Late last night, I spied an open cat trap set in the corner of the carpark. Evil looking thing.
This was definitely a borrowed trap from AVA to round up the kittens in the estate. I tipped the trap over and sprung it so that the unsuspecting curious kittens wouldn't get trapped.
I assumed it was the management office that set the trap. If so, I could go talk to them and maybe set up a TNRM programme in the estate to manage the stray cat population.
Today, after some snooping around, I realized it was a resident who borrowed the trap. I grew thoughtful. That was going to be a problem. Dawn knows that my mediation skills aren't any good. If I don't handle this well, neighborly relations might sour and I'd probably get cat poo smeared across my front door.
Tonight, I went back with my own traps to look for the kittens and their mother, hoping to trap them first before the evil people got to them. But they were nowhere to be found. The AVA cat trap was still lying in the same overturned position. That meant no one would check this trap till Monday. I considered relocating the trap to somewhere distant. But the girlfriend wryly told me not to get caught by the security cameras. Fine.
So as a form of silent protest, I hauled a block of cement from the far side and with some difficulty, dumped the block into the trap. Damn heavy. It must have been about 20kg or so. There, I'd give the person removing the trap some extra work to do and let him know that his actions are not exactly welcomed.
The short-term solution: I'm going back to look for the kittens and their mother, trap them myself and send them for sterilization. There are plenty of cats in this area. Killing the existing cats would only create a vacuum effect. It wouldn't stop other cats from moving in.
Sterilizing these existing cats would ensure that they keep the other cats away and the estate would more or less have a stable population of cats, rather than seeing an increase all the time.
The problem is, I get intolerant people who don't want cats around at all. Worse, they don't understand about the vacuum effect.
The greatest irony is, they can continue killing the cats and still never be rid of them on a permanent basis.
By the way, having said all these, I repeat, I'm not fond of cats.
This was definitely a borrowed trap from AVA to round up the kittens in the estate. I tipped the trap over and sprung it so that the unsuspecting curious kittens wouldn't get trapped.
I assumed it was the management office that set the trap. If so, I could go talk to them and maybe set up a TNRM programme in the estate to manage the stray cat population.
Today, after some snooping around, I realized it was a resident who borrowed the trap. I grew thoughtful. That was going to be a problem. Dawn knows that my mediation skills aren't any good. If I don't handle this well, neighborly relations might sour and I'd probably get cat poo smeared across my front door.
Tonight, I went back with my own traps to look for the kittens and their mother, hoping to trap them first before the evil people got to them. But they were nowhere to be found. The AVA cat trap was still lying in the same overturned position. That meant no one would check this trap till Monday. I considered relocating the trap to somewhere distant. But the girlfriend wryly told me not to get caught by the security cameras. Fine.
So as a form of silent protest, I hauled a block of cement from the far side and with some difficulty, dumped the block into the trap. Damn heavy. It must have been about 20kg or so. There, I'd give the person removing the trap some extra work to do and let him know that his actions are not exactly welcomed.
The short-term solution: I'm going back to look for the kittens and their mother, trap them myself and send them for sterilization. There are plenty of cats in this area. Killing the existing cats would only create a vacuum effect. It wouldn't stop other cats from moving in.
Sterilizing these existing cats would ensure that they keep the other cats away and the estate would more or less have a stable population of cats, rather than seeing an increase all the time.
The problem is, I get intolerant people who don't want cats around at all. Worse, they don't understand about the vacuum effect.
The greatest irony is, they can continue killing the cats and still never be rid of them on a permanent basis.
By the way, having said all these, I repeat, I'm not fond of cats.
15 comments:
it's hard to put your point and vacuum effect across when all they care about is the scratches on their porsches and the amazing number of beemers u have in that carpark.
oh dear. you damn funny. u dumped a cement block into the trap??! i wonder what will the remover think. hah.
But maybe the person is trying to catch the cats so that he/she could send them for sterilization. Right?
Go find the person and have a nice talk with him/her. Bring your friend along if 'nice' is not forte. :P
estate's so new and the cats have moved in already? and i assume complaints are aplenty???
dainty daisy: hmm.
meteor: 'crap'. :P
dk: ummm...nope. i did my homework. he's sent in a few complaints to the mgmt office and said they're slow, so he'll do it himself. i.e., round up, send them in and be rid of them. i'm not sure i can talk to him....depending on which level of madness he exists at.
natasha: sigh. we'll see.
I'll go :)
now i understand what you told me yesterday.
pardon me, i am slow.
By the way, I never said your mediation skills aren't good - just ummm don't punch anyone!
dawn: hahah. i said u know they aren't any good! so there! let me go nose ard and see how. but now, i want to go get the kittens first. cant seem to find them last night. thought it'd be a good time since it was storming and they might hide in the estate...
i get stray cats coming into my condo's carpark as well and I agree that killing them will not solve the problem. I wonder how we can get rid of this problem for good though.
msfairface: the cats usually come and go and take shelter when needed. that's okay i guess. but if someone there feeds them, then they stay for good. short-term solution is to kill. long-term solution is to sterilize. and hope HDB relents on its rules.
ms fair face - actually cats come in because of territory, not because of food so there will always be cats. As Imp said though if someone is feeding, and not sterilising the cat population will grow. The best thing to do is to control the population through TNRM. If you'd like some information drop me an email?
goodness! imp! dumped a concrete block. oh dear oh dear.
I'm not particularly fond of cats but I won't be as cruel as that 'person'. It takes more than pure guts to do that.
dr: i understand dislike and aversion. coz i share the same feelings sometimes. but i don't understand extermination.
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