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Published September 14, 2006
Grayson was nowhere
to be found Tuesday afternoon when his
owner Laneta Watson went looking for
him.
Fortunately for Watson’s sanity, the
errant feline did not stay gone long,
reappearing after a long nap, likely
taken in some sunny, comfortable
location.
“All my cats are privileged to go
outside,” Watson said, looking over her
shoulder at her deck, which overlooks
the Guadalupe River.
The family’s other four-legged members —
Wild Thing, Baby and Princess — were
somewhere over the horizon of the hand
railing but stayed out of sight, despite
their owner’s persistent calls aimed
mostly toward the backyard.
“Who knows where they are right now,”
Watson said. “Hopefully they don’t get
picked up by animal control.”
Watson’s concern about her cats getting
nabbed by the city’s animal control
officer might sound a little paranoid,
but Grayson likely would be happy to
tell anyone the fear of entrapment is
well-founded.
Earlier this summer, the adventurous
feline was lured with chunks of tuna
into a trap set by one of Watson’s
neighbors.
The animal control officer took him to
the New Braunfels Humane Society Animal
Shelter, where he stayed overnight until
Watson came looking for him the next
morning.
“I was so worried. He’s my husband’s
favorite cat,” she said. “I called them
as soon as they opened, and when they
said they had him, I jumped in the car
to go over and get him.”
But before Watson, mother of former
District 6 Councilwoman Juliet Watson,
could finish rejoicing over her pet, the
shelter staff slapped her with three
citations and a hefty fine . Watson was
able to have two of her tickets
dismissed when she produced proof that
Grayson had his rabies vaccination and a
city pet license, but she was stuck with
appearing at municipal court for failing
to properly restrain the cat, a
violation of the portion of the city’s
ordinance commonly known as the “Leash
law.”
When she finally had her day in court,
two weeks after Grayson came home from
the shelter, the judge asked one
question.
“Are you guilty?” Watson said, recalling
her appearance. “I told her I didn’t
know how to leash a cat.”
Municipal Judge Sara Harkin reduced
Watson’s fine to $20, plus $40 in court
costs. Watson also had to pay the
shelter $46 for taking care of Grayson
for one night.
Despite her pet’s costly excursion,
Watson does not have the heart to keep
him or his three companions inside. She
tries not to worry about continuing to
violate the city’s ordinance, but she
has cautioned Grayson against straying
out of the yard.
Cats and Leashes
According to the city’s animal
ordinance, pets must be restrained,
which means secured by a leash or lead
and under a responsible person’s
command. Cats are exempt from the leash
requirement, but they must not become a
public nuisance.
“Basically, they must not stray off
(their owners’) property to the point
that they are impacting someone else’s
enjoyment of their own property. Nowhere
are we saying your cats must be on a
leash. All we’re trying to do is impress
upon (people) that cats do get out, and
they are a majority of our calls for
service. Only about 2 percent of them
are ever redeemed once they get back to
the shelter,” said City Sanitarian Joe
Lara.
Last year, animal control officers
picked up 2,078 cats, 56.3 percent of
the combined total of 3,693 cats and
dogs.
“Cats are a huge problem in the
community,” concluded City Planner Frank
Robbins, noting that he did not believe
other cities collected such a
disproportionate amount of cats. Animal
control officers in Seguin collected
only 447 cats in 2005, 31.6 percent of
the 1,416 combined total of cats and
dogs. In San Marcos, 1,224 cats were
impounded by the animal shelter, 47.7
percent of the 2,568 cat and dog total.
The large number of cats collected in
New Braunfels and the small number
reclaimed by their owners — only 35 —
makes Lara believe most of the impounded
animals are strays. He did admit that
because of cats’ proclivity to roam, a
pet might be gone for several days
before its owner assumed it was really
missing, making it possible that some
animals were readopted or euthanized at
the shelter before their owners could
retrieve them.
To prevent any questions of ownership,
Lara recommended all cats wear collars,
a concept Watson said Grayson and his
buddies resist diligently. Microchipping
— a procedure that implants a chip
loaded with an owner’s contact
information under the cat’s skin — is
another option to make sure the animal
is identified as owned and not stray.
Lara said his officers do not drive the
city’s streets looking for unrestrained
cats. The cats they collect, he said,
already are contained, either in a cage
or another enclosed space. Officers
encourage residents who call about a
stray cat that is not contained to rent
a trap from the animal shelter, unless
the cat can be captured immediately on
the spot.
Future Changes Uncertain
Knowing that one of her neighbors had
trapped Grayson — although the shelter
staff would not tell her who made the
call — Watson walked up and down her
street with pictures of her cats, asking
neighbors to call her if any of them
showed up in their yards. None of them
confessed to being Grayson’s jailer.
After doing what she could to protect
her pets, Watson set about doing what
she could to change the law that
endangers them, appealing to District 5
Councilwoman Kathleen Krueger to look
into the issue.
Krueger has asked city staff to consider
revising the ordinance, but she has not
decided whether to bring any changes
before council for consideration.
“It seems so unrealistic. I mean, who
really fences in their cat?” she asked.
“But, like so many things, it’s more
complicated than it appears at first. I
would love to hear what citizens think
of this.”
Krueger, who also has had one of her
cats picked up by animal control, was
shocked to learn how much the city
spends impounding cats — roughly $67,000
per year — but has suggested the fines
for people wanting to reclaim their
animals could be lowered to make it
easier for non-strays to go home.
Watson still hopes the ordinance will be
changed in the future. In the mean time,
she had given Grayson strict orders not
to go for the tuna fish.
“It’s bound to be a trap,” she told him. |
1920 Kuehler
