The antiques and feral cat district

[urbpan]

Our first morning in St Louis we went poking around for breakfast and found a listing for a place called "The Mud House." That sounded pretty good, so we ended up in a quaint neighborhood calling itself "Cherokee Antique Row." I quickly found a non-human animal to cozy up to. His truncated ear tip indicates that he's part of a managed feral colony, neutered and vaccinated, but otherwise allowed to roam. I'm not a fan of the practice, but it's better than doing nothing.



I love ghost signs, the fading remnants of advertisements painted on the walls of buildings. This one has so many layers that it's essentially an abstract, although I think I can make out the word "Boston" in the middle.


Those kinds of ads made a lot of sense when there was a lot of construction making tall windowless factories and warehouses out of bricks. A solid color somehow feels oppressive.


The purple morning glories and white cat are a nice touch, however.


Oh I'm sorry, am I boring you?

Comments

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

GREAT photos.
Why aren't you a fan of TNR? Or are you a non-fan of the ear-tipping? I've seen notching, which is slightly better...? But I'm not sure of a better way to indicate a feral cat's status.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I'm opposed to TNR programs because they send the message that it's okay to keep cats outdoors.

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I follow. TNR programs are pretty much exclusively for ferals and feral colonies, right? Those aren't necessarily cats which can be made into housepets. I fully agree that cats should be indoor pets, but when it comes to huge feral colonies, I would much rather TNR the truly wild ones and try to keep their numbers in check versus doing nothing.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

The thing is that the feral colonies never stabilize, people continue to allow their pet cats to roam and add to the colonies. Mandatory spay neuter for cats would be a good solution, also laws against allowing cats to roam. I'm not holding my breath for either.

TNR wasn't invented as an alternative to doing nothing, it was invented as an alternative to trap/cull programs.

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

Gotcha.

[froganon.livejournal.com]

Love the kitties. Very expressive. Thanks for these.