats contract feline leukemia from grooming each other, scratching and fighting for territory, through feces, urine, blood, or saliva- and thus, sharing food. It's passed in utero by an infected mother. If one cat in a colony has it, all the others will surely catch it if not vaccinated against the disease. They have about three good years before any symptoms start showing.

I watched in horror as several of these cats started to display the behavior and appearance of a zombie feline moving with incredible difficulty through the yard. There were a couple I witnessed that had flies swarming around their bodies everywhere they went, tails matted and muddy and dragging the ground. The yard was overgrown with giant briers, milkweed stalks that towered over seven feet tall, and grass so high you had to use a machete to get through it. The old house in the background was drenched in the spray of felines marking their territory. Old, matted carpets and moldy cat blankets covered the ground from makeshift cardboard box shelters someone had crafted for all the cats. Cheap food was laid out and left twice a day in such an amount as to attract every creature within hunting range, including black bears, raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, rats, snakes, and an occasional fox. I know there are more, as the land here is full of entities, but I can't sit here and think of everything that exists in our nook of the Appalachians. The cats, though, were a real problem.

Since the food was left out constantly, other wildlife roamed the yard. These already weakened cats were attacked on schedule every night. I could hear something dying at around three am without fail from my tent. I was investigated by a bear for awhile last summer. The property was unwalkable, completely hostile and had become a mess of cat feces and dead rats. The aroma of sickly cats had attracted violence, and an unbelievable mess. I worked with two other people until I thought my knees would break in the evenings trying to get the place cleaned and revived again while building a small cabin. Lime is amazing at cleaning up animal messes, and I keep large bags of it now. Finally, it has come to pass. The yard is clean. There is a mass grave of cats down past the old barn. There are piles of trash, weeds and limbs ready to burn that resemble some sort of insane witch hunt ready for the flame. As soon as they dry out completely, we're lighting up these giant bonfires and getting rid of this filth once and for all. We've scavenged wood boards that are well over a hundred years old from dilapidated sources, both cleaning up and recycling for architecture. Everything has been cut down minus some trees. We're beginning again, with a new landscape, retreat cabin and of course, I'm following in my great grandparents' footsteps for a lot of this old school upkeep.

As for the cat thing, I want to stress something. I do understand the whole “let it all be natural and do its thing” idea. But sometimes, even nature gets screwy and we need to come in and clean it up- and push the ending along a little faster. In this case, it was more necessary than ever. And this is a very extreme case, I know. Most of the time, nobody runs across a situation like this. I feel like I've been living in a cat version of the Walking Dead.

There are still some left, but their numbers are very few, and me and my posse do all we can to make sure we attend to a situation as quietly as possible when it becomes necessary. Of course, not to upset anyone in particular. As I type this right now, I can hear a fight going on out there in the dark. I hate to say it, but I honestly hope they fight to the death and one more bites the dust tonight. I'm at a point where I can't take much more of it, although I know all I have to do is be patient for just a little while longer.

I understand I may sound like an animal hater right now, but I'm absolutely not. I love animals. I'm a sucker for animals that need help and try to do that as often as I can. The feral colony here cannot be helped at this point and are beyond any treatment options. Animal control cannot be called. Trust me, I have investigated every option I could to rectify this, and have done what was necessary to manage what was left of it. Every cat here had been infected with feline leukemia. I'm simply waiting for the last few to go at this juncture. I also must keep them away from my area and my very healthy dog. The place is clean, and a six foot high fence is being built around my sacred little cove.

I've battled with feeling very sorry for the cats subjected to living this way and eventually dying out in pain and misery. I wanted like hell to just take a gun and put them out of their misery, but I wasn't allowed to do so. That sounds harsh, but there was no way to capture the poor creatures and have them put down by a vet without severely causing problems in my family due to this one, delicate person. Then again, there was no way to shoot them without the same drama, so I backed off and concentrated on cleaning the place up. And I waited.

Please, for the love of God, if anyone wants to become a caretaker for a colony of feral cats, I beg you to make sure every one of them is vaccinated, de-wormed, treated for fleas, sterilized, and fed properly. This is a big deal. I don't want to hear of this ever happening again. It's unhealthy, unclean, and is a hazard to the environment and other wildlife. It's a hazard to humans. Sick cats carry viruses and bacteria that infects human beings. While feline leukemia is not transmitted to humans or other animals, there are plenty of other viruses and bacteria that are. Being passive or apathetic is not smart in this case. And if you do know of any situation like this, I hope you'll do all you can to alert those who might be able to help get the situation under control.

The only reason I'm finally talking about this at all is that it's no longer a dire issue, everything has been managed, and I have a chance to breathe. And Twitter & Instagram are actually safe zones for my rantings, believe it or not. This has been a public service announcement. Thank you. Below are some little tips and tricks to repel cats from gardens and yards. (Even healthy kitties can ruin a garden!)

1. Plant fragrant things; minty based things, very near and around your garden. Plants cats seem to detest the smell of are rosemary, lavender, pennyroyal, rue, and a plant they call “the scaredy cat plant”. Yeah, that's a real plant. Google it.
2. Place netting or some sort of wire mesh on the garden bed until plants begin to grow up pretty strong. I'm using chicken wire held down by stakes. Cats hate the feel of mesh or wire on their feet and won't dig to try and relieve themselves.
3. Strategically placed noisemakers sometimes work. Change these out though, because cats get used to them and you have to keep them on their toes!
4. If you have the funds, invest in motion detector sprinkler systems.
5. There are products that deter cats with high pitched audio in motion detection.
6. Cats generally don't like citrus aromas, so you can try putting citrus peels around the perimeter.
7. Anything that makes the dirt uncomfortable to walk on and more annoying to dig around, like placing pine cones all throughout the garden, works.

There are also commercial cat repellents, but I have no idea whether or not they work. I have enough to invest in, so I just use the ideas above. Oh yeah.. and I have a big dog. I can let her roam near the garden and nothing comes near it!