There are so many damn cats in my neighborhood it's crazy. Maybe they'll be slightly scared or spooked off with the newly opened dog park around the corner. With all the noise the dogs make throughout the day, maybe the cats will congregate on another area of South St.
There are tons of cats over in West Philly around 48th/Market Sts as well. In this one parking lot, a cat lady feeds them every day. I guess she feeds them right around the time I leave work to cut through the lot to get to the El. I see about four cats sitting in various places in the lot waiting for the lady to show up with her cans of food.
There's an old myth in the Black community that makes the presence of alley cats a sign that the corner chinese restaurants aren't doing their jobs:
"Don't eat no chinese food if you can't find no alley cats in the hood"...
I don't think it's a Philly thing, either. Everywhere I've been it's been acknowledged or repeated.
Posted by: Jerome Gaskins | November 17, 2005 at 02:32 PM
people used to just say that some places straight up used rat meat. no end to a supply of rats in a city. so there couldn't be a phrase like "don't eat no chinese if you can't find no rats in the hood" - rats are fucking everywhere! but philly seems to have a particularly bad problem with feral cats. like athens, greece - damn cats everywhere.
Posted by: albert | November 17, 2005 at 04:23 PM
I like kitties. Even the snarling feral kind. So how's the rat population in your neighborhood? It should be under control - pigeons too. Reminds me of the Simpsons bit.
Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
Posted by: eRobin | November 17, 2005 at 05:54 PM