One of my nieces lives in a condominium apartment in north Toronto. Nearby where she lives there are many feral cats. I remember the prevalence of feral cats in the compound we lived in, when we were living in Tokyo. There, cats could be seen often running about. In Japan, there are central points in neighbourhoods where, on trash collection day, everyone leaves their garbage for pick-up. Without doubt, those places would represent primary foraging grounds for the cats. I'd see tiny kittens roaming about, and several times attempted to catch one, but they are incredibly street-wise in avoidance and seem to melt right into the gutter leading to storm drains.

The jungle crows that live there too, hunt for the cats as prey, constituting their own foraging for meals, so it's little wonder cats are elusive, since it's a life-and-death matter for them to evade being swooped down upon and carried off to be eaten, a gruesome prospect for any animal. In Toronto, needless to say, nature raw and bloody in tooth and claw doesn't appear quite as deadly to feral cats. On the other hand, it can get pretty cold in winter, though nowhere as mean and nasty as Ottawa. Today, however, Toronto's temperature dawned colder than Ottawa's, at minus-25-C; a real atmospheric anomaly.

My niece has become skilled in capturing many of the feral cats, and she is absorbed in this mission she has set for herself. She takes them in, calms and feeds them, and then tries to find adoptive homes for them. She usually succeeds. Those she cannot find homes for she retains herself, and she now has a good dozen cats of all kinds.

A few months back she had rescued two sibling male kittens and successfully placed them. Successfully, until the elderly couple who had taken them in returned them to my niece, informing her they just weren't able to complete their commitment. But, they assured her, not to worry, they'd been given the requisite inoculations and been neutered. My niece appealed to her mother who of course loves cats and has two of her own; she's had a long, long succession of cats in her home, and rabbits as well. My sister is dedicated to cats and rabbits; having them makes her feel she is doing her little part in giving good homes to these dependent creatures.

So my sister agreed she and her husband would take in the two kittens who were by then five months old. They took them actually directly to a veterinarian they use who confirmed they hadn't been neutered at all and proceeded to do just that, along with their required inoculations. After which they were taken home to live with my sister and brother-in-law.

Now seven months old, the two are inseparable, and every bit as rascally as our two four-month-old puppies. They're competitive and rampage through my sister's house in a cross-reflection of species that find an inherent affinity in living with humans. My sister has learned to grit her teeth and look away to try to relieve her anxiety when the two young cats balance themselves on a slender railing of her two-story staircase, hoping they won't misstep and lead to a huge regret.