10:10am | Maybe you saw it last fall on Facebook or Care2: a petition circulated by Caring Friends Cat Rescue with the aim of stopping Vestar Property Management from destroying a feral cat colony that has been in the Long Beach Towne Center for the last 12 years.
It struck me as an interesting story. But when I contacted Caring Friends, I was told it was over — with a happy ending, no less: Vestar had relented. “We have been able to work it out with the management of the Towne Center […],” a Caring Friends spokesperson told me. “We were able to educate the management on the benefit of keeping the colony there and not trying to eliminate them. Once [Kandy Holman, Towne Center’s property manager] was educated and did some of her own research, she understood the benefit to keeping the cats there.”
The story was all the more interesting to me now. I mean, how often do big companies change their designs vis-à-vis “nature” without serious pressure? I envisioned telling one of those rare tales in which all sides act reasonably and listen to each other and come to an agreement that leaves everyone feeling like a winner. Who wouldn’t want that kind of press?!
Vestar Property Management, apparently, because multiple calls to Holman — and more generally to Vestar — went unreturned.
So this story is a lot shorter than I’d hoped. Is it naiveté that has me puzzled over why Vestar would want to keep quiet about this? Is being soft on feral cats bad for one’s business cred?
I’m not being critical of Vestar. They can talk to whomever they want about whatever they want. I’m just sorry that we don’t get to hear more about the rationale. Because it seems that, ultimately, compassion won the day. And wherever we find compassion — maybe especially in the capitalistic realm — we should give it some light. Because maybe that will help it grow.
[Editor’s note: The original version of this article referred to the property management company in questions as “Vestal Property Management”; the correct name is “Vestar Property Management.”]