The Cat-It Dome Fountain. Amazon sells the cheapest. They are a pain in the butt to clean but the kitties just love it.
Posted on 07/24/2007 2:21:43 AM PDT by jsh3180
USDA veterinarian assesses feline containment
BY MANDY BOLEN
Citizen Staff
Despite speculation about her visit to the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum, veterinary behaviorist Terry Curtis is not a "kitty shrink" who will place the six-toed cats on tiny therapy couches, ask them to interpret ink blots and eventually blame their mothers.
Curtis, a veterinarian with a master's degree in psychology, is in Key West this week at the behest — and expense — of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has been investigating the four dozen resident cats for the past three years.
Her goal, as she sees it, is to find a way to keep the popular cats on the museum property without caging them.
The USDA, acting on a complaint from a disgruntled former museum volunteer, contends the felines fall under the federal animal welfare act, and should be caged to prevent them from leaving the Hemingway property. An attorney with Horan, Wallace and Higgins who represents the Hemingway Home said the cats normally do not stray.
"We don't have a problem with cats leaving the property as long as former volunteers who live next door don't leave tuna fish on our side of the fence to lure them off the property and then take them to kitty jail," Cara Higgins said. "But if [Curtis] can give us a solution to containment, then we will cooperate."
Curtis, who has operated a feline-only veterinary practice and is also one of 42 certified veterinary behaviorists in the nation, is in town through today assessing the museum property. She is being paid as an independent contractor by the USDA, but did not know on Monday what the total charge would be for her services.
"My task here, as I see it," Curtis said, "is to look at how the facility is set up, how the cats are living now and looking to see how the facility can come into compliance with the Animal Welfare Act."
Curtis does not envision cages as the only means of containment.
"It's going to take ingenuity and flexibility," she said.
The home's designation as a National Historic Landmark prohibits some changes that would seem obvious on other properties.
"We can't change the wall surrounding the house because we'd lose our designation as a National Historic Landmark," Higgins said, hoping Curtis's will be the last of several visiting veterinarians sent to evaluate the cats.
"The federal government has been paying for a lot of really nice vacations in Key West," she said. "They're wasting taxpayers' dollars, as they've sent more than six vets to town, along with USDA investigators posing as tourists."
Curtis said she does not expect to have a report finalized before leaving town. She will return to Gainesville, and the University of Florida, to complete her report and then submit it to the USDA.
What’s a dome fountain, please?
We don’t have a problem with cats leaving the property as long as former volunteers who live next door don’t leave tuna fish on our side of the fence to lure them off the property and then take them to kitty jail,” Cara Higgins said.”
ROTFLMAO!
So, the Gub’ment is going to spend THOUSANDS to get a kitty psycholgist?
The Cat-It Dome Fountain. Amazon sells the cheapest. They are a pain in the butt to clean but the kitties just love it.
Ah - thanks!
ROFLOL!!
(can I suggest a nice steakhouse for cyanide laced sirloin?)
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