Kristen Lindsey is a vet. Or was a vet. At the time of this event, she was a Texas veterinarian.
One day Kristen decided to take her bow and arrow outside and shoot what she considered “feral” cats. She even took a pic of said event and posted it to Facebook. (Beware. Click that link at your own risk. It’s heart breaking.) Her caption?
“My first bow kill, lol. The only good feral tomcat is one with an arrow through it’s head! Vet of the year award … Gladly accepted.”
The cat was not feral. He was someone companion.
Let’s chat about unwanted cats for a moment.
Last October, a stray cat took residence under our deck. She lived there for quite a while (weeks) before the temp took a nose dive. She watched us through a basement window any time anyone went downstairs.
Finally, my son took a good look at her and asked why her neck looked so long. I opened the window and she crawled right in. She has lived with us ever since.
She was rail thin (hence the long-looking neck). Her fur clumped in small mats. And she was HUNGRY. I made the mistake of feeding her and that was the end of our cat-less home.
Her life likely wasn’t very good. She evidently lived with continual hunger. She was stone cold when she came in the house. Today, when thunder strikes, that little bundle of fur flies through the house in a panic.
When I reported that we found a stray to the city offices, I was told to just “take it out back and shoot it. We have hundreds of those things in the abandoned elevator.” I didn’t feel that was a good option.
Thing is, Luna (her name) didn’t deserve to die. She didn’t ask to be born. Someone, somewhere wanted a cat and didn’t spay her. They didn’t neuter their Tom. They weren’t responsible pet owners.
Luna wasn’t vaccinated, she wasn’t microchipped, she wasn’t fed, she was left, as a kitten, to fend for herself.
Who are we, as humans, when we treat someone like Luna with such disregard? That said, we seem to have trouble treating each other respectfully, how can we expect to treat someone as tiny as Luna with compassion?
All the companion animals in our home are rescue animals. The two pups come from the Humane Society and I just shared Luna’s story. Every one of them has every reason to be cranky, angry, and biased against humans. But they aren’t.
In that regard, I sometimes wish I could be more dog-like and perhaps more like stray-cat Luna.
I just hope that no one would come at me with a bow and arrow. People like that really shouldn’t work with anybody… let alone vulnerable animals.
