Kiro didn’t quite expect the bowl of food to be left outside when his new neighbor moved in, but he gladly accepted it. As the years passed by, he grew closer to his neighbor. In return for food and a warm place to sleep on cold or rainy nights, he got rid of his neighbors rodents and provided the occasional cuddle.
Janet Winchell, Kiro’s neighbor said that she enjoyed having his presence nearby. “He was here when I moved in about a year ago. I look out for him because he has no one else to care for him,” Winchell said. “He is my friend.” Kiro the Cat is one of the hundreds of neutered feral cats that roam the streets of New Orleans. While some members of the community appreciate cats like Kiro, others, such as Bre Castex, feel like cats…show more content… If you get rid of all those cats, not only are you end up with a new batch a few months later, but you are going to end up with rats running across the streets as well,” Rigney said.
Regardless, the LASPCA, along with other organizations, sponsor trap-neuter-return programs, in which volunteers will trap cats, have them fixed and then return them back to their home.
Melanie Fawler, an independent cat trapper, said that the trap-neuter-return program may be the best solution to cutting down the cat population in Uptown.
“I started to catch and release because I didn’t want to give them to the LASPCA to be euthanized,” Fawler said. “These are living, breathing creatures and animals share nothing but love. I think that everyone just needs to do their part and not just dump them at the SPCA and make them their problem.”
Rigney said that one reason why there may be so many cats is because of the transitory nature of the Uptown area and overfeeding.
“A vast majority of neighborhoods that we see trouble is either too many feeders or people who are dumping out their pets. In the Uptown area, you have a lot of transient renters and college students who have a pet for a couple of years and they move to a different state, and well there goes kitty,” Rigney