Neighbors expect fewer nighttime cat serenades

By isak, March 23, 2009

City rounds up, alters, vaccinates 42 stray felines
By Stuart Duncan (Contact)
Published March 17, 2009

CORPUS CHRISTI — Same cats with less attitude and less amorous intent.

That’s how city officials sum up the 42 feral cats that have been trapped, altered, vaccinated and released as part of a pilot program started in November in two city neighborhoods.

“The program has plusses for both those who like cats and those who don’t,” said Dennis Noble, city Animal Care Department community education officer.

“For the people who like cats, the cats aren’t euthanized.

“For the people who don’t like cats … their behavior is altered quite a bit to where they quit fighting, they don’t meow at night and they don’t mark their territory.”

And after being spayed or neutered as part of the program, they don’t add to the feral cat population problem.

Odie Landa said the city’s program must be working because feral cats aren’t as prevalent in the Baker Middle School area anymore.

“I used to see them all of the time — three to four stray cats a day,” said Landa, who has lived near Baker Middle School the past 20 years. “I haven’t seen any in a long time — it’s very unusual.”

A Baker Middle School neighborhood off of Norton Street and Pecan Street was one of two neighborhoods chosen for the program because of the high number of feral cat complaints, Noble said.

The other location is in the Norton Street and Kostoryz Road area, Noble said.

Gloria Gonzales, who has lived near Baker Middle School for about a year, said she has noticed a couple of feral cats recently — one of which scratched the paint on the top of her granddaughter’s boyfriend’s car.

Gonzales said she is glad that the city started the program because she’s concerned about the cats carrying rabies.

“I think it is (a good program) — the cats can’t multiply,” Gonzales said. “I feel sorry for the stray cats and little kittens because whoever had them didn’t take care of them.”

Noble said the one-year program is expected to target about 250 feral, or wild, cats, which would address about 18 cat colonies. He hopes the program also will expand to other parts of the city if the results are favorable enough in those two neighborhoods to continue it and if the program receives future grant money.