The Meaning of Life

Well, Bob is now an indoor/outdoor cat. He goes out at night and comes in to sleep in peace and relative safety during the day.

But I decided I needed to get going again with the trapping projects. Last week I made the earliest appointment I could - which turned out to be Monday morning. And guess who finally walked into the trap tonight. The kittens looked at the food, but wouldn't go in.

But Big Daddy Cat decided it was worth the risk.

Big Daddy Cat is the Alpha male. I'm about 95% sure he is the daddy of all the black cats we have out there - save for Old Mamma who we haven't seen in several weeks. Lately Big Daddy Cat has gotten very aggressive. I'm not sure if it is a food issue, a too-many-young-males-in-my-territory issue, or if it is because the most eligible females for mating are either gone or not going into heat. (I believe cats will only mate if they are in heat.)

We'll we trapped and and fairly easily moved him from the trap into a carrier. The carrier is just sitting in the garage. He's calm now, but in the trap he wasn't. But let's face it, none of the cats is calm in the carrier. Hell, even our own cats are not calm in there.

But here is the hard part. We kind of like the other cats, but we don't like Big Daddy. He is aggressive and mean. Both my husband and neighbor have said we should just let him go on some farm somewhere. But that doesn't solve the real problem.. He can still mate and make more cats, and we don't want that to happen.

So what do we do? I am having trouble playing god right now. Who am I to decide if he should live or die - just because he is a nuisance to me? Would someone relocate him? Will neutering ease the aggressiveness? If he can't be relocated, if he is still aggressive, then what? I can't think about it. Why am I in this position?