To the editor:
First: The Story
In 2003, we moved back to Ten Sleep (my home town) with no pets. A year later, some friends were moving to Alaska and wanted us to take two of their cats since they could not take the cats with them. So, we had two black cats, one male and one female.
They were outside cats with a cat door into the garage where they ate and slept. About a year ago, the male cat got mauled and my nephew, the vet, came up and put Bo to sleep.
That left Hissy, who soon became rather spoiled and an inside day cat, still putting her outside in the garage at night. But, since the weather was supposed to turn really cold, we decided to put her cat house/bed in the utility room along with cat box, food and water.
When I let her out this morning, I discovered she had stepped in a sticky mouse trap and had the goo all over her tail and back legs. I pulled the trap off and went to the internet to see how to get the goo off.
Cooking oil was rubbed on and rubbed off and then a little soap and water and she is doing ok.
Second: Unintended consequences.
We thought we were doing her a favor by letting her stay in the house, never giving sticky mouse traps a thought. An unintended consequence! I think we have all done that at some time.
But, I think our law makers and our leaders need to think about the unintended consequences of their actions at every level.
Kudos to Cat Urbigkit, who has been trying to let people know of the intended and unintended consequences of the BLM’s plan for southwest Wyoming.
We read about this type of action happening on every level of government.
For instance opening the border without having any plan for taking care of those people coming across, leaving it up to the border states to handle it. Legislation without representation! This should not be the American way.
If we, the people, see events happening that we can see without a doubt will have unintended consequences, we need to let our legislators (state and federal) know what those are. If not, we, the people, will be stuck with them.
Martha Sutherland
Ten Sleep