close encounters of the feline kind

[cellio]

Note to future self: If, in the middle of something that could be classified as a public performance, you stifle a sneeze and your eyes get watery and you can't see the page you're reading from, it is better to stop cold than to trust your memory. Other than that, leading services Friday went reasonably well. It wasn't the best job I've done, but it didn't suck.

Last night I met "Sammy", a feline resident of Denniston Street. On my way to services I heard some plaintive meowing coming from under a parked car, so naturally I stopped to look. (I thought maybe the cat was injured.) She (I was later told it's a female) came bounding right out and demanded attention. I stopped and petted her for a few minutes, but I really did have to get to services. She was unhappy about my departure. I noted that she had a collar but no tags, and decided to walk this way on the way home and see if she was still there.

She was. Not only that, but she was under the very same parked car, and once again she came bounding out when she heard me. This time she would not stop meowing. She did not seem to be starving, but I was guessing that she had gotten away from her owners. She seemed to be trying to lead me up the steps to a particular house. That house was dark, but on further investigation (after trying a lit house unsuccessfully) I walked up and noticed that, in fact, someone was watching TV in a dark room.

The people who came to the door were very nice. No, they hadn't lost a cat; that's Sammy, they said. They don't know who she belongs to, but she prowls the neighborhood. The people thought her owners don't pay enough attention to her. While we were talking, Sammy kept meowing and eventually one of the people brought out a jug of cat food and gave her some (thus reinforcing the behavior). I wonder how many households are feeding her. (She wasn't fat, at least.)

All the people I talked with (a total of three) while trying to reunite the cat with her owner commented that it was very nice of me to go out of my way to help the cat. I thought it was just basic good manners, if you find an animal that is obviously someone's pet, to make an inquiry or two. I would hope that if one of my cats got away from me, someone would ask around upon finding said cat. Is that really so unusual? Yes, I live in a city and I probably learned this habit while growing up in the suburbs, but Pittsburgh isn't huge and intimidating as cities go.

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

I've stopped to try and reunite cats with their people before -- and in one case where an owner couldn't be found, ended up keeping him permanently -- but I think most people don't really know cats well enough to be able to tell with any feeling of certainty whether the cat has a person and is just roaming, or is genuinely lost, or is a stray whom nobody would claim in the first place. I know I don't. If a cat seems well-groomed, well-fed and fond of human contact I tend to assume it either has an owner or once did, but whether I assume it knows where it is going and let it go there, or stop and collect it and try to find its home, depends a lot on the neighborhood and how many cats routinely wander loose there. If I tried to check on every loose cat in my old Chicago neighborhood I'd never do anything else and I'd annoy the daylights out of my neighbors.