Avoid Stray Cat Syndrome
By Jim Cobb
A few years ago, my wife and I were out walking one evening, something we do rather regularly when the weather is reasonable. A few blocks from home, we heard the mewing of a cat. We stopped to try and determine where it might be coming from and in a matter of seconds the cat walked out from some bushes. I reached down and scratched it behind the ear a bit, then we went on our way.
Want to guess what happened next? Yep, kitty followed us all the way home. It didn’t have a collar but was obviously not an outdoor cat. He was very affectionate as well as hungry. I poured a little food into a dish for him and that was that.
You know what happens when you feed a stray cat? I mean, aside from Brian Setzer playing guitar in your driveway. [Bonus points for those who get the joke….]
That’s right, boys and girls, Jimmy got a new cat. Now, don’t get me wrong, it all worked out. Vinnie is an absolutely beautiful Maine coon and is, hands down, the softest cat on the planet.
But, I also knew going in that if I fed the kitty, he wasn’t likely to leave. I knew that and accepted the responsibility.
[For those wondering, we did our due diligence in trying to locate the cat’s owner. We took Vinnie to our vet and found he was microchipped (and also learned his given name). Vet tried to contact the owner several time and left several messages, but received no response. Apparently Vinnie was abandoned when the owner moved.]
Stray cat… but not Vinnie…
Stray Cat Syndrome
Stray Cat Syndrome is this same principle applied to people. If you feed them, they aren’t likely to leave willingly. Look, I’m all about paying it forward and trying to help folks as best I can. The problem, though, is charity can lead to issues, especially if we’re talking about a time period after a major collapse.
I would hazard a guess that it will only be a matter of time before you’re approached by someone in need in the aftermath of a big event. Someone who for one reason or another has no food or water and might likely perish without help.
If you have anything approaching a soul in your body, you’ll want to do something to assist, especially if there are children involved. But, if you start handing out food and drink, where do you stop, where do you draw the line? In other words, how do you prevent the strays from trying to become house cats?
Sure, the threat of violence might work and it may very well come to that point. But, perhaps you can get out ahead of the problem before it becomes an issue.
I know some of you reading this are of the opinion that you should never, under any circumstances, share your stuff with an unknown person. I’m not going to argue the point with you one way or the other. But, there are many folks reading this who will, for right or wrong, try to help those less fortunate. The remainder of this article is for them.
Help!
If you are compelled to lend a hand to those in need, do so with both eyes wide open and fully recognize the risks. Keep in mind, the person receiving the aid will remember you. And it might not be some sort of fond recollection like, “Yeah, we were really desperate and starving. Then this nice family blessed us with a meal and some supplies, just enough to get us to the next town.” More likely, it’ll be, “Yep, I know exactly where we can go to grab some food. The daughter is quite a looker, too.”
One way to avoid that from happening is to devise some way of donating anonymously. For example, instead of handing out goodies on your doorstep, direct those in need to the church in town. “I’ve been hearing how some of the folks in town are setting up care packages there.” Of course, it is you who might have positioned the supplies there but the person doesn’t need to know that.
The idea here, of course, is to direct attention away from you and your family and toward a nameless and faceless entity that might provide some aid to those who need it.
Think of it like sending the stray cat to a shelter instead of feeding it on your patio.
If you have any long-term survival scenarios on your personal radar, this is something you need to sort out ahead of time. Make a realistic, practical plan now. And no, shooting and killing every human being who comes within 100 yards of you isn’t a realistic, practical plan. If nothing else, burying all those bodies by hand won’t be fun. You can’t just leave them sit out either, as they’ll stink up the joint and attract vermin.
About the author
Jim Cobb is a well known freelance author on survival and other topics.
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A difficult subject but needs to be thought out and discussed with your family BEFORE a real Emergency occurs. Nobody who can read this message is far enough away from stray needy and maybe dangerously needy people to avoid this situation.
The sweetest Grandmother will kill to feed their starving grandchildren, please accept that as fact. Folks off their meds can become dangerous.
Also you have to think about the “Semi-Stray’s” like your relatives your daughters boyfriend and OF Course his family….and maybe their friends… When the word gets out AND IT WILL OPSEC is only so effective with semi-strays you will have needy folks visiting.
You and your family will have to LIVE with the decisions you make and the results of accepting in OR turning away to starve “elsewhere” (REALLY? Those folks will simply Politely walk away like on TV to die off screen, REALLY?)
My household has discussed this and made preps. I cannot accept the Security Hazard of unknowns living inside my home so rolls of plastic sheeting for tents on hand. I cannot feed the horde MRE’s so beans and corn laid in BUT as 2nd Thessalonians 3:10 says “If you do not work you shall not eat”.
There is much done by our electric devices we don’t even think about. Human power did it before and will do it again. Gathering firewood, pumping water, washing clothing and so on. We need manpower to plant and guard from wild animals the crops for next year and so on. Useful people can be made useful.
However if you become a threat to me and mine you are gone.
So Security is the issue, think HARD how you can allow folks in and put them to work EARNING their food and shelter as well as proving their loyalty and trustfulness WITHOUT getting your families throats slit, or home afire or if you turn them away Giving other nasty folks information about your security procedures.
YOU DO have Security Procedures for a lawless SHTF situation I hope?
We are preppers we think ahead and are proactive.
In my household
.if you feed others and haven’t put back extra food for that purpose then pretty quickly you will run out of food and you and your family will be the ones starving-especially if the word has got around the district that there is free food to be had.
I like that idea of diversion to another area to get food.
I doubt I will need to use it due to the area I live in, but its a good tactic.
Another idea is the obvious double or triple stash. Don’t tell many/any about the backup backup backup stash.
People who knock might get a little… then show them an empty pantry.
Don’t look prosperous yourself… lose weight with everyone else, don’t wash often, don’t have clean hair, wear sweats and smell bad. Join the crowd to hide. Someone with clean hair and clothes has water to pour down the drain… And thus will be targeted.
Show them empty pantries, join the food queues with them, look like them. That extra few hundred calories a day you siphon out of a deeply hidden stash… are the difference between dying and living… That extra packet of antibiotics you have stashed somewhere very random… are never going to be revealed as they are the difference between life and death for you one day in the future.