Prison Cats Do Inmates Good!" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  Reading a story that was labeled as coming out of Santiago, Chile.  The story was titled "Prison cats do inmates good!"  Story began with...Some say they were first brought in to take out the rats.  Others contend they wandered in on their own.  What everyone could agree on - including those who have lived or worked in Chile's largest prison the longest - is that the cats were here first.  For decades the cats have walked along the prison's high walls, sunbathed on the metal roof and skittered between cells crowded with 10 men each.  To prison officials, they were a peculiarity of sorts, and mostly ignored.  Eventually, the prison officials realized something else: The feline residents were not only good for the rat problem, they were good for the inmates.  Hey, I could have told them that!  For those reading this story and who know me, probably know that my wife and I have had cats most of our 50 plus years of marriage...and have loved everyone of them.  As I type this story, the "Gray Lady" sits on the chair next to me while "Snickerdoodle" is stretched out next to Carol on the sofa.  One of the prisoners, Carlos Nuñez, a balding prisoner showing off a 2-year-old tabby he named Feita, meaning "ugly", is serving a 14-year sentence for home burglary.  He said he discovered their special essence, compared with, say, a cell mate or a dog.  "A cat makes you worry about it, feed it, take care of it, give it special attention," he said.  "When we were outside and free, we never did this.  We discovered it in here."  Known simply as "the Pen," the 180-year-old peniteneiaty in Santiago, Chile's capital, has long been known as a place where men live in cages and cats roam free.  What is now more clearly understood is the positive effect of the prison's roughly 300 cats on the 5,000 human residents.  The felines' presence..... "has changed the inmates' mood, has regulated their behavior and has strengthened their sense of responsibility with their duties, especially caring for animals," said the prison's warden, Col. Helen Leal González, who has two cats of her own at home.  "Prisons are hostile places," she added in her office, wearing a tight bun, while holding a billy club and wearing combat boots.  Prisoners informally adopt the cats, work together to care for them, share their food and beds and, in some cases, have built them little houses.  In return, the cats provide something valuable...love, affection and acceptance!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.