DALLAS’ CAT LADY

A neighbor who embraces her role

Story by WILL MADDOX | Photos by DANNY FULGENCIO

At an undisclosed parking lot in East Dallas, a feral cat colony is built against the back fence. It looks like a miniature tent city, with mismatched structures running end to end, covered in deteriorating tarps. An igloo doghouse sits next to a wooden structure with shingles, and straw lines the ground to provide insulation and absorb moisture.

Dotted around the parking lot, creeping behind fences or even lounging out in the open are a few of the more than 10 cats who make up the colony. Grey and orange tabbies and a couple that don’t fit in any category know the food is coming. While they aren’t scared of humans, they don’t have any desire to cuddle up either.

Juliet seems to love the camera, though her breed can’t be placed. Morris is an orange tabby that has never been caught. He is wily and tough, exactly what you would expect in a street cat.

The City of Dallas estimates that there are 350,000 homeless, wild or untamed cats in our city. Each morning, a network of volunteers fans out across East Dallas to feed and water feline friends, who are often dumped or abandoned in locations all around town. If they find a new cat, they will attempt to trap it and have it fixed before releasing or finding a home for it. Volunteers can register with the city to be cat colony managers, who are in charge if a cat gets sick or needs to go to the vet.

These volunteers are part of a network of feline caregivers in Dallas, one of whom is Leigh Schlenger, the Dallas Cat Lady. Since 2006, the Casa View neighbor has been organizing volunteers around Dallas to trap, fix, find foster homes and adopt out cats that will do well in a forever home. After volunteering and working for another cat rescue group, Dallas Cat Lady became an official nonprofit in 2010.

Everyone involved is a volunteer (including Schlenger, who has a full time job), but she helps get neighbors organized to do the tough and often thankless work ahead of them.

According to Schlenger, a feral cat is one who has been left behind and has learned to live off the land while losing its socialization to humans. “It is more like having raccoons, possums or squirrels,” she says. Despite the lack of socialization, her volunteers do their best to trap the feral cats so they can be fixed, reducing future generations of strays.

Last year, her volunteers fixed close to 1,200 cats. Schlenger has eight cats herself, though she tends to take on the special needs kitties that might not get picked up for adoption.

Schlenger is well known in the cat rescue scene. She once received a call about a cat and found out that the 311 operator had been giving out her number for cat queries. “Everybody has my phone number,” she says. “We just work with as many as we are able to.”

You can adopt the Dallas Cat Lady’s cats at the Casa Linda Petco. Learn more at dallascatlady.org.

The Store In Lake Highlands

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Bob Iden

The former Lake Highlands principal can't escape education, even if he wanted to  fter 11 years leading Lake Highlands High School, former principal Bob Iden thought he’d reinvent himself as a real estate agent in 2008. But the housing market crashed, and he missed the camaraderie of the school system. Now Iden, who grew up in the neighborhood, is a coach and college career advisor at Bishop Lynch High School.

What are your favorite memories during your tenure as teacher, coach or principal?

Winning the state championship in 1981 was huge. That was a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity for me and all the other coaches. We talked about how that group of kids from Forest Meadow Junior High and Lake Highlands Junior High were just a tour de force. When I was principal, I think the national recognitions we got, like the Blue Ribbon School, AVID National Demonstration School. We were listed as one of the top high schools in the country by U.S. News and World Report.

If you were in another field, what would it be?

I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. I tried. I had the real estate venture. I think if I could retire today and do something else, it would be to work with my wife [at Balfour Publishing] in the yearbook, cap and gown and graduation ring business.

What’s one thing that most people don’t know about you?

Probably my indirect connection to Shakespeare. One of my ancestors, Alexander Iden, was a noble. This is in “King Henry the XI, Part II” one of Shakespeare’s lesser plays. Alexander Iden slayed the rebel Jack Cade, and he was knighted for it. A guy named by Ben Iden Payne was a famous Shakespearean professor at the University of Texas. There’s a theater named after him.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

My mom has been diagnosed with dementia and our family is planning for her care. Why should we consider moving her to a memory care community?

A: There are many reasons. Living in a community offers socialization as well as physical care. Being around other people, taking a class, attending a performance – these are activities that have significant physical, social, spiritual and emotional benefits for the person living with dementia.

To learn more about memory care at Fowler, call 214.827.0813 or go to www.fowlercommunities.org