“Trapped as a stray, waking up from anesthesia after his neuter, and too nice to return to the great outdoors.” Photo: Rocky Mountain Rescue.

Some cats that are trapped and neutered are not returned to whence they came. They are adopted because they are deemed “too nice to return to the great outdoors”. But what does that mean? And is the world of cat rescue democratic or republican, liberal or conservative? What are the politics of cat rescue? The politics should be total democratic with the motto that All Cats Are Equal. In fact I’d prefer if we focused on picking up and putting together the cats that need the most help and who are the least desirable. These are the cats that are “too horrible to adopt”.

Obviously, we have to be practical and realistic. Cat charities probably don’t have the time to domesticate and socialise cats that have been unsocialised because they have lived away from humans for too long.

However, I don’t want to believe that cat rescue organisations select stray and semi-feral cats for adoption solely on appearance and a placid personality. I think this is wrong, undemocratic and unfair.

If a stray cat is neutered and looks dirty, mangy, is about 10 years old and is defensive, I sense he has no chance of being selected for adoption.

But shouldn’t we give cats like this a chance – just once in a while? In a decent society people look after the weak and vulnerable, people. The better they are looked after the better the society is. It is a measure of the quality of the society.

However, in the world of cats, there appears to be a less well developed attitude towards the weak, the vulnerable and the less desirable.

For every beautiful stray cat luckily picked out for re-homing and a better life, there should be one who is ugly and unwanted who is also picked out. Then we can say we have a decent society amongst all cat rescue organizations and individuals.

I am sure this happens but I am not sure it happens enough. The typical cat rescue center tends to pander to the consumerist approach of people who come to adopt a rescue cat. Too many scared cats who are justifiably scared and defensively aggressive are shovelled off to the back room, never to be seen again.

I’d like to think that sometimes, somewhere, the scruffy little scared cat with the unattractive coat has had his chance to have fun in the sun. To be loved and to know what it feels like to be loved.