‘Cats are roommates; dogs are children’ is an illustrative nugget of bumper sticker wisdom. It is hoped you would never leave your roommate on the side of the road at the end of the semester.

The city of Syracuse certainly has a stray cat problem. In the University Hill and Westcott neighborhoods after dark you may have noticed skinny, young cats scavenging trash cans and slinking out of sight. I suspect some of these cats are feral and others are strays. Feral cats were born in the wild. Strays are domestic cats that have been abandoned.

I admit to being a cat person. They play fight and have their own personalities. I talk to cats like they are people who could potentially join the conversation. Until someone pointed this out to me, I did not realize that other people do not do this.

They are carnivores and predators, for sure. How cats affect ecosystems has been studied for both feral and owned cats, but there have been no conclusive results. It is all dependent on population densities of cats and prey species.

In addition to yowling, these wild cats are also potential vectors for cat scratch disease, ring worm and plague. But I’m sure that’s nothing to worry about. About a month ago, a cat tested positive for rabies in Clay for the first time since 2010.

Stray cats can be rescued and adopted after proper vaccinations and neutering. But feral cats are not used to people and do not interact well enough to be adopted. There are trap-neuter-release programs that effectively cut down feral cat populations by preventing reproduction.

My cats were relatively feral. Oliver and Georgie were found in a one-bedroom trailer with 50 other cats. Animal control came and the person responsible for leaving all the casts there served time in jail. That must’ve been a terrible thing to explain to the other inmates.

It took them months to warm up to us. They hid under couches and beds. I think they were malnourished as kittens and never developed properly. We mock them incessantly. Oliver’s head is shaped funny — it’s too broad and too flat. He’ll try to jump up onto the windowsill and miss because he is too fat and dumb. He gets embarrassed and pretends we don’t see.

I highly recommend adopting stray cats. They need a home, and it reduces the number of cats causing havoc and filling shelters. Plus, everyone likes to cuddle.

Transient neighborhoods like University Hill are ripe for stray cats. Some students leave at the end of the semester and do not take their cats with them. Don’t do that. It sucks. Get your cat neutered.

If you have a cat that you cannot take care of, call Syracuse Animal Rights Organization. They place stray cats in a foster home until they can be permanently adopted. On the flip side, students can foster kitties as well. This is a great alternative to owning cats because you are responsible for them for weeks, not years. Just don’t get in trouble with your landlord.

Leanna Mulvihill is a senior forest engineering major and environmental writing and rhetoric minor. Her column appears every Tuesday. She can be reached at lpmulvih@syr.edu or followed on Twitter at @LeannaMulvihill.  

Published on February 20, 2012 at 12:00 pm