Local Tabby Declares Neighborhood “Striped City”
 

 In a rousing speech given to no one in particular, 3^rd Ward tabby cat, Nicolas “Nicky” Stevenson declared his neighborhood a “striped city.”

 “This neighborhood will be striped by the end of the day,” said Stevenson, a seven-and-a-half-year-old orange tabby cat, who likes to think of himself as the “Mayor of the 3^rd Ward.” 

 Stevenson then crunched on some Iams lamb and rice flavored cat food left outside by SPCA volunteers, licked his paws, and sprayed a banana plant.

 When word of Stevenson’s speech reached area tuxedo cats, the backlash began.    

 “Imagine what would happen if I said this is a tuxedo town,” said Thomas Moore, Jr., a three-year-old tuxedo cat who resides in the 12^th Ward.  “I would sound like a racist. I’m not really sure what a racist is, but that’s what I’d be. Nicky [Stevenson] really put his back paw in his mouth this time.  And that’s not to say I don’t put my back paw in my mouth occasionally. How else am I going to get my toes clean?” 

 The shed in Moore’s backyard is decorated with a “Thanks SPCA” bumper sticker.  “I don’t own an SUV or automobile of any kind,” Moore explained.  “I’m not even sure how that thing got there,” he added about the bump sticker.

 From the nature of things, it seems the SPCA’s effort in relocating cats is yet another point of contention among tabbies and tuxedos. 

 Muffin Meyers, tuxedo and lifelong Uptown resident, expressed her opinion on the issue:  “Personally, I don’t care if they [tabbies] come back. I think they’re better off in Gonzales or wherever they are, doing whatever they’re doing.”

 The recent drop in cat fights is another reason Meyers attributes to the lack of tabbies in her neighborhood. “I can count on my forepaw the number of cat fights we’ve had since Katrina, and guess what, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”

 When asked about the notorious T-Murder and the Tabby Toulas, both Meyers and Stevenson declined to comment.     

“But I will say this,” Stevenson interjected.  “Our tabbies are spread all over the nation. We have tabbies in Houston, tabbies in Atlanta. We have tabbies in California and even tabbies up in New England. You can’t tell me those cats don’t want to come home. That’s all I’m saying.”

Longhair tortoiseshell Fluffy Harrison reflects yet another angle of the topic.  “It would have been one thing for him to take a stand against raccoons or dogs,” said Harrison.  “We can all agree we don’t like dogs or raccoons, but what Stevenson said just alienated us.”

Harrison makes an interesting point.  What about cats who are neither tabby nor tuxedo? How do they feel about the controversy? 

 Boots Baumgarten, whose paws and underbelly are white like a tuxedo cat, but whose body is striped gray like a tabby, felt uncertain of how to interpret Stevenson’s remarks.  “I’m a little bit of both, you know? How am I supposed to feel?  And what about the calicos? Where do they fit into all this?  Maybe he [Stevenson] should have said feline city.”

Nicolas Stevenson declares the 3rd Ward "striped city."

"I would sound like a racist," Thomas Moore, a 12th Ward tuxedo.

T-Murder and the Tabby Toulas.

Boots Baumgarten, "a little bit of both" suggests the term "feline city."