Posted on 05/24/2009 2:34:10 PM PDT by JoeProBono
LODI, Calif. -- A community controversy is brewing in Lodi.
A neighbor posted a sign with the words, "Hit a cat, I'll hit your kid." Some neighbors said they are concerned their children's lives are being threatened.
"Basically what this is saying is: Hit a cat and I'll hit your kid," said Tina Teixeira.
Teixeira got a lot of attention after she put the sign up in front of her West Elm Street home in Lodi.
"You don't want me to hit your kid so don't hit mine. You hurt mine, that is just like if I went over and ran over your kid. Basically, that is what I was intending," said Teixeira.
Teixeira said she decided to take action after a driver ran over and killed her cat on the bike lane on Friday.
Some parents were outraged over her cardboard note.
"Basically she is threatening to hit people's kids," said concerned neighbor Joann Larsen.
"One parent said that I was psychotic," said Teixeira.
Teixeira said she wanted to shock drivers, not harm their kids.
Teixeira said she knows her sign would upset people but she put it up because she is tired of people driving 65 mph on a 35 mph zone.
She said she noticed some cars slowing down and reading her sign so she wrote a new sign.
"After burying the cat and calming down a little bit ... (I realized) that it was a little shock value. It got attention for people, so I thought that I would put it in more understanding terms," said Teixeira.
The revised sign reads: I watch for your kids, so please watch out for mine.
"That is the whole point here is to stop hurting animals," said Teixeira.
Teixeira said she isn't shy about yelling at drivers and even her neighbors. She said she even mentioned she spit on someone to protect her cats.
Only one neighbor wanted to talk about her sign on camera. Others said they wanted to avoid any problems.
"I do like that she changed it," Larsen said.
The animal lover said she can only hope she can keep her cats from losing another life.
Teixeira said some of her feral cats don't like to stay indoors.
She said she hopes her sign will get city leaders to install speed bumps in her neighborhood, which is right near a school.
Bummer. My Pup is a laying in the fenced back yard.
When I was in high school, we used to joke about sail cats.
You know what a sail cat is? It’s a cat that’s been run over repeated and is so flat that you could scrape it off the asphalt and sail it like a frisbee.
A sail cat.
It was clearly a bike lane.
Not a “cat lane”
I can understand her anger- some people will go out of their way to run over a cat, just for kicks and giggles. If her cat was hit by a car in the bike lane; then some idiot ran over her cat on purpose, not by accident. That would tick me off too. By the same token I do not equate the life of an animal with that of a person and for her to relate her cat to a child is far beyond how I see it. I do understand her anger, but she took it too far.
Hory Clap!
She said she even mentioned she spit on someone to protect her cats.
****
So how does that work, exactly?
Hmmm....
I was supposed to go to an asian party last night.
BBQ duck heads were on the menu.
I aint kidding.
Same with kids. I hate cats and kids. Keep your cats and kids away from my lawn.
Just because you think your kids are cute, and child molesters think your kids are cute, doesn't mean I do. They smell, they litter, they're loud and they're obnoxious. And cats give me allergies.
What? You never heard of the 501 Airborne Spitter Brigade?
That right there is funny, I don't care who you are.
This place has had it with the sterotypes I guess.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.