slyvermont | Feline Frenzy (and Pirates)

Since just about everyone on my flist seems to be saving feral cats these days, I thought this story, which will be running in our paper tomorrow, would be of interest. Personally, I'm wondering if this is a national thing -- multiplying wild cats!!! Can't you see the National Enquirer covering it?

I feel like I need a cute cat icon. Since I'm at work, I can't go and search for one. Oh well, I'll settle for Johnny Depp. I'll be seeing him soon (got my tickets already for tomorrow). And speaking of stories, I enjoyed this lede from the NY Times review: "At first glance, it seems like a pretty good deal. You put down your money — still less than $10 in most cities — and in return you get two and a half hours of spirited swashbuckling, with an all-star three-way battle of the cheekbones (Orlando Bloom vs. Keira Knightley vs. Johnny Depp) and some extra-slimy computer-generated imagery thrown in at no additional cost." A.O. Scott, the Times reviewer, outdid himself on this one. (Another favorite line: "These sailors are like the cast of 'SpongeBob SquarePants' — or the menu at a seafood restaurant —come to life: Night of the Living Bouillabaisse.")

OK, can't resist, here's another good one: "And there are other memorable bits and pieces, visual highlights of a movie with no particular interest in coherence, economy or feeling. Knightley is, once again, a vision of imperial British pluckiness, with an intriguing dash of romantic recklessness that surfaces toward the end. Bloom, as is his custom, leaps about, trying to overcome his incurable blandness, and is upstaged by special effects, musical cues, octopus tentacles and pieces of wood."

The review is actually one of the more favorable ones out there. I'm prepared to not fall in love like I did the first time around, but I will trust Scott that "It’s about fun. You’re there to have fun. Fun for the family. Fun for the kids. Fun for everyone. So shut up and have fun."

"The folks over a the Central Vermont Humane Society are up to their ears in cats and aren’t quite sure what to do about it.

“We’ve tried everything,” Paul Kopulos, executive director of the humane society, lamented Thursday. “Nothing seems to work.”

According to Kopulos, the humane society’s shelter is designed to accommodate up to 40 cats and 15 dogs, and while the dog runs are all full, members of the shelter’s staff have more cats than they know what to do with.

Kopulos is currently sharing his office with four felines and shelter supervisor, Cynthia Sandusky, has five cats in her office. There are two cages in the break room and several stacked on top of each other in the foyer of the shelter where drop-offs are outpacing adoptions and Kopulos is scratching his head.

“We are definitely over-inundated with cats,” he confessed, placing the current kitty count at nearly 90 – including approximately 20 that have temporarily been placed in foster care.

Part of the problem is self inflicted, according to Kopulos, who admits the shelter took on 15 of 32 cats seized earlier this year by the Stowe-based North Country Animal League.

The arrival of those cats, coupled with a mild winter that exacerbated the cyclical, and somewhat predictable, “kitten season” this spring, have the shelter running well over capacity with no relief in sight.

“With the warmer weather cats are multiplying faster and faster and we’re seeing the results right here,” said Kopulos, who is troubled by a more recent and disturbing trend.

“The adoption rate for cats has actually dwindled quite a bit,” he said. “Last year at this time we had a line of people who wanted kittens. This year it seems like we can’t give them away.”