The outdoor cat: neighborhood mascot or threat?
Zeke, a short-haired white and gray cat with a penchant for knocking down rats, is known in his Boston neighborhood as a fearless prowler.
A neighbor once called his landlady, Tricia Brennan, sounding slightly panicked.
"Zeke is in the back and seems to be upsetting a raccoon washer,'" the neighbor said, according to Ms. Brennan, a Unitarian Universalist minister.
"'What am I doing?'"
The confrontation ended when the neighbor scared the two creatures away with a broom, but the story only cemented the legend of Zeke. He was also a reminder that cats are descendants of the Near Eastern wildcat, a fierce solitary hunter.
You saw them there - well-fed cats, sometimes with necklaces, walking the streets as if they belonged to them or collapsing on a warm sidewalk to bask in the sun.
Cat lovers find them charming. Wildlife conservationists and bird lovers see furry killers and blame them for declining bird populations and the deaths of countless voles, chipmunks and other small animals.
>How you feel about outdoor cats may also depend on where in the world you are. In the United States, about 81% of domestic cats are kept indoors, according to a 2021 population study of companion cats. But elsewhere it can be much more common to let them roam. In Denmark, only 17% of cats are strictly indoor pets, according to the same study. In Turkey, it is so common for feral cats to freely enter and leave cafes, restaurants and markets that a documentary has been made about the phenomenon. In Poland, they have recently been labeled as "invasive alien species".
Zeke, a short-haired white and gray cat with a penchant for knocking down rats, is known in his Boston neighborhood as a fearless prowler.
A neighbor once called his landlady, Tricia Brennan, sounding slightly panicked.
"Zeke is in the back and seems to be upsetting a raccoon washer,'" the neighbor said, according to Ms. Brennan, a Unitarian Universalist minister.
"'What am I doing?'"
The confrontation ended when the neighbor scared the two creatures away with a broom, but the story only cemented the legend of Zeke. He was also a reminder that cats are descendants of the Near Eastern wildcat, a fierce solitary hunter.
You saw them there - well-fed cats, sometimes with necklaces, walking the streets as if they belonged to them or collapsing on a warm sidewalk to bask in the sun.
Cat lovers find them charming. Wildlife conservationists and bird lovers see furry killers and blame them for declining bird populations and the deaths of countless voles, chipmunks and other small animals.
>How you feel about outdoor cats may also depend on where in the world you are. In the United States, about 81% of domestic cats are kept indoors, according to a 2021 population study of companion cats. But elsewhere it can be much more common to let them roam. In Denmark, only 17% of cats are strictly indoor pets, according to the same study. In Turkey, it is so common for feral cats to freely enter and leave cafes, restaurants and markets that a documentary has been made about the phenomenon. In Poland, they have recently been labeled as "invasive alien species".
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