Via Booksquare, an article on the Hemingway cats.
These are the mitten-pawed descendents of the writer’s own cat, who are allowed to wander freely. Which means they sometimes leave the grounds of the Hemingway house, now a museum, in Key West. Which has upset Debbie Schultz, a neighbor and “former official” of the “local animal shelter.” She’s particularly bothered by a tom cat named Ivan:
“I saw Ivan many times loose,” she says. “Ivan is a very unneutered, very macho male cat, and in each case, he had one of the street cats pinned down,” she says. “We have an ordinance that says a nuisance cat can be removed.”
Well, at least he’s not very very unneutered!
I went to Key West in June ’05 and saw the Hemingway cats! I didn’t notice the very unneutered one though!
Ms. Schultz needs to get a life. And the idea that my tax dollars are spent for usda to investigate this matter frosts me to no end. They gloss over the mass poisoning of thousands of companion animals and yet they have the time and resources to waste on this woman’s complaint about an overzealous tomcat. Can someone explain to me how this can happen?
Weird, isn’t it, Fran. The combination of zealous worship of abstractions and emotional disconnectedness makes for a strange brew.