Isabel Casin would rather take care of cats than buy new shoes for herself.
“If someone gave me $100 for new shoes, I’d spend it on these cats instead,” Isabel said, nodding to the woods behind her.
These are feral cats; some 15 of them, living in a jungle-like overgrown wooded lot.
It is easy to overlook them. Most people never even see the cats. They don’t show themselves to strangers. I can attest to that. They backed away when I came close.
But Isabel is no stranger. She brings food regularly. One by one the feral cats gingerly come out of the woods as soon as she parks her car, even before she opens the trunk and begins loading up bowls with dry food.
She fills bowls of food and puts them close to the nearest trees, then walks into the woods on barely discernable paths to put bowls down in the jungle overgrowth for the shyer cats.
All the cats are full-grown. Tortoiseshells, black and white, gray tabbies, calicos. You could, if you were a cynic, say that Isabel is a bleeding heart. Who else would choose cats over shoes?
Or, maybe she is being a good Christian. Well, St. Francis loved animals, didn’t he? And God made all things great and small, isn’t that what a poem by Cecil Frances Alexander says?
I was in the parking lot,headed for my car,having made a visit nearby, when I thought I heard a cat cry. Looking around, I do not see anything and kept on going. Just then, Isabel drove up. Perhaps that cry was a scout cat that had sighted her car.
My keys were in the car door when I saw cats starting to come out of the woods. Isabel opened the trunk of her car. Huge bags of cat food and numerous bowls filled up all the available space.
I stayed to see the Cat Woman at work.
There is a reason why all the cats who come out of the woods are adults. Isabel proudly announces she has had them all fixed, one at a time. Think about that. This means she had to bring a cage, catch them one at a time, not an easy task, as cats are fast learners, take them to a vets and return them back to the woods. This determination comes from a senior citizen on a limited income. All have made the spay/neuter trip except a large white male she can’t catch, but she’s working on that.
As she emerges from the deep woods, any thought she might be a bleeding heart evaporates. She tells me I should go on the Internet and look for www.thecatnetwork.org
That is how she got all the cats fixed. Isabel is a very responsible cat caregiver.
The Cat Network in Miami, phone (305) 255-3482 for a voicemail, wants to reduce overpopulation of stray, homeless and abandoned cats in South Florida by sterilization, vaccination, and release. All the cats that go through the Network have their ears tipped, so anyone can tell if they have been spayed/neutered. Every effort is made to put adoptable cats in kind homes.
Members pay $20 a year and that qualifies them for low-cost spay neuter certificates at $25 each. Let’s see, if a good pair of shoes costs $100 (we are in South Florida remember), then for that same price Isabel can get four cats fixed and vaccinated.The cat alternative is looking pretty attractive.
I came for one thing and found another. Isabel. A blessing. Unexpected. A point of light in an overgrown lot. Thank goodness for the Isabels of this world. But more are needed. There are a lot of stray cats out there, abandoned for whatever reason.
Somewhere near you a group is doing its best to cut down cat overpopulation. Check out the Internet, check the phone book, ask around, talk to your friends and neighbors, and get involved. For the price of a pair of shoes, you can be an Isabel, not just talking the talk but walking the walk with humane cat population control.
©2006 Lucy Tobias. All rights reserved. Lucy Tobias is a freelance writer living in Ocala, Florida. She is working on a book for University Press of Florida called “50 Great Walks in Florida”.