In the dead of winter years ago I often found cat tracks in the snow along the backyard fence – three by regular steps and one by a dragging paw.
They weren’t the tracks of our housecats, nor the neighbor’s pets, but rather the footprints of a tough brood of feral – or stray – cats that once upon a time dominated the neighborhood and survived through the harshest of conditions year after year.
But there are no more such tracks in the yard after a snowfall, and I’ve not seen a stray cat in the West of Washington neighborhood in years. There was a time when they were in every neighborhood of Dorchester, and you came to know the cats that ran in your area. In the dead of a summer’s night, you could hear them wailing and calling. But that doesn’t happen anymore, either.
Some 20 years ago, I would see a male cat limping around and instilling dread in the domesticated cat population. He was likely the one who was leaving three-legged snow tracks in my yard. Who knows where he came from or how he got to the neighborhood, but he was certainly in his territory. He had the wear and tear of scrap metal scavenger’s truck. He was missing an eye, had a tail a few inches shorter than it should have been, and at least one paw was missing some pieces, the cause no doubt of a noticeable limp in his gait as he patrolled his block from fence line to fence line, backyards to alleyways.
To say he was mean is putting it lightly; this beast was tough as nails. I once saw him take on three raccoons in their early-morning ambush attempt from under a porch, a move they soon regretted. It could be minus-50 degrees, or plus-100 degrees and he was unphased.
Our pet cats often spent time outside back then, and inevitably you’d hear the screeching of a catfight. I am not exaggerating to say that three-legged, one-eyed cat always got the best of our felines, whipping them into submission after a few hisses. They would come running to the door dirty, disheveled, and bleeding as the old tomcat limped away to another yard.
Of course, there were also female cats, and they, too, always looked worse for the wear. Permanently injured and frequently having litters of kittens, they would hide and survive – more often friendlier, but still skittish and ready to run away at the slightest noise. It was a brutal existence, I’m sure.
I’ve talked to a lot of people in West of Washington and all over Dorchester and it seems everyone has the same reaction: “Oh, yeah, what happened to all those stray cats?” Gone are the days when leaving garden tools outside, or a tarp, would result in a feral cat marking its territory with “that smell.” One couldn’t leave a trash bag outside for more than an hour without cats tearing into, and I often wonder how Uber Eats and DoorDash deliveries would survive if all those stray cats were still on the prowl.
But there might be an interesting explanation for their disappearance from our neighborhoods.
The Animal Rescue League (ARL) established a Community Cat program in 2017 to address what was a growing population at the time. ARL estimated that in that year, there were 700,000 stray cats in Massachusetts, and 70,000 in Boston alone.
They are the only animal welfare organization to have such a program. Since they started, they have attended to 1,181 “community cats,” they said, which includes spaying and neutering them. Some 800 were adopted from ARL in 2024 alone.
ARL said there are probably other reasons, too. Many neighbors I’ve spoken with have cited coyotes as a key reason, as well as an increased number of birds of prey like hawks.
A spokesperson for ARL also told me that many times a food source, likely a sympathetic person, has disappeared.
“It is possible that the particular section of Dorchester is no longer conducive to a colony – there may not be a reliable food source, a place to shelter, or a caretaker,” said the spokesperson. “This would explain the apparent reduction. When ARL works with community cats, they often are working with their caretakers, folks who feed, provide care for, and often protect the colonies.”
Whatever the case, stray cats no longer strut through our neighborhood – at least in the way I remember them doing so. Tough old cats ready to fight, missing eyes, and surviving the worst are no longer on the prowl.
Perhaps it was a coyote that did in our old one eyed, three-legged friend.
But I’d prefer to think he might be limping around a newly found home, living his best life looking out a window at the snow.
•••
A welcome change in West of Washington are the efforts put into Christmas decorations – something that has caught on in pockets all around Dorchester. In our neighborhood, I remember when only a few people put out lights. Our neighbor always went with the classic “candle in the windows” approach with wreaths. It was a nice touch.
But now, you see more and more elaborate light displays and multiple inflatable characters – flashing multi-colored and giant inflatable Grinches. It’s an even better touch.
The neighborhood association runs a Christmas light contest every year, and this year the Brown family really hit it out of the park with their inflatables on Waterlow Street. I think I counted 20 in the yard, and the Grinch even had fur! I like Christmas lights when it gets dark so early, and I hope even more people start putting them out over the holidays going forward.
