The Stray Cats of New York City
Spend enough time in any part of the city and you’ll start noticing the resident stray cats foraging when no one is around. We’re getting ready to shoot in a park on the East Side, and every day, I’ve noticed these two guys running around. They’ve been very shy but seem hungry.
During prep and wrap days, the film production provides coffee and donuts in the morning for the rigging crew, and I always try to leave out a cup of cream. These cats have been loving it, though they’re still very wary of me. I had to stand way, way back to get this picture of one of the cats cautiously stalking the cups of cream. It looks like he thinks the cream is going to run away!
It’s funny, I’m really not a cat person (1. Don’t like the attitude, 2. VERY allergic)…but I hate to see them running around homeless. A few years ago, I was working on a job at a soccer field in a particularly bad neighborhood when I started hearing meowing. Underneath a dumpster, I found the cutest little kitten crying mournfully. I got him some milk and a can of cat food every day during the week-long shoot.
When it was getting time to leave, I decided that I had to do something about him. I called around the office, and someone graciously agreed to take him in. Now the goal was to get him in the car. I’m allergic, and I also have a paranoid fear of getting rabies or some other weird disease from stray animals. So I got a pair of ultra-thick electrician’s gloves and began luring him out.
It took FOREVER, but I finally managed to grab him and plop him in the car, then started back on the 30 minute drive to the office. Of course, as soon as we started driving, the kitten became very scared and started climbing all over me. By the midway point, the cat was literally standing on my head as I drove 75 down the interstate. I suppose it was worth the scalp lacerations though…
-SCOUT
PS – I give NO permission to disgrace these cats by adding LOLCATS crap to them!
PPS – Reader Jake could not resist, and apparently, neither could I:
Awww, yer awesome!
Daawwwwwww
maybe you should check back on how the ilttle guy’s doing and report here!
What a good heart you have!
That was really quite nice of you — both times.
No diseases I take it were contracted from the adorable kitty… good job on finding him a home, there are far to many stray cats that need love out there~
Omg, I had a good laugh at your story and trying to imagine a tiny kitten sitting on someone’s head while driving down the freeway! I’m glad you have a great heart to help a poor kitten! 🙂
Good job taking care of these little guys. Cats are smart and stay away from people.
I’m a lurker and I adore your blog.
Thought I’d mention in case you didn’t know, cats love dairy but it makes them sick. They might be a bit better off if you put out a tuna sandwich from crafty. Though cream is good for endearing yourself to them. 🙂
Aw. My roommate and I have two shelter cats. One of the two cats was a feral kitten rescued from a city park by some good samaritan. He has a few minor health issues and is pretty strange, even by cat standards, but he’s a great cat. Glad to see people watch out for our furry rat-eliminating friends.
Great photos of the little cats and happy to see that at least one person has ignored the “don’t caption” dictum. LOLcats have given me such pleasure over the years.
Thanks for lookin’ out for the three little cow cats. (black and white)
D’aww! My two babies, plus a third that died, and two more I gave to another friend, were all strays. Plucked ’em right up and out of the yard (*after a comedy movie worthy chase), and they’ve been my loving, if allergy inducing, friends ever since.
If you really think about it, if I were a stray cat, New York City would be the place to be; with the millions of rats running around, I can eat forever… You have to notice one thing about stray cats, 9 out of 10 times you’ll never see them boney or under weight (unless they’re sick) But cats, the natural hunters and survivers they are, as long as there are plenty of rats, mice and birds, they will mannege…
Please… no more cream… adult cats do not process it all that well… this is a myth… please, leave open cans of cat food instead