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My name is Gayle Raven and I am the gardener that lives on 70 Fifth St., right on the corner of Fifth and Victoria. I won the garden of the year a couple of years ago and I have folks that drop in and enjoy looking at my garden on a daily basis.
When I’m outside working in my garden, I get, on average, at least (if not more than) 10 people that stop and tell me how much they enjoy coming to look at my garden and thanking me for the great work that I do with maintaining my gardens and giving folks enjoyment.
I enjoy working in my garden and I enjoy sharing this with folks. However, I have other problems with trying to keep up this beautiful garden.
I have neighbours that I have asked very nicely if they would please keep their cats in their own yard because of the stink and damage that they do to my property. They will not stop letting their cats roam at night. I have to wash my front porch with Javex to kill the smell of cat urine scenting the porch. They torment my own cat (that stays indoors) and pick fights with her through the window, waking us up in the middle of the night.
There are also feral cats that do combat with the other neighbours’ cats on our front porch. We have damaged wicker furniture on our porch from cats sharpening up their claws. I used to have fish in my pond and every one of them were hooked by a cat, left to die outside on the edge of the pond, and once that one stopped moving, they grabbed another one and another one. Nothing was eaten, just killed for the pleasure of the cat. I had to re-seed an area of lawn three times to get some grass to grow — the same for when I’m trying to plant flower seeds in the flower beds.
We have been sitting, enjoying watching the finches coming and eating seed when a cat came out from under our cedar trees and jumped up, grabbing the finch and taking off to eat the bird. We have nice cushions that we sit on outside and fleas start jumping on us. It’s not our pets because we keep them with flea medications on them.
I want to add that three years ago a raccoon came right beside me when I was working on my pond to get a drink. It ended up that it had distemper and I had to Javex everywhere that the raccoon had been. The Penetang humane society took care of the coon for me.
So, I asked Mayor Stewart Strathearn if he would pass a bylaw to have the cats tethered or put into a cat cage while outside. He told me it was a federal problem. After some investigating, I found out it is not a federal problem. It is a municipal problem. I am going to vote for someone that is going to put an end to this cat problem in this town. I can imagine the scramble there is going to be when rabies come to town.
As a concerned homeowner I just don’t understand the lack of respect for folks that think it’s OK to let their animals stink and do damage to someone else’s property. What if I let my dogs out to go and have a crap in their yard and leave it for them to smell? Let’s face it: Cat crap and urine really stink.
Please contact me, anyone who wants to sign a petition about the feral and non-feral cats that are doing damage in the neighbourhood and the destruction of killing our songbirds.
Gayle Raven
Midland
