EMAIL: darwin_gregory@yahoo.com
NAME: Darwin Gregory
TOPIC: Catastrophe
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
TITLE: Who Put the Cat in Catastrophe
COUNTRY: USA
WEBPAGE: 
RENDERER USED: POV-Ray for Windows Version 3.6
TOOLS USED: Include files listed, GIMP for conversion to JPG
RENDER TIME:
HARDWARE USED: Toshiba A75-S231 laptop, 3.33 Ghz Pentium 4M, 1GB Ram
IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

Some catastrophes do not appear to be major until you look at the scale of the
problem, and one of those catastrophes is the abandonment of cats.

There are cats abandoned every day, and some people seem to have no hesitation
about leaving an animal to fend for itself.  Whether the animal must survive in
the wilderness finding food and defending itself from predators, or in a city
with the same need for food, and a different set of problems, like cars. toxins
and sociopaths, this is a catastrophe.

These animals have been stripped of their natural abilities to survive in the wild
through generations of breeding to create timid weak creatures for our own pleasure,
and yet those who abandon them expect them to survive on their own.  I am shocked
when I hear stories of people moving and simply leaving their cat behind to fend
for itself.

Well listen up,people who abandon animals to their own devices, YOU are the source
of a great catastrophe. One that has some states considering allowing the hunting
of these domestic animals.  Fortunately for a few of these victims there are a small
number of people who expend their resources to clean up your mess.

And those of us who have not spayed or neutered our pets are responsible as well.
If Fluffy finds herself in the wild (whether abandoned or running away) you have
condemned generations of cats to the pain and lonliness of trying to survive cold,
predators, disease and fear.

This image is an attempt to help people consider the results of their actions.  Is
neutering too much trouble or expense?  Would you let someone torture a cat to save
a couple o hundred dollars? If so, you are unreachable...  if not, I hope that you
make the effort now to have your pets spayed and/or neutered.

If you must move somewhere that doesn't allow pets, is it fair to have the animals
you should protect pay the price for that?  If you can't (or won't) take the time
and expense of finding a place that will accept your pets, at least take the time
to ensure they don't end up condemned to a life to which they are not suited.

Taking care of the feral and abandoned animals in the world is an easier task than
taking care of homeless people, but we can't even seem to get this more controllable
issue resolved... 

Even though I came up with my concept very late in the time period of the IRTC
competition I am compelled to submit an image, even as rudimentary as it is in order
to make a statement about a problem that can be eliminated if only people care.

I had visions of a cat peaking out through some grass at a moving truck as it
drove away.  Because of my time constraints and minimal skills, I selected a cat
looking onto an empty porch to represent the same situation.

A few sites that do a beter job of explaining the real problem than I have:

http://www.feralcat.com/
http://www.alleycat.org/
http://www.feralcats.com/
http://www.catcaresociety.org/feral.htm

I am not affiliated with any of these sites, many others can be easily found.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

The following objects were created by others and used in my image:

Cat head (cat.inc) derived from a file documented internally as:
        Cassidy.inc  by Neil Alexander 1998
It was simplified since all I wanted to use was the head.

Cat Tail created using ikn.inc and sample file:
        Created by Rune S. Johansen, January 2000

Although designed for use in making necks, I found that it does a great job of
creating a cat's tail as well.

The porch is a simple series of boxes that I tinkered with for a few hours to
make them look at least slightly like a porch.