Well, I'm back. Denver (actually, Golden) was quite beautiful and warm, with sun and 70 degrees. Before getting picked up by the shuttle to the airport I basked outside on a bench for about 45 minutes. The conference was great, the people were wonderful, and the flights were only moderately bumpy.
The shuttle ride from the airport to the hotel was interesting. There were two people from the mining industry on the van, and one gentleman was a Denver native and shared all sorts of information about the city and the local ecosystem. There was also an Audubon representative who was headed to a sports photography conference. He asked me who I thought was more over the top---the people on the cat side of the cat/bird debate, or the people on the bird side. I told him I thought we were all a bit over the edge. I feel that cat and bird advocates are both, to some extent, speciests, understandably trying to protect the species they love. There are also middle-of-the-road folks who realize there is a larger picture, and that to gain footing for a future with "fewer free-roaming cats" may mean a combination of both trap/neuter/return (i.e. "save cats") and removal (i.e. "euthanasia") versus a black-and-white world where it is all or nothing, and we stand around flailing away at each other with two-by-fours trying to maim the evil opposition.
I feel a moral community should try to save life, and increase quality of life. This sounds simple enough, but in truth...isn't always.
For once, I did not see a feral cat at the hotel where I was staying. I did get to see a few prairie dog towns. Denver has grown up quite a bit in the mere year since I last visited. Where there had been nothing but prairie last year, there were now houses and houses and houses.
We are a frightening species. It is amazing to see the change we create on the landscape over time.
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