In my last post I talked about a pet peeve I have, about people letting their cats out. I wasn't meaning those who let their cats out supervised. I am talking about those who just open the door and let the cat out and then close the door, not caring what happens next. When my mother was healthier she loved working in her flower garden. She had a male cat (neutered, of course) who would go out to the fenced-in back yard and stay close to my mother as she tended to her garden. He never wandered too far from her side. He was always within eye-sight and my mother and her cat would enjoy the beautiful weather together. He never tried to go outside the fence.

I see too many cats go thru my yard without any collars and tags. Most of them do not look like strays. Last year a cat got hit by a car in front of my house. It is a good thing for that driver that I did not see it because I would have definitely reported a hit and run. But the cat had no collar, no tags to show where he lived. He crawled off and I was hoping he was able to get home and get care, but a few months later I found him dead under my porch. I still get upset when I think of him dying all alone like that. How long did he suffer? What about the family he had been living with? Do they miss him? Do they ever wonder what happened to him? The few times Tiger escaped and was out, I panicked. I walked the neighborhood calling his name. He would eventually come back, but I was a wreck, crying and worrying.

Maybe years ago it was okay to let cats out to roam, but the world is not a safe place anymore. There are more dangers, more cars. There are too many cruel people who see nothing wrong with hurting an animal. I would rather have people laugh at me for worrying so much, than to have my babies hurt. Yes, I may be an over-protective mother, but isn't that part of what mothering is? Protecting those who can't take care of themselves.