Messages By: jennyda

I wrote the Dr. Phil staff a letter about 2 weeks ago, when this episode first started being advertised on TV. I was very concerned about what Dr. Phil was going to say to the Cat Lady. Eventhough, I have now watched the segment, and I agree that the Cat Lady has way too many cats, I believe that Dr. Phil was wrong in not telling the 2 guys that if they are trying to get rid of the cats illegally, or poison them, it is illegal, and they can get into major trouble. I have experienced this sort of thing with my neighbor. He moved in next door to us in July. At the time I actually owned 2 cats, but was feeding several strays (everyone in the nieghborhood was), and when the guy and his wife moved in next door, he asked about all the cats. We explained that most of them were in fact strays, and that we had thought about trapping and ridding the neighborhood of them, by hauling them to the nearest animal shelter or Vet.  The neighbor offered his assistance, and I thought we had agreed on a date and who was going to do what. Well, when my husband and I got ready ( we bought canned food, and cleaned out our cat carrier), we found out that the neighbor had started ahead of time trapping the cats. I expressed some concern, but made sure to point out the 2 cats I spayed/neutered, and owned. Sunny and Pookie were very happy, and had always been allowed outside. The previous neighbors also had cats, and had no problem with our 2 going over to their house. Anyway, the neighbor began coming over and accusing my cats of pooping in his yard, getting on his vehicles, and just being annoying. He threatened to catch all the cats, no matter who they belonged to. I told him that wasn't the agreement, but he didn't seem to care. I was under the understanding that if the cat looked like a stray, he would trap it. So, I bought my 2 cats collars, and ordered tags. I went over and told the neighbor, and he said that he could catch the cats with or without collars. He did in fact catch Pookie, but released her to our custody. Mind you, there was no animal control officer involved up to this point. The neighbor, I found out, was trapping and dumping the animals 10 miles out of town. He claimed that the city inspector had told him he could do this, and had even suggested he kill the cats before dumping them.  I called the city, and veriffied all of this with them, and asked why the guy was issued a trap when an animal control officer is not in our city. They shortly there after came and got the trap, but then the neighbor just bought one. Well, to make one long, long story short, the neighbor caught my cat Sunny, and took him 10 miles out of town, and killed him. I called the police, and did talk to the animal control officer (when the city hired one), and now Pookie stays inside, and the neighborhood is catless. I feel that this guy hid behind the law, and continues to do so. He even has caught several more cats, using canned cat food to attract them, and harrasses the animal control officer by calling her 10-20 times each time he catches a cat. She in turn is trying to be sure that she sets the traps and comes and gets any trapped cats ASAP (this is the legal way here in Texas). So, I guess my point is, eventhough my cats were breaking the city ordinance on domestic pets, it was illegal for my neighbor to try and kill the cats on his own.

My cat Sunny, whom I wrote about in my own post, bit me once. He was running from some dogs, in the back yard, and when I got the dogs away from him, I picked him up to coddle him. WAY WRONG THING TO DO! He bit me on my face, and hand, and YES it hurt like HELL! I went to the ER and they told me to wash the wounds and gave me some soap to do that, as well as some antibiotics. But I never wanted to get rid of Sunny or Dump him, let alone leave poison out to kill him.