Cats and pigeon poop

We adopted a cat from a rescue mission over the weekend. Don't laugh, but I named her Kitty. I know it's not imaginative, but it really fits her. She's dainty and prissy and Kitty just seemed right. She's also a talker. She discovered the bird feeder we have hanging outside of our dining room window and you should hear her scold the finches and chickadees. It's hilarious.

Watching Kitty watch the birds reminded me of something I read last week. The Republicans are holding their National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota next year and there's a bit of a problem. The downtown is plagued with pigeon poop that city officials feel will soil their image and offend Republicans. So what's their plan? Read on:

“What we learned is that you can’t control the number of pigeons by killing them. They’re like rats — they just reproduce,” said Bob Kessler, the city’s director of licensing, inspections and environmental protection.

This time, the city is offering the pigeons their own real estate — rooftop nesting grounds. And then, just when they relax and lay their eggs, maintenance workers plan to sneak up through trap doors and grab the next generation before it hatches.

“We’ll build them little condos. We’ll keep taking the eggs, and they won’t have little ones,” said Bill Stephenson, the city’s animal control supervisor. “Slowly they’ll die off.”

I've not heard a chirp from the Republican Party about this plan to abort the baby pigeons, which is rather puzzling since they promote themselves as defenders of life. I guess pigeons don't rate defending because they don't make big cash donations.