text: No one knew how many cats had perished, but biological statisticians estimated that 52 percent of North American cats had died. For Europe, the estimate was 19 percent. In South America and Asia, an undetermined number of cats had died. Russian newspapers reported that over a fourth of the cats in the Russian Federation were gone.
  
  In the US, cat owners were resorting to desperate measures. Veterinarians and holistic practitioners who espoused "alternative" therapies were thriving. Rosemary Hughes of Marin County, California, treated FHF-infected cats with flower essences—alcohol extracts of various flowers which she placed under the tongues of the cats at a hundred dollars a treatment. There was no evidence that treated cats survived FHF infection. Hughes made out well... for a while.
  
  Homeotherapy, deep massage and aromatherapy were also put to the test. Herbs such as garlic, goldenseal, cats claw, essiac tea, and a pharmacopeia of exotic botanical products were tried. None of these treatments had the slightest effect. The cats died as if they had received no treatment at all.
  
  The Taft mouse infestation was partially controlled after the city's department of public health offered ten cents for each rodent, dead or alive, delivered to the authorities. Adults and children alike caught and killed hundreds of thousands. The program was to be funded by a special bond issue provided voters approved it, as they were expected to do.
  
  In Cleveland, ninety-year-old Rebecca Neidleman, a resident at the Van Buren Home for the Aged, was mauled by mice while lying in her bed. Both her ears were shredded, as was part of her nose. She was expected to live. Governor Terrence Houghton called for an investigation.
  
  In San Francisco, large numbers of rats were migrating into the city from Pacific-facing beaches. Several residential neighborhoods were badly infested. Hardware stores could not keep rattraps in stock. Rats had been a problem on the west side in the past, but now, owing to the absence of their natural enemy, the common house cat, the rodents were moving into the city without hindrance. Public-health authorities were reluctant to use poisons, because of the many dogs and young children in the area.
  
  New York City was also battling a huge population explosion of rats. Ever a problem in lower-income areas, the rodents were now so numerous that residents were fleeing their homes. Central Park was overrun with squatters who staked out areas for themselves and their families. To date, four people had been killed—two by gunshots, two by knifings—when they encroached on territory claimed by others.