Stray Cat(s)

My mother is the lady who composts and throws stale bread on the patio for the birds (squirrels).

A lonely cat started appearing in her backyard about the same time of day... and pretty soon a little bit of an attachment formed. In the morning when she'd be tossing stuff out the back door, the cat would already waiting.



Fast-forward. Like a lot.


It is many years later, and the now-fat cat is still coming around. I was sitting by the window in my mother's kitchen over the weekend, when I realized this big fat cat was sitting on the deck staring up at me, real still, like a statue. The same cat. Now so fat, it had grown into two cats.

Yes, one stray cat has become two stray cats, practically identical, not just in color, but identical in overweight, overfed-by-scraps size.

My parents -- who never let us have pets when we were were kids -- now gleefully "ooh" and "aaah" when they find their little grey friends waiting for stale pizza crusts and rock-hard bagels. That look of expectant feline joy that screams "Feed me, stupid homeowner!" seems to entrance lonely retired folk like my mom & dad.


There's no fixing this situation, is there?


Like, obviously, because they've never been pet-owners did my little Filipino parents realize that it would not be a good idea to start randomly feeding the neighborhood strays. They've unwittingly "adopted" these two cats, who clearly don't have a real home. Or maybe every night they go home to someone's house where they feed them a meager amount of no-frills brand vittles, and are so amazed at how such little nutrition could miraculously turn out such massive animals.


OK, so obviously, it's all too late now. But are there like any actual laws about feeding someone else's pets when they show up at your doorstep? Should my parents have looked for a collar, tag, ID, something?

Like, at this point, do they bother looking for an owner, or do we treat these twin fat cats with the same lack of attachment that we'd accord to a rabbit or a deer?


I'm not sure if the answer is nothing. To like, not do anything.

But seriously, this feeding-the-random-strays nonsense is out of control!


I mean, for godssakes... they feed the cats!!!!


. . .AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN FEED ME!!!!