The Cat Problem

[FantasticDan]

We live on the outskirts of a town and I used to see rabbits all the time, especially in the evening. Then, about 10 yrs ago, I started seeing less of them. Now I don't think I've even seen one in five years. It's so strange.

Chalking it up to foxes. We see quite a lot of them. We only hear the coyotes..

[Fager Fan]

Originally Posted by FantasticDan

I agree, I've always been amused by how possums, raccoons, and cats all seem to have a strong mutual respect system in place. Sometimes they've even been downright friendly!

I usually see the raccoons and possums separately, but one night I looked out and I had a raccoon eating out of one bowl, a possum eating out of the other, and the cat laying about 3 feet from them snoozing.

[Fager Fan]

Cute story. Raccoons if they can will wash thoroughly what they eat before eating. For any who don't know, they eat with their paws. A friend had a pet raccoon when he was a kid, and they got a kick out of giving the raccoon sugar cubes, watching him vigorously wash the cube, then be puzzled when he looked at his paws and nothing was there.

[Marshall Bennett]

Cats seldom win out with any animal that's not protecting itself. Mice perhaps run the greatest risk. Tree squirrels here torture my neighbor's cat by teasing it, coming within 6 ft. of her, then dashing up a tree. They know all well the cat will only climb perhaps 8 or 10 ft. and retreat. I've never heard of a cat attacking a possum or raccoon. That likely would be a mistake. Small dogs or other cats wondering on their territory may be at risk. Cats are generally left to roam freely by law because they're virtually little risk to anyone. They're messy, but so are many humans.

[Ocala Mike]

Originally Posted by elysiantraveller

Coyotes should be killed, by any means available, whenever encountered.

Yes, and the almost universally armed populace around me does a pretty good job with this, but not 100%. A neighbor down the road from me killed one and hung its carcass up on his fence for a few days - supposedly, this runs the rest of them off.

[elysiantraveller]

Originally Posted by Ocala Mike

Yes, and the almost universally armed populace around me does a pretty good job with this, but not 100%. A neighbor down the road from me killed one and hung its carcass up on his fence for a few days - supposedly, this runs the rest of them off.

Trapping is far more effective but don't know how it works where you're at.

[jay68802]

My parents live about 30 miles from me. One of the things I do 2 to 3 times a week, is stop by and see if they need anything done. Small things like changing light bulbs, running the trimmer, things that need done but when you use walkers to get around, are difficult. I arrived one afternoon and found my fathers truck parked in the driveway, and the garage door open. This was unusual, but not alarming. When approaching the garage, I could here my father cussing and saying "Get Out". I looked in the garage and my father was standing by the open side door, looking to his right by the freezer. He the moved slowly toward the freezer saying "Get Out". Then stopped by the freezer and was looking toward the open side door. I stepped farther into the garage so I could see what was happening. There was a possum in the garage, and when my father would move one way, the possum would calmly move in the other direction. When this happened again, I couldn't help but to start laughing. My father looked at me and said "Get this damn thing out of my garage!" and went inside. So, just for the fun of it, for his birthday I bought one of those "grabbers" used by people who can't bend over, and had a little engraved plaque mounted on it that said "Possum Catcher". He still has the grabber and uses it, but say's he still has not caught a possum with it.

[Tape Reader]

Originally Posted by Tom

The secret to getting along with cats is.......


........be smarter than the cat!

People use animals.

Cats use people.

[elysiantraveller]

Originally Posted by Tape Reader

People use animals.

Cats use people.

Cats aren't people's pets.

People are Cat's pets.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by elysiantraveller

Cats aren't people's pets.

People are Cat's pets.

Only those people who aren't smarter than cats.

[Ocala Mike]

This says it all about cats:

"If cats could text you back,......they wouldn't!"

[RunForTheRoses]

http://triblive.com/local/allegheny/...family-to-fire

[HalvOnHorseracing]

Originally Posted by elysiantraveller

Cats are brutal on bird and small mammal populations.

Nothing against cats. Just though the statistic was interesting.

From USA Today:

Cats that live in the wild or indoor pets allowed to roam outdoors kill from 1.4 billion to as many as 3.7 billion birds in the continental U.S. each year, says a new study that escalates a decades-old debate over the feline threat to native animals.

I expect a lot of the birds killed by cats are highly common, like sparrows.

[Tom]

So what we do with 1.4 billion more birds????

[Ocala Mike]

I just rescued another stray who showed up at my farm yesterday. I'm calling him Alex because he has a weird meow like Alexa's laugh on Amazon.