Even That Kitty's Sunning Habit Violates Housing Regulations - A True Story!

HOW MUCH IS THAT KITTY IN THE WINDOW?

For Immediate Release: March 17, 2008

Information: Jim McGrath (202) 387-1893

Sometimes landlord rules reach a new high in boneheadism. As if rent-control violations, rent-gouging, rat and bug infestation, evictions, displacements, the condominium-conversion craze, and dysfunctional housing regulatory agencies were not enough, now comes “cat harassment,” landlord complaints about cats sunning themselves in the window, and threats to remove the cats or the tenants or both. That takes the cake and the cat food.

Cats, of course, are notable rat and mice hunters. With rodent infestation in the city at an all time high, cats should get a lot more respect. They deserve a gold medal instead of harassment and threats of eviction. Forget about “The Year of the Rat”; the Chinese should rename it “The Year of the Cat.” Also notable is TENAC’s success in getting the National Park Service and the D.C. Department of Health to go after the rats in Dupont Circle Park.

Landlords now complain that cats sunning themselves in the window creates a public nuisance or public spectacle, thereby violating the building code, the leasing code, the landlord’s code, and for all we know, the Geneva Convention Code. How absurd! Here we have a cat resting in a cradle, minding its own business, taking the sun in the front window of its abode, as cats, sun-worshipers all, are wont to do. How charming! What do landlords fear? Where is the code violation? Is it that the cat might perform a striptease? Does a cat resting in a cradle suggest a potential Salome reclining on a couch, about to embark on the Dance of the Seven Veils? True, that would be a sight to behold, and one worth paying for, Salome’s version alone, to say nothing of the cat version. (Come to think of it, what a great name for a cat, “Salome,” preferably for the female of the species, but who knows, in this progressive age, for males as well.)

Kidding aside, landlords should have better things to do than chasing cats out of windows, and threatening tenants with eviction for failure to do so. Let them address some of the problems listed above, and leave the felines alone.

CATS OF THE WORLD UNITE, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE

BUT YOUR PLACE IN THE SUN!

D.C. TENANTS’ ADVOCACY COALITION

REPRESENTING ALL D.C. TENANTS

P.O. BOX 7237 WASHINGTON, DC 20044 (202) 628-3688

WEBSITE: www.tenac.org E-MAIL: tenacdc@yahoo.com