As our lives have been overwhelmed by the Big C (COVID-19), I would like to shift my attention to a Small C: Cats.
The ancient Egyptians revered cats, associating them with their sun god Ra, who often appeared as a sleek feline.
Cats were also sacred in ancient Greece, where it was forbidden to kill them, and when a family lost its pet, they mourned by shaving their eyebrows.
The Japanese believe that neko have protective powers and symbolize good fortune, which is why many businesses display maneki neko, a beckoning cat.
Cats are also modern-day muses, celebrated in poems and songs. Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Broadway musical “Cats” is based on T.S. Eliot’s book of cat poetry. Poet Carl Sandburg made the comparison “… the fog comes in on little cat feet … .”
Some don’t like cats because of their ainokea aloofness, but perhaps in their DNA is the memory of a time when they were worshipped. Blame the Egyptians and Greeks.
Popoki is the Hawaiian word for cat and unlike ‘ilio (dog), popoki did not arrive on Polynesian voyaging canoes. Instead, felines controlled rats on board early 19th century European vessels, and like many other species, jumped ship to live and love in Paradise.
In 1866, American tourist Mark Twain wrote that he saw “platoons … regiments … millions of cats” around Honolulu. If you don’t notice them nowadays on Oahu, it’s probably because they get run over by traffic.
We now have a serious popoki problem. Statistics from 2020 show an estimated 2 million feral and stray cats in the islands today, with half on Hawaii Island (Louise Gund, 2022). Holy, catnip!
They hang out in parks and beaches where they dine on leftovers from picnic and plate lunches. Feral felines are happy to eat our food but unhappy if we try to pet them. Don’t get scratched, because they can carry toxoplasma-gondii, a deadly parasite affecting mammals including humans and endangered monk seals.
There are nonprofit organizations that trap, neuter and release feral cats to prevent them from reproducing. To know if they’ve been snipped, check to see if their ear tips are clipped, right side for females, left for males.
But that’s a lot of cats to trap, neuter and release, so how can we help?
1) Do not feed feral cats. If ears are not clipped, you’re only contributing to the feral population.
2) If you have pet popoki, get them fixed. But should they turn up hapai, don’t just abandon kittens. Be pono and find homes for the little mewlers. Cats are low maintenance — no need to wash or walk, will play with a feather for hours and earn their keep by catching mice. They also hunt birds so in order to protect endangered species, don’t let them roam the neighborhood.
3) Help nonprofits trap ferals. Sign up to catch them, volunteer at shelters, and make a donation.
4) Take a shelter feline home, and when it goes to cat heaven, no need to shave eyebrows. Unless you want to, of course. Be advised, however, that adult ferals are difficult to domesticate which is why they need to be fixed before fed.
Putting money where mouth is, we adopted kittens from a feral mother a few months ago. We got a pair, because like kids, one changes your life so you might as well have two. They keep each other company, and at least we don’t have to set up a college fund.
I know, I know. So many cats, so few homes.
But doing something is always better than doing nothing — don’t you think?
Rochelle delaCruz was born in Hilo, graduated from Hilo High School, then left to go to college. After teaching for 30 years in Seattle, Wash., she retired and returned home to Hawaii. She welcomes your comments at rainysideview@gmail.com. Her column appears every other Monday.