Staff writer YOKOHAMA -- A first glance at Masumi Nomura feeding cats in a Yokohama park may lead you to believe she loves the furry felines, but the opposite, however, is true. For years this 61-year-old Isogo Ward resident's daily trips to the park have included feeding a group of homeless cats. Even when she is sick, Nomura said she can't ignore them. "When I think about them waiting for me with a hungry stomach, I cannot stay at home." The cat's cuisine varies depending on the day. Sometimes it is tinned cat food and sometimes it might be boiled tuna with cheese as dessert. And the entire cost comes out of her own pocket. "My husband got angry when he first found out that I was feeding cats. He said he does not work for them," she said. Just another cat freak? On the contrary, Nomura said she doesn't even like cats, saying that when she first started feeding them, she couldn't even touch them. Ten years ago, the residents' association of Nomura's apartment complex began a campaign to sterilize the homeless cats that frequented their neighborhood. They started feeding the cats simply to make it easier to catch them for the fateful trip to the vet. "It takes half a day to catch a cat, and it is very difficult to lure them into a cage," Nomura said. Once Nomura started feeding them, however, she couldn't simply ignore them after the operation. Hence her daily trips to the park. The campaign has spread from its humble origins. To day, there are seven people participating, feeding about 50 cats regularly at five different sites. To date, the group has been responsible for the sterilization of more than 190 cats. According to Nomura, the effect of the sterilization program is beginning to be reflected in the diminishing number of strays in the neighborhood. Nomura said the number of regulars at her feeding site has dropped from 16 to six -- all sterilized. "We don't see kittens around here any more." The sterilization costs -- about 20,000 yen for a female and 15,000 yen for a male -- are raised from the group's community bazaars. Another positive effect of the feeding program is that the cats have stopped scavenging. With the security of a regular meal, they no longer raid the local trash cans. The project has gained media attention in recent years as a model of a community taking collective responsibility for the stray cat problem. Strays had been a major community issue in Isogo, southeast Yokohama, where feline mischief had angered many residents. For years, ward officials had been caught between calls from cat haters and cat lovers; the haters demanded the cats' destruction while the lovers vehemently opposed the final measure. Under the current law, authorities do not have the legal right to catch and destroy cats. "We can capture unchained dogs and assume they are abandoned, but there is no legal definition for cat ownership, so we cannot distinguish between pet cats and strays," said Kiyotaka Watanabe, head of Isogo Ward's hygiene division. The dispute very nearly split the otherwise peaceful community of 169,000 people, with ward officials -- caught between the two groups -- choosing to do nothing about the cat problem. Three years ago, the ward finally decided to mediate between the two warring factions. The officials offered an unusual proposition -- if you really hate cats, then make friends with them. "If you don't tame them, you won't be able to catch them for the sterilization operation," Watanabe said. Officials said the inspiration for this unusual idea came from Nomura's group. "We tried to persuade residents that the cat problem was not solely an issue for individual owners, but one that concerned the entire community. Everyone has to share responsibility," said Watanabe, who himself keeps a cat called Torasaburo. The sterilization program should see the number of strays decrease drastically in four to five years, Watanabe said. Based on community opinions, the ward set "cat guidelines" for both strays and pets in March. According to Watanabe, there are currently 13 groups engaged in the community cat project. Nomura, however, would like to see still more people participate in the project, but she said a lack of understanding hampers recruiting. "When I am feeding cats, people often tell me to stop feeding them because they hate them," she said. "But if they hate them so much, then they should do something about it." The advent of spring usually causes more problems for Nomura's group. "Spring is a season of abandoned pets, because many people move," Nomura said. Further compounding their problems is some pet owners' view of the group as a convenient orphanage for their unwanted cats. Following a TV program last year that featured the group's activities, more than 10 cats were found abandoned at the feeding spots in a span of six months. Since then, Nomura will only give media interviews on the condition that the exact locations of the feeding spots are not revealed. "Dumping pets is such a selfish act," Nomura reckoned. "If people decide to have pets, then they have to be committed. If they don't want them anymore, then they should have them killed."
