Hence this should be encouraged by the Residents' Committees (RC) and the Town Councils (TC).
However some TC officers seem to cower when a RC member makes a fuss and will pander to his or her complaint even when it is obviously unreasonable and personal.
Some TC officers also display a negative attitude towards residents who offer to help resolve feedback about cats as it means a paradigm shift in the methology. It used to be "we will just activate the pest controllers" response to complaints about cats that is ineffective but then the TC is not transparent in revealing details about complaints such as names, addresses, and the exact nature of the complaints (10 anonymous complaints from ONE resident is considered as 10 complaints!). There is also no audit to check if the problem recurs as very often the "wrong" cats are caught by the pest controllers!
Remember that RC and TC are to serve every resident NOT just those who are aggressive in complaining or those who have a personal hatred or phobia of cats!
MPs too are elected to serve every resident and they must not trivialise residents who want to speak to them at Meet-the-MP sessions about cat issues. If the MPs express impatience or use excuses such as "they are other residents waiting to see me for more important bread and butter issues", just gently remind that issues concerning compassion is equally important! But of course it is discourteous to prolong the meeting unnecessarily. RC members register and interview residents at the Meet-the-MP premise. Some RC members also try to trivialise issues about cats and some will just scribble the words "cat nuisance" after listening to a long account. Again remember these RC members "volunteer" to serve residents, but unlike residents who volunteer in TnRM, they have perks for their volunteerism.
Is your Town Council pandering to "spoilt adult brats"?
http://catwelfare.blogspot.com/2006/...behaviour.htmlMonday, October 09, 2006
Encouraging bad behaviour
Remember this guy? I SMSed him this evening to say that we did not know the caregiver in the area, but that we were getting another resident to go down. He called backed to say that he saw some cats sleeping on cars last night. I said the volunteer would be going down.
He complained that nothing had been done - I pointed out that he had said on Friday that he didn't need immediate action as long as something was done. I also pointed out that we needed to try and find someone near him. I said that town councils for example, take 5 working days to get back to the residents of this TC and that this is nowhere near that. He claimed that in HIS case, it was one day - and he's right, because the TC is so worried when he complains that they rush his case to the forefront, because he claims he is going to see the MP. He now says he is going to go back and complain to the TC again.
What annoys me tremendously is that when there were problems in the TC and the caregivers tried to contact them, they were told there was a 5 day waiting period. In this case, he gets special treatment because why? He's ruder? He's more unreasonable? The best way to appease him is to just give in?
He also agreed that removing the cats had happened several times, and new ones keep coming in, and he's not happy any of them sleep on his car (though he cannot show they scratched it because the car has been polished since then). However as long as they don't sleep on his car 'for a while' he's happy.
Truly TC does a disservice to Singapore by pandering to these people - if this was a child, and they were raised this way, you'd get a spoilt brat. If you pander to a spoilt adult, you get a demanding, unreasonable person who isn't willing to do anything but complain. And waste everyone's time and money.
Yet TCs rush to service them. And encourage MORE bad behaviour. Which means in turn MORE rushing to service them. Someone has to set the rule in TCs that there must be standards of common courtesy, and that sometimes, the answer to these people is just "too bad".
One nice thing - someone called to thank us for organising Spay Day today.
http://www.flippyscatpage.com/carpaint.html
Cats and Car-Paint
The quick answer is that car duco - if its in half decent condition - is extremely hard (its baked for at least half an hour at over 300º since it has to withstand road gravel hitting it etc). And cats claws are the same hardness as our fingernails. So unless you can scratch off the paint with your fingernail, there is *no way* a cat can scratch the *paint* of the surface of a car that's in a fairly good condition. (Paint does weather though and if its in a really bad state, it can be scratched, but if its that bad it should be a funny colour of white and be in the junk yard).
However, if the car has been *waxed*, the cat's claws (and your fingernails) can remove some of the wax, leaving what looks likes scratches in the paint, but are in fact just places where the surface of the wax has been removed. But then again a cat just walking across a car doesn't *use* claws, so the only way that the cat could scratch the car is if it was trying to somehow get traction on the surface, by either falling off or (dare I say) running for its life.
The worst a cat can do to in normal circumstances is leave cute little muddy cat prints - annoying but not inherently damaging.
Victoria Chapman, BSc, Paint Technologist
http://catwelfare.blogspot.com/2006/...ar-owners.html
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
New car owners
The town council called after speaking with this guy. It appears he has complained before, and they have removed the cats before and he's still not happy.
The TC reminded us these are not sterilised cats and they can remove them. I pointed out to the TC though that clearly removing the cats STILL isn't satisfying the guy. I suggested trying to work out a more long term solution by working with the feeder - but we need to be able to find her first.
It turns out he has a 6 month old car. The officer said he's rather hot tempered and comes back late at night so the cats tend to sleep on his car for warmth. Save us from people with new cars - or at least those who begrudge the cats a bit of warmth. I haven't seen the scratches he claims were left by the cats - and will not be able to since he claims the car has been repainted. I CAN understand not letting a cat scratch the car of course, but I wonder what happened to the fact that he alleges must prove? Now some cats get hauled off because he said so.
