Crazy Cat Lady – A Critical Thinking Parable

Mayor Rescot was just getting settled at her desk, when she heard a knock on the doorframe and looked up to see Sheriff Blanding standing in the doorway.

“Come on in, Sid. What can I do for you?”

“It’s that Maude Romans, the crazy cat lady.”

“What now?”

“Things are getting worse. Those cats of hers are in the yard, in the street, and yesterday she called the fire department to get a kitten out of a tree.”

“Sid, I thought we had that all taken care of. Didn’t you send someone to have a nice talk with her and try to persuade her to give up a few of those cats? Isn’t animal control looking into it?”

“Yea, but she wouldn’t listen to anyone. And she went to the local shelter last week to try to adopt another one. They shooed her away, but they suspect she has also been sending her teenage grandson on similar missions. He and his friends think it’s a hoot to try to get more inventory for the crazy cat lady. The problem is we don’t have an ordinance limiting the number of pets per household like most other towns do. Without that my hands are tied, and the complaints from the neighbors are getting louder and more frequent, taking resources away from real problems.”

“OK. Good point.  As you know there’s a town board meeting tonight. I’ll bring it up and it wouldn’t hurt if you were there too.”

The next morning saw two glum town officials sitting in the mayor’s office sipping coffee.

The mayor broke the silence, “Well, that didn’t go as expected. I thought the debate might be about whether two or three was the right limit on the number of pets per household. Instead it turned into a screaming match. Are there that many cat lovers on the council, or are they just trying to make our jobs impossible?”

“Yeah, and when I pointed out that the place smelled and we’ve gotten reports of some supposedly underfed cats, Councilor Johnson went ballistic! She suggested that if it’s such a problem we should stop harassing the poor old lady and use tax funds to send extra cat food and hire a cleaner for her house. She said they're not cats and kittens. They're Mrs. Roman’s furry children, and she loves them. Does it get any crazier than that?”

“As a matter of fact it does. This morning my daughter told me a petition was already going on Facebook making us look like the bad guys. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were protesters gathering on the lawn with ‘Save the Cats’ signs and ‘We Don’t Limit Families.’ Johnson had some of citizens whipped into a frenzy.”

The sheriff shook his head. “Why does it seem that all the crazies turn out for these meetings and the sane, sensible, cool-headed ones stay home?”

“Well, I’ll just have to wait until things settle down, try to talk to the other board members individually and hope common sense will prevail. As long as people think acting nobly to make themselves feel better is the same as solving a problem, we will face opposition. It’s too many cats in one place, not how happy Maude Romans and her cats are.”

The sheriff headed for the door. “Well, good luck on that, Madam Mayor. You’ll need it.”