The Cat-lady Who Lived On the Corner

I grew up in a nice enough neighborhood, but there was an old lady who lived on the corner who was a bit of a hermit. She seldom mowed her lawn or had anyone cut it for her. Over time, the woman had accumulated (this is no exaggeration) fifty to seventy-five cats, all of them underfed and wild. These feral cats would scrounge in everyone's trash barrel in the alley, and if you happened upon them they would pounce, doing some very unpleasant damage. People were on foot a lot, and walking past her house was not always safe.

When I got my driver's license and my car, a fast 1959 Ford, I  left a lot of tire tracks on her lawn if I saw a cat near the street. I never got caught, and no neighbor ever turned me in. I learned to hate cats through that, but thankfully I got over it.

The house has since been torn down, the poor old hermit lady resting in her eternal home. It's been replaced by a very nice modern house, complete with mowed lawn and no cats. That is, none that I can find anyway.