Opinion: It's a cat-astrophe that can be solved

Joni Anthony has no idea why wild cats seem to like her yard so much.

On Tuesday morning, there were at least 12 out there, she said.

“My neighbor said she gets them, too,” said Anthony, who lives in the 1500 block of Clovis’ Comer Drive. “There must be like 30 cats running around here.”

Anthony said she does nothing to encourage the critters. Just the opposite.

“I don’t feed them,” she said.

“I try to chase them off my stuff, they don’t run. They just sit there and spit at you.”

They won’t go away.

“I got a dog,” she said. “But I don’t have a big dog. They pester him. He’ll go outside to potty and they will chase him, hiss at him, pee on him.”

The cats have had kittens in her grapevines, they’ve torn up a screen and damaged a boat. Worse, the door on her camper flew open during a recent wind storm, a cat climbed inside, got hung up in the blinds and died several days later.

“It blew up,” Anthony said. She doubts the smell will ever go away.

Anthony has asked Clovis’ animal control to help. The solution seems simple.

Cat traps cost $25. You get your money back when you bring back the trap. Animal control officers will even pick up the trap once you catch a cat.

“Sounds simple, doesn’t it?” Anthony said. “Last time they didn’t pick it up for 2 1/2 days. I had to keep feeding it because I didn’t want it to die in there.”

Anthony, 59, said she is disabled from rheumatoid arthritis. “I can’t pick the traps up. I can’t bend down to set them,” she said.

And she’s allergic to cats. When she’s around them, she coughs, she sneezes, her eyes water.

Also, she said she doesn’t have the $25 deposit for a trap. And she can barely afford to feed herself, much less buy food necessary to entice the intruders.

If you’re thinking her cat problems are easily resolved by a family member, a caring neighbor, a city employee who takes an interest, you are probably right.

If you’re thinking she called the newspaper because none of those people have stepped up, you are also probably right.

David Stevens is editor for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]