Baker Park’s Cat Camp

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Our SOS committee, “Little Things Mean a Lot,” was considering a “flash-mob” cleanup of Baker Park.  Not having been there since last summer, I wanted to check it out first.   

The City and the river between them have done remarkably well there, at least in the improved section of park, and even in the unimproved.  There was very little old litter in the improved section away from the parking lot.  And the city had been cutting dead blackberries away from the sidewalk, though they hadn’t yet picked up the piles of stems they raked up.

My boots got soaked spreading chickweed at Greenwood and I was wearing clogs, so I couldn’t explore well too far from the paths.  As it was, I was stumbling on the beach rocks.  I saw some wet clothing on brush to pick up later.   

But it was not too littered for me to feel that I could clean it, and I picked up a couple of buckets before I left.  Indeed, I picked up a third one because I saw some litter in the brush near the parking lot as I carried the 2^nd bucket to the trash can and didn’t want the visitors to see me leave it.

At one point, a trail of litter called me behind the restrooms, where I found it more concentrated than anywhere else in the park.  Up against the backside of the building was a camp for homeless cats, AKA a “cat colony,” placed there by the Josephine County Spay/Neuter Society, who left a note asking people to respect their work.  I respected it so much I called our assistant city manager to report it.   

It might have fed cats if there wasn’t a woman who takes all the food for her dogs, or so I was told by a person who was walking with me at that point.  But they could have been feeding stray dogs, raccoons, and even cougar or bear, not to mention crows, jays and rats.  Do people who put food out for cats on public property think only cats eat it?

This one had 4 big bowls of food, at least 3 cups each, and two big bowls of water.  It also had a plastic bin on its side with a blanket, and a sagging cardboard box in a black plastic bag for really stupid cats to take shelter in and get eaten.

"TNR," or "Trap, Neuter and Return" a feral cat to where it lives, is a good idea.  Feeding them is not.  A fed TNR'd cat is not feral; it is an outdoor pet.

A feral cat defends its territory from other cats, because it needs a lot of territory to hunt in so as not to scare off the game.  A fed cat reverts to dependent kittenhood, and tolerates other cats like a kitten does its littermates.  It is no longer feral; it is an outdoor pet that still likes to hunt for pleasure, but doesn’t need a big territory to survive.  Other cats come to eat the food and join it, forming a colony that scares off all the game that we go to parks to see: birds, squirrels, and especially lizards.  One sees lizards only where cats are scarce, which, sad to say, is not in the city; there are plenty of cats surrounding parks.

No need for a flash mob cleanup at Baker Park, though.  I suggested the riverside below the Riverside Inn, where litter is thick and large, or below the Caveman Bridge in Riverside Park where it is thick and small.  Of course, there is probably nearly as much small litter below the Inn; it just isn’t visible from the Bridge.