Cats! Cats! Cats!

CJOB seems to have broken a story this morning about a proposed Responsible Pet Ownership By-law that among other things, will require cat owners to license their cats, at a cost of $15/cat. This proposed by-law would also only allow pet stores to sell cats and dogs that have come from a shelter rather than breeders (or worse, places like puppy mills).

Emma

 Of course, the new "tax" (not a tax, but that's what the crazy people started calling it) on cats got all sorts of people calling in and complaining. Are you kidding me? Heck, it could almost be considered unfair that currently dog owners are forced to pay $64 for an unfixed dog and $29 for a pooch that has gone under the knife. A responsible pet owner should be happy to pay the fee, and yes, it should be higher for pets that aren't fixed (the proposed fee for cats that aren't fixed is $50). I find it interesting that they are going to want to charge a fee of $300 for people to be allowed to sell animals, that seems like it will be a little difficult to regulate. I foresee a lot of people who are trying to get rid of their one pet (vs. obvious breeders) selling cat supplies that come with a free cat on kijiji.


I think some important questions to be asked are how exactly this $15/cat is going to be spent; currently they are saying it will go towards subsidizing spay and neuter programs, however there should be clarification as to how much, if any will be going towards programs that trap and spay/neuter feral cats and then release them. The sound bites I heard this morning seemed to imply that simply forcing people to license their cats was going to get rid of the feral cat population, which is currently estimated at 80,000-150,000!! Clearly, that is not remotely realistic.

Having a pet is not a right, but a luxury. As pet owners we always need to be aware that a hefty medical bill can pop up, if people claim that they can't afford the $15 (I presume per year) for cat ownership then what does that say about their ability to care for their pet if it becomes sick? Now, I'm a mere mortal, I of course don't have some sort of secret stockpile of funds to pay vet bills but in the back of my mind I know that I might have to. The beautiful Emma pictured above decided to test her will to live to the tune of $600 in 2011 (I am very thankful she only felt the need to spend that much before she got the spring back in her step!)

That said, I am a believer that pets are an important part of a persons overall mental well-being and I don't begrudge lower-income people or even transient people for wanting to be pet owners, so long as they are responsible pet owners as well. Even if people just want to think of the $15 as added insurance that their pet will be returned to them if it goes missing it's well worth it.

If you're on facebook, a couple of groups well worth liking are the Winnipeg Lost Cat Alert and the Winnipeg Lost Dog Alert. Currently the dogs have 6,149 likes and the cats only have 1,582 - lets boost those cat numbers! For all the crap you have filling up your facebook feed wouldn't it be great if along with all the funny/fake-motivational/spiritual/borderline-porn pictures you could help reunite a pet with its owner?

And lastly, I know I've posted it before, but it's such a good one:

An unusual dilemma

Those that know me (or read me) know that I'm usually pretty quick to report by-law violations, especially in rental properties. There is a property close to me, I've affectionately dubbed it the "drive by shooting house" due to an incident from a few years ago, that violates at least a few by-laws including missing eavestroughs, a questionable fence and through the neighbourhood gossip line I'm told that the basement is caving in on itself, among others.  Now, I've actually reported all of these violations before, in an Al Capone sort of way of dealing with problem tenants (getting the landlord to pay attention to his property and therefore being aware of his problem tenants because he's getting nasty notices from the City).

Now the dilemma ensues... the most recent batch of problem tenants have disappeared into the night. I'm pretty sure it was a midnight move and no idea what prompted it but it certainly wasn't at a "traditional" moving time of the 1st or the 15th. They've been gone for a while now and it's kind of nice - no garbage being thrown in the yard, no poor dog tied up and barking for hours at a time, no sketchy van coming and going 17 times in an afternoon (I run that many errands every day, don't you?). Oh, and I certainly miss the home visits by the Street Connections Van to that place - can't keep your yard clean, but hey, you're using clean needles - I suppose it's a start *eye roll*

So my dilemma is this: If I push the by-law issues, as I am currently not sure where they are at, I can likely have the house repaired. However, I have no idea where the landlord's head is at and if he even realizes yet that he has no tenants, and if he is suddenly (finally) forced to fix up the house he is probably going to want to have tenants living in the house to help pay for the repairs. In the past 5+ years there has yet to be one set of "good" (quiet, tidy) tenants in the place, I'm thinking that the next batch won't be great just because they have fancy new eavestroughs on the house...

I think I'm going to leave it for a while and push the issue again when there is bad tenants in there. The house may be unsightly but in theory it won't get worse quickly all on its own, however if a new batch of people move in there might be more problems than there are right now. This particular time I'm not going to chase down the by-law folks to make sure they are enforcing.

All is quiet on the northern front

I'm a bit torn as to whether I actually believe Murphy's Law exists or not, but to be on the safe side, I'm going to knock on wood before this post, just in case.

As I've mentioned before, I live in the North End - in fact I've just survived celebrated 5 years of living here. I've seen the residents of a few "bad" houses come and go and similar to raespace over at adayinthehood, I always wonder if the new folks that move in will be an improvement or not.  It seems as though some definite movement took place earlier in the week; I never saw a moving truck but the autobins sure did get full.

The house that I've considered to be the worst offender within my line of sight had the tenants seemingly disappear in the middle of the night. I hope they took their dog with them and that's not just because it barked so loud and so often that I called the City to complain - they were awful to that dog (outside all the time on a short leash, well, until the City made them bring it in) and I hope that poor thing hasn't been abandoned inside the house.

I'm really looking forward to spring, the feeling in the air is so full of promise. I'll pick up the garbage that has accumulated on my boulevard, give everything a good sweep and get ready to talk to my neighbours again instead of doing the hurried run from the garage to my front door while trying to ward off frostbite.  There is a duplex going in on a property quite close to mine and I don't even think I'm apprehensive about it. Yes, it will mean more people vying for space in the autobin that I usually use, but it will also mean much needed quality housing for some new people.

As I read more and more of the Winnipeg-related blogs, I continue to have it confirmed for me that we have one heck of a great city to live in, with some fantastically interesting people. The Winnipeg blogging crew seem to generally have far more knowledge and interest in politics than I will ever have so I won't even try to capture all of the same readers that they have, but I hope you will continue to stop by for my version of Winnipeg (even if you all like plain black wheels on your cars, you crazy-practical people!). For all of you who have been patiently waiting for my picture of the ladies urinals at The Bay downtown, I tried to find it earlier tonight (oh yes, I have that kind of excitement in my social calendar) but as it was taken before the digital era I'm having a bit of trouble tracking it down, but fear not, I have not forgotten.

...and remember, help control the pet population, have your pet spayed or neutered

So I think my niche will have to be to provide a lighthearted and quasi-informational view into my version of Winnipeg; my complaint about the house with barking dog reminded me of a fantastic program that is run by the Winnipeg Humane Society. The SNAP program subsidizes the cost of getting your pet spayed or neutered. I think that pet ownership can be a very important part in the quality of life for people and unfortunately there are many folks who have the best intentions to be responsible pet owners when they first get that adorable ball of baby fluff but by the time it comes time to fork out well over $100 to get it fixed... So, if you know of someone who might be hoping that their pet is part of an abstinence pact, and they could perhaps benefit from this program let them know. Sometimes people just feel powerless and since information is power, go on and share a little and help control the pet population.

Have a great weekend!

Laughter, the best medicine

Well, I'm home now, only a 11.5 hour day today. Haven't washed today's angry off yet, but saw this video on a friends facebook profile and it brought a genuine smile and laugh to my weary face. It's so quintessentially Winnipeg. Now, as I'm realizing, the blogging crowd tend to be a very well read bunch and since I found the video on the WFP website you all likely would have come across it on your own, so I ask you to pass it on to your friends and family via other mediums so they can enjoy it too!



Oh, and in case you are wondering what happened with my roof, so far nothing, but they did send someone useful to come take a look and they shoveled the snow off the roof, it's a start.

D'Arcy's lives to fight another day

Well, it seems as though Winnipeggers stepped up to the plate, yet again. Good work folks! According to today's Winnipeg Free Press article D'Arcy's received some very generous donations, including ongoing assistance with their Hydro bill for the rest of the year.

Stories like this make me both elated and depressed. Obviously, the short-term outcome is fantastic, but what about the long term? What about all of the other local organizations, animal and otherwise, that need our help? Why do we only respond when there is a crisis? How do we use prevention instead of a cure?

Now, I'll say this, and surely not for the first time, politics are not my thing. I tend to have the kindergartner's view when it comes to any sort of political issue. It just strikes me that we could better serve many of the organizations that we support if there were less of them. I don't think that having less programs would be a detriment, in fact, quite the opposite. Winnipeg is lucky to be blessed with so many dedicated and brilliant folks when it comes to our non-profit sector; what if they all banded together and created superpowers of their genre rather than spreading themselves and Winnipeggers donation dollars so thin. Administration eats up much of any agency's budget, not because they are overpaying their employee's - generally quite the opposite, never mind all the volunteer labour hours that are contributed to any given organization. Good people to run an organization costs $$ and many of the hours are just spent looking for more funding. I think there must be a better way.

Help our furry residents

Hmmm, well, since I don't know that I have much of a following I don't know how much good this will do, but I'm sure if I ever end up with a following the message will still be relevant.

D'Arcys Arc is having a cash crunch (see article here) and we can help. Obviously, being the generous folk that Manitobans are known to be, you might have already expended your donation cash. These are my cashless suggestions - I buy my cat food there, whatever profit there is to be had in the food goes to the shelter - you're going to buy it anyway, it might as well be there. A friend donated her HBC reward points to D'Arcys. Have unwanted but still usable stuff? Donate it to one of their two thrift stores (Main St. or Sargent Ave.). Checking the couch cushions for change is a hit or miss, but with $1 and $2 coins in existence you might make a pretty good donation.

So step it up Winnipeg!

D'Arcys A.R.C. (Animal Rescue Centre) website here - with donation button!

*I know there are many other great no-kill shelters in Winnipeg, Craig St. Cats and Quagga's come to mind - if you have the cash, please consider them and others as well. I don't know that they have the ability to raise funds in my other suggested ways.