Day Three of Kitchen Chaos

The floor’s starting to look really cool and, gotta say, the Dunkin Donuts Dark Roast’s growing on me. Shocking! This morning’s coffee lady was decidedly more subdued over yesterday's who, while on break, clearly had a handful of Beauties with an espresso chaser.

Coco and Rocco are weathering the Valhalla Anarchy Storm better than anticipated. Our princess hasn’t made even one escape attempt (so far) but she is spending more time than ushe in the basement. Our not so fearless warrior boy’s not been back-of-the-closet hiding 24/7 either. Good, good. They both need mondo pats though. Understandable. Me too!

Our magnificent 'fraidy feral, Ghost Cat, on the other hand, is steering clear. His food’s gone by morning though.

Found a great little article in yesterday’s Globe – Stray cat patrol: Feral felines deployed in NYC war on rats.

Feline rat patrols keep watch over city delis and bodegas, car dealerships and the grounds of a Greenwich Village church. Four cats roam the loading dock at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, where food deliveries and garbage have drawn rodents for years.

‘‘We used to hire exterminators, but nature has a better solution,’’ said Rebecca Marshall, the sustainability manager at the 1.8-million-square-foot center. ‘‘And cats don’t cost anything.’’

Image by Anthony Majanlahti

Also mentioned was the rough life of street cats and how some of them are abandoned pets. Imagine! How could anyone ditch their furry partner? If you’ve got to move, you find a new home for your little beastie OR, failing that, you bring them to a no-kill shelter.

In any case, the New York story's tremendous. Puts Rome and the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary in mind. The cats there get to feast on pigeons, mice and lizards thus ridding the streets of disease carrying menace. On top of that, there’s a crew of gattare who bring them kibble and look after their health. Win/win and shit.

Think cats are pests? Oh please. The devastation of the Black Plague can easily be linked to religious leaders of the day’s claims that cats were demonic consorts of Satan. //snort// Cat doormats were, of course, accused of being witches.

Most accused witches were older peasant women who lived alone, often keeping cats as pets for companionship. This guilt by association meant that roughly a million cats were burned at the stake, along with their owners, on suspicion of being witches. (source)

So then, this happened:

Persecution had depleted the supply of domestic cats dramatically, leaving human grain stores unprotected when merchants brought the Plague from Asia to Europe in the form of ship rats with infectious fleas. Rats took over Europe, gobbling the grain and providing homes for the fleas that carried the Black Plague. Without the protection of domestic cats, the rat population multiplied exponentially. As a result, the Black Death spread rapidly, decimating Europe’s population. Additionally, many people suffered food poisoning due to rat droppings in their food supplies. Overall, people paid dearly for the slaughter of cats. (source)

See? Cats may not be all slobberingly doggy but they protect us. They're our unshowy, unostentatious champions!

Also too, this gem’s in my head now.