Riding out the turbulence

I love going to the woods when there has been a fresh snow.  Not having such a sensitive nose as the dogs, I need to be able to actually see the tracks to have any sense of the foot traffic that's preceded us.   
Some paint a pretty clear picture .. like the running rabbit tracks with fox tracks in hot pursuit.  Sometimes the snow simply highlights the familiar ... such as the well worn deer runs crisscrossing through. 
But like the river, we never step down the same trail twice and this morning we were treated to the sight of bobcat tracks.  With all the changes to our local ecosystem, its nice to see they are still around ... even if they are such ninjas we only ever see the tracks.
A bobcat is a wild thing and should live out in the woods.   After seventeen years out here, I've honestly lost track of the number of cats that have been abandoned out here ... none of whom I am sure were thrilled to be out in the wild.
I've also lost track of the number of comments and emails that I receive, asking me to stop encouraging people to feed stray and feral cats.   Well Bob / Pam / Sara / Pete / Tom / Harry .. etc ... I only have one thing to say to that.
I will stop encouraging people to feed stray and feral cats when people stop abandoning cats.  Straight, sweet and simple.
It is not humane to let the cats starve.   And of course there is the whole other end of the stick being that one is far more likely to get a rescue or TNR group to help with vet costs and with rehoming the cat if one takes proactive measures to care for the strays and ferals.
The Community Cat Blog has only been up for little over a month and already it would be easy to lose track of the number of stray cats that kind hearts in this province are trying to help.
Yesterday when I was posting the newest additions, I was saddened by a story of a group of cats that have been abandoned after different tenants moved out of an apartment building just off Windmill Road.
A couple of tenants are trying to feed them when they can afford to ... but the landlord is pretty hostile about having any kind of shelter built for them.  The cats are struggling to survive and its only going to get worse now that winter seems to have arrived.
Like all TNR groups, the Halifax branch of ca-r-ma is stretched to the max ....  yet they have still managed to rescue a couple of the cats.   If they can drum up a few foster homes and donations of food, it would be possible for them to rescue the rest. 
The cats that they have picked up are incredibly friendly .... and are listed on their site.  
So if you ... or someone you know ... are looking for a wonderful way to really teach your children compassion, helping anyone of these beauties would be a great place to start.
In my perfect fantasy world, I'd love to see a couple of successfully prosecuted cases of pet abandonment in this province.  Penalties and public embarrassment after all being splendid deterrents for some
Until that day .... people like Bob / Pam / Sara / Pete / Tom / Harry .. etc  .... should stop whining about people feeding the cats and offer a little support for the kind hearts whose compassion moves them to help the community cats.
The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, its to act with yesterday's logic.  Peter Drucker