Just as Haraway (2007) turned to mundane animals rather than conceptual ones, I propose to connect the concept of straying to earthly creatures. In Vienna, where I live, stray cats are the closest free-roaming animals. The Viennese stray cats live in areas like allotments, parks, and construction sites. I live in a densely builtup area in Vienna’s ninth district, and the only cat I see regularly is on a leash. The unowned stray cats inhabit different parts of the city than where I live. They move on other spatial planes and perceive the city differently; their Umwelt is filled with different smells and sounds. What does Vienna look like to a stray cat, and more importantly, what can I learn about straying from them?
Vienna began spaying and neutering in 2006, and from 2013 to 2020, the city worked with the animal welfare organization Four Paws. Today the “Streunerkatzenprojekt” is managed by the Vienna Animal Protection Ombudsman’s Office (TOW). It is an institution of the Vienna City Council that represents animal protection interests. Vienna employs a TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) policy to reduce the stray cat population. TNR means that stray cats are captured, taken to a veterinarian for neutering and vaccinating, and then released at the capture site. Today, TNR is the most common method of managing urban stray animals. Since cats cannot be domesticated after a certain age, releasing them back into their urban habitat seems the most ethical solution. In 2015, the estimated population of stray cats was 5000 (Falter 2015). There are no current numbers available. The city goverment monitors colonies for health and sexuality, and caretakers offer food to cats.
Pauline Bruckner (pseudonym), is a former private detective who works unpaid for the city of Vienna, trapping cats for neutering. It is a day and night job. She has an amazing knowledge of Vienna's stray cats. Where they live, how they are forced to change their territory by housing construction, the problems of the male cats who mark their territory excessively and annoy the human inhabitants by the strong smell of their markings
Pauline sleeps in the morning. At night, she usually catches cats. Or tries to. It takes her perseverance and often many attempts to neuter the entire colony. To trap a cat for neutering. The cats should not be fed on the days they are to be trapped. When the cats are hungry, they go to the food in the trap more easily. Pauline sits in her car and waits. When a cat enters the trap, she pulls on the string attached to the trap. The pull triggers an impulse that closes the trap.
