So as I continue adding to the platform I started writing over a year ago in my bid to become the next Mayor of Greensboro, North Carolina I must continue doing the day to day things I do every day. You know, like feeding the cat.
About 10 years ago when I first saw Panther in my yard she was smaller than my hand, her eyes just barely opened, too young to eat solid food and chasing a rat at least 5 times her size. And the rat was running away.
The cat I presume to be her mother was laying in the street beside my yard the victim of an encounter with a car.
I've never before owned cats and had no idea what to do. But as rats were a real problem in my East Greensboro neighborhood back then, my thinking was that if she was willing to chase rats I was willing to let the cat stay. Besides, it was just a baby, if it managed to catch a rat it would never be able to kill and eat a creature 5 times its size.
So not knowing that cow's milk is not good for kittens I mixed cows milk with the liquid from canned tuna and put in in a bowl as close to the kitten as I could get. When I got far enough away she came out to drink it.
Soon thereafter we changed to regular kitten food, eventually cat food, and over the course of the next year dozens upon dozens of dead rats, sans heads, were deposited in the same spot in my back yard where I shoveled them into plastic bags and shipped them off the the solid waste transfer station via way of the big green garbage can.
I went from seeing rats every day to not seeing a rat in 9 years. No more do we buy mouse and rat poison or worry with traps, the vermin are dead before they find the house.
You see, Panther remains feral.
For the first few months she warmed up to me, occasionally allowing me to touch her ear when she was eating, or the occasional stroke of my finger down her back. And while I was planning to get her spayed she ended up pregnant even before I realized she was old enough to have kittens.
I watched as she gained weight until one day the weight was gone. I searched everywhere for her kittens but couldn't find them anywhere.
Then one day while I was sitting in the yard, Panther walked right up to me and sat a kitten at my feet. Over the course of the next few minutes she brought me 3 more healthy kittens all wild as they could be. Then she sat down, looked up and me and meowed as if to say, "Help, I've got more than I can handle!"
Over the course of the next few weeks Panther and I started to become friends. I helped her with taking care of her kittens and she decided it would be okay for me to pet her as well as the kittens. But I knew I could not keep 5 cats. I had neither the money to feed them, the money for their veterinary care, or the time necessary to look after them. And as someone in my home is allergic to cats, bringing even one cat inside is not an option.
I tried to find homes for the kittens but solid black kittens are the hardest to get people to take in. No one wanted them. With a heavy heart I took them to the Guilford County Animal Shelter and hoped for the best.
I got Panther spayed too.
And for the last 9 years until just a few weeks ago Panther has not allowed me to touch her.
I was told by the folks at the feral cat society that spaying would make her be more likely to be able to be domesticated. I'm not denying that's usually the case but for Panther it just didn't take. My Panther was obviously traumatized by the experience and it has taken us 9 years to make the least bit of progress.
Panther only wants me around now because I chase off the bigger cats that beat her up and take her food away from her. And if I don't have food in my hand I can't get near her.
Now I'm not saying it wasn't right to have Panther spayed. Animal Rights activists, governments, and people everywhere agree that feral pet overpopulation is out of control. But tell that to my beautiful little black Panther cat and she no doubt disagrees. She knows who set that trap in the yard. She knows whose scent was on the food that was placed in the trap. She knows who picked up trap and all and took her to that awful place where they... Well, you know. And 9 years later she hasn't forgotten. And she hasn't forgiven.
But this isn't just about feral pet overpopulation. As a matter of fact, this isn't about feral pet overpopulation at all. You see, as Mayor I'll have no control over animal control. The law gives animal control to the Guilford County Commissioners.
But this is about how our laws effect people. And perhaps sometimes, animals. For you see, it's easy to say we are doing the right thing but just because we are doing the right thing doesn't mean we aren't victimizing, pushing around, and traumatizing others. And too often government forgets those it runs over in the name of "doing the right thing".
Well guess what, those people get hurt too. Those people have emotions, feel pain, suffer losses, get misunderstood, get sick, cast out of society, victimized, and trampled upon just like all the groups we recognize as victims. And just as it is the job of government to look after the needs of those who fit in those recognized groups it is also the job of government to seek out and see to the needs of those who are not being recognized for what ever reason. Because resentment breeds contempt and contempt can bring us nothing but pain and heartache, war and suffering.
No, we can't satisfy everyone. But we can reach out to those who lose when government does "the right thing" and make sure we've done everything we could have done. Greensboro government has a long history of just doing enough to get by. That must change. If we are ever going to become the city where people want to live, where young, educated people want to spend their lives and invest their creativity, then that must change and Greensboro, starting with the Mayor, must go above and beyond.
As Mayor of Greensboro I will go above and beyond, devoting all my time and energy to our city and the people who live here.
Please continue reading If I Were Mayor Of Greensboro: Part 39, The Other Part Of The Drinking Water Debate
