Chasing Pussy with Filmmaker Dolores Smith

It's for your own good, kitty.

I believe in taking care of business in your own backyard. And if your backyard is full of alley cats, congratulations! You have been afforded the opportunity to enrich your life, contribute to your community, and help cats achieve their dreams.

When people make too many babies with too few resources, there's not a lot we can do. We can't, say, trap, educate, and release them into society with our fingers crossed. But with cats, we CAN! I recognize that you might be thinking: I hate cats. Why would I want to help them? The answer is: when you help create a controlled cat colony in your neighborhood, everyone benefits. No more will you be awakened by the terrible sound of cat sex, for example. Read along while I explain the hows and whys of "TNR" with help from my cattrapping mentor — local lesbian filmmaker, community activist and friend to cats, Dolores Smith.

1. Is There A Problem?
The first question to ask yourself is: do I or does someone I love have a feral cat problem? Look outside. Have you seen kittens? Do you hear the howling that results from the spiky cat penis? If the answer is yes, your neighborhood has a problem. Please proceed.

Neighbors tip us off that rogue kittens are hanging in this vacant.

2. Why Shouldn't I Just Ignore the Problem?
When feral cats continue to reproduce unfettered, you get a stressed population that has no means to happiness other than drinking, fighting, and fucking. These cats lead short unhappy lives. If you decide to call animal control and have all the cats removed, those cats will be killed and new cats will move in. Like immigrants settling in wherever there are unscrupulous capitalists to exploit them, cats are numerous and hungry and will follow the money. "This vacuum effect is well documented," according to Alley Cat Allies. Do you want to be the kind of person who ignores the suffering around you? Perhaps. But if not, scroll on to the next section.

3. What Do I Do?
Take a moment to pat yourself on the back for giving a shit about what's going on around you. Ok, at this stage most people try to pass the buck. It goes something like, hm, my friend Jenny likes cats. Maybe she'll come take care of this problem. But friend, you are a grownup now and it's time to take some responsibilty. According to Dolores, you should now start FEEDING THE CATS. Go buy a big bag of cheap cat food. For the cost of a few beers a month, you can make a difference, microlocally. Put out the food once or twice a day, and always do it at the same time. This solves two problems: one, animals need food, and two, when the time comes to trap the cats, they will be routinized, and you and the trapper will know when they're biting.

Traps set and baited with tuna, Washington Post.

4. Now What?
Now you should have a good idea of how many cats and kittens are in your hood. Because you've been feeding them every day, you know where and when they come around. NOW it's time to ask for help. To make an appointment to have your brood trapped, email or call Bridget Speiser, The Washington Humane Society's CatNiPP (Cat Neighborhood Partnership Program) Manager at 202-608-1356 (ext. 101) or 202-88-ALTER, or at BSpeiser@washhumane.org.

You may be asked to help with the trapping, transporting, or keeping the caged cats overnight.

The old Volvo wagon is the internationally recognized ride of do-gooders.

5. How Does Trap-Neuter-Release Work?
When the cats are collected they are kept overnight in the home of the volunteer trapper or the caretaker (that's you). In the morning they are taken to a clinic where they are spayed or neutered, given shots, flea treatment, vaccinations, kitty abortions, and, this is important, their left ears will be "tipped," meaning the tip is cut off. A cat with an eartip will not be picked up by animal control, because the cat is recognized to be spayed or neutered and no longer a drain on taxpaying citizens. The cats are kept overnight again, and then released back into their neighborhoods.

I know this works, because Dolores and I trapped all the ferals in my alley and the one across the street two years ago. Since then there have been no new kittens, and the cats that are still around look healthy, and they don't spray or fight or get it on. I still feed two of them, (Original) Bad Peanut Butter, Sr. and his daughter Peanut Butter. Lookit how cute they are.

My semi-tamed ferals with their winter fat on. See their ear tips?

6. What About Dolores?
Dolores Smith is an amazing woman! We New Gays don't have enough wise owls in our lives, so meeting Dolores was lucky for me. She spends countless hours feeding various cat colonies around DC and doing TNR, formerly for Alley Cat Allies and now for CatNIPP. She taught both Coach and I the ins and outs of trapping. And as a special bonus, she is a filmmaker. She made Sara, a movie about lesbians coming-of-a-certain-age in DC, and she also made the gentrification documentary Southwest Remembered: A Story of Urban Renewal. She's currently working on A Story of Public Housing, which she says is going to take forever. Dolores lives in Petworth with her partner Gigi Lytle. She loves to recruit new trappers, so if you're interested, drop her a line at lamontpro@aol.com.

Dolores does her detective work, and finds that this nice gentleman is the cat caregiver in his alley. Finding the area cat freak is rare, and a major boon.

Just the facts, ma'am:

CatNiPP (Cat Neighborhood Partnership Program)
CatNiPP is designed to address the challenge faced by property owners surrounding the presence of stray and feral cats, all while treating the cats in a humane and ethical manner. Stray and feral cats are the product of human mistreatment — owned cats are too often abandoned and those that are not neutered produce litters of untamable kittens. Unaddressed, the process continues and seems unstoppable.

Through CatNiPP, the Washington Humane Society endorses a management method called Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). TNR works because it addresses the root of the problem — the breeding.

In TNR the cats are humanely trapped, brought to our spay/neuter clinic where they are neutered, vaccinated and generally examined. They are also eartipped (a portion of their ear is cut) to signal that they have been treated by a veterinarian. After treatment the cats are then returned to their outdoor home — to live out their days in a managed colony. They no longer reproduce and their nuisance behaviors, like fighting, spraying and yowling are dramatically reduced.

TNR works because it stops the breeding, promotes stabilization of the wildlife in the neighborhood and allows the cats to be humanely treated. TNR is the solution that not only helps the cats but also makes residents and neighbors truly feel good about handling the challenge. TNR is also far more cost effective than traditional trap-and-remove services and provides a truly long-term solution.

- The Washington Humane Society CatNiPP (Cat Neighborhood Partnership Program)