The apartment complex I live in has a large population of stray cats. Imagining myself to be a Friend of Animals, I’ve been feeding them off my porch for the last, oh, 18 months. All the while, I’ve been telling myself that any day now, I’m going to trap their furry little asses one by one in a pet carrier and take them off to be fixed, in order to put a dent in the overpopulation of strays.
I observed the birth of a litter of kittens almost exactly one year ago. Three orange ones and a white one. Stupidly, I’ve watched them grow to sexual maturity while continuing to feed them and idly talking about the “big fix”.
Well, the white cat (female) started acting a little weird a couple of weeks ago, being more aggressive in seeking food. She started showing up at the door as soon as the bowl went empty. Plus, she started hissing a little and nipping at my fingers when I got too close. The writing was on the wall. Two days ago I saw her brood of five kittens, about a month old, wrestling around near my fence.
I am a goddamned idiot. Well, maybe not an idiot, but a procrastinator, and how does the world know you’re not an idiot if you never do what needs to be done?