Topic: Opinions on cats

[gunnerbee]

How can anyone seriously dig and have cat Shite up to their elbows, Sorry i have to laugh!!!! thingy and bull story im afraid. We have lots of cats around here, and ive never ever dug it up to my elbows!!!! LOL, Im afraid we are on the CAT HATERS THREAD here, well for me, i dont mind picking up the odd cat turd in return for the rats and mice they bring back home, My guvnor brought back three large rats last year killed for us to see under our sideboard!!! lovely sight , no, but the Rat man from the council came out and found a huge nest of baby rats nearby in someone elses compost bin, So for me a bit of cat shite on my allotment is a small price to pay. P.s birds are thriving around here too. We all love birds too.

[Gillian]

I have a cat who is a prolific hunter - I tried feeding him more, not letting him out at night, putting a bell on his collar and it didn't make any difference. He still brings me water rats the size of a small dog. He's a cat - cat's hunt. It's true if I was a small furry animal he'd proably kill me and eat me head first too! I guess you either like cats or you don't but you can't blame the little mites for doing what comes natural.

Cat pepper works on gardens - I don't know about veg patches because I don't have a cat problem there.

[Deleted]

My cats go in their own garden.  The thing that really gets me is the woman who walks her dog along our road and lets it go wherever it pleases - including our front lawns/gardens if that's where it pleases. At least, she used to until me and my neighbours saw it happening. At least most young cats usually bury it (the exception being one of my neighbours cats).

Gillian: Said just the other week that my cats are 12 now and so seem too old for catching mice/birds, etc. as they hadden done so for years. So, next day, the oldest one brings me a mouse... Hmm.

[Roy Bham UK]

My cats go in their own garden.  The thing that really gets me is the woman who walks her dog along our road and lets it go wherever it pleases - including our front lawns/gardens if that's where it pleases. At least, she used to until me and my neighbours saw it happening. At least most young cats usually bury it (the exception being one of my neighbours cats).

Shudda reported her to the local dog warden, there are stiff penalties on our council for dogs fouling public pathways. >:(

PS if you know where they live pick it up in a bag and plonk it in their front garden with a note saying "This belongs to you" :o They will get the message in the package :o ;D

[PREMTAL]

Hi Roy,
           I always have a plastic bag in my back pocket just in case our dog drops one, I get realy annoyed when other dog owners don't have the same consideration. >:(

If I see who is allowing their dog to poo outside our gate I follow them and rub the poo in right outside their gate and put a bit on the gate handle so they get the message. ;D ;D ;D

                                               PREMTAL

[campanula]

the cat poo thing is not very pleasant but is hardly serious enough to make me froth at the mouth. Sadly though, bird killing really is dreadful. Last year we  had blackbirds nesting in our ivy but a cat killed the mother bird. As well as having to remove the dead chicks in the nest, we had to endure the male blackbird perching on our gate post, calling frantically for his mate. It was just heart-breaking. This year looked like being a repeat when the male blackbird was killed (by the same bloody cat). Steeling myself for confrontation, I went roaring round to the owner who was as horrified as I. She bought a large bell which has certainly worked and we are enjoying our mating pair about to embark on their third brood (our 'single parent' found a newpartner). Belling a cat does go some way to stopping cats predatory ways since the birds have some warning at least although vulnerable chicks have no chance. In truth, I am not fond of cats as they are essentially still wild animals with little need to refrain from enjoyable murder despite full stomachs.

[Deleted]

Around our way (and my mums 50 miles away) its the magpies that massacre the baby blackbirds - that's if they don't get their eggs first. The cats leave them alone, but the magpies are just relentless. It's actually scary if you see them to realise that they can be so bloodythirsty. Its the same with the crows and the baby goslings, although i could see they try to take them back as fod for their young - the magpies just kill for the sake of it it seems. However, one of the goslings was even beheaded by one of the crows this year. (sorry, did i put you off your lunch...). Nature is cruel.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've often seen grows finishing off sick pigeons. All corvids are predators.

[portway farm]

We have given up on the tunnels this year as our cats (well kittens) used them as a run hide and pounce tool. Get the odd poo but to be fair they go in the rested bed or on the compost or muck heap. With a farm we use the cats they are more ferral then pets, live outside, get spayed when caught, wormed when caught, get fed in th barn a couple of times a week and catch their own the rest of the time. The cats just about let us stroke them but only when they feel like it. They take on the foxes, ripped one of the foxes ears off, take on our dogs, are frightend of the chickens, sleep on the horses backs. Basically a law unto themselves. Personally would not have a cat in the house as they walk in and through everything then jump up on work surfaces ...... ;)

[Deleted]

Yes, there's obviously a big differece with near feral and domestc cats. Mine (domestic) are as daft as brushes - in an intelligent way . They love cuddles and brushes, and would no more jump on a work surface or table than swim the channel. Mine are here for company and comfort (mutual, i might add) rather than anything else. The odd poo that i may come across in the garden is nothing.

[Amazin]

Dawn, I'm so glad you posted about magpies and crows. I thought I was seeing things the other day - my cats were in the garden and were both (separately) 'buzzed' by a manic magpie. It swooped on them several times.
Now I reckon I know why.
We have a family of blackbirds who nest with us every year and which my cats don't go near (having been trained from very young) though they do give them a withering glare as only cats can. The cats were obviously stopping the magpie from investigating their nest.
This magpie and his equally mad mates went on to have a slanging match with a clutch of cantankerous crows... God, the noise!

[Robert_Brenchley]

That's a behaviour called 'mobbing' which birds habitually indulge in with predators. It draws attention to the predator, as you noticed, and makes it harder for it to catch its prey. I doubt whether the cat was stopping the magpies doing anything particular; they would just have been reacting to its presence.

[Merlins Mum]

I have tried very hard not to enter into this debate because I know basically people either love or hate cats.  I admit I am an animal lover and in particular I love cats, my own and other peoples.  I agree it isn’t very pleasant to dig up cat poo but then, as many others have already said, neither is it nice to walk in dog muck.  But what about all the rubbish that we caring humans leave about the place.  It’s everywhere, from broken glass to discarded food containers or even where someone on their way home from the pub and a Chinese has been sick.  And don’t you just love it when you are standing in a queue and the person behind you sneezes or coughs all over you.  Gone are the days it seems when we were taught ‘coughs and sneezes spread diseases’
And as for the bird population, yes it’s heart breaking when a cat catches and kills bird but have none of you killed a bird when you’ve been driving, if you haven’t you have been lucky.  And do any of you eat meat, if yes, have you ever seen animals waiting to be slaughtered, it’s a lot more than heart breaking and they, more likely than not, had one hell of a long journey to get there, crammed together in lorries, terrified by the unknown.  The way we transport chicken is far from humane, a lot die from suffocation on route to be slaughtered.
I think some of you out there should put this cat poo problem into perspective.
Having got that off my chest, I’ll get off my soapbox.
MM

[Merry Tiller]

Someone said "if you don't like cats, you don't understand them", dead right in my expert opinion

[ruudbarb]

gb- & I bet your cat uses someone else's patch.

We have at least 3 neighbouring cats use ours. Shame about the gun law!

How good are you with a catapult Tim.........?   8)

[Merry Tiller]

How good are you with a catapult Tim

You'd better hope I don't catch you

[ruudbarb]

Dawn, I'm so glad you posted about magpies and crows. I thought I was seeing things the other day - my cats were in the garden and were both (separately) 'buzzed' by a manic magpie. It swooped on them several times.
Now I reckon I know why.

Crows and magpies will still have young around now and are fierce defenders against all predators which includes the domestic moggie, so a bit of buzzing is a natural reaction.  A pair of crows or maggies will sort out a cat that gets too near their offspring and can be most amusing. 

The comments on other posts about cats not being responsible for large numbers of bird deaths are wide of the mark.  Domestic cats with full stomachs hunt for sport not food and are content to wait long periods to spring their trap by which time the hungry predator has long moved on to find some food. 

Cats are not nice neighbours and as a dog owner, I feel greatly annoyed when I come across dog waste left uncleared by anti-social owners after dilligently carrying a little smelly bag of poo to the nearest dog waste bin.

[ruudbarb]

How good are you with a catapult Tim

You'd better hope I don't catch you

But isn't that what a catapult is for MT......?   ::) ::) ::)

[Merry Tiller]

No ::) ::) ::) ::)

[ruudbarb]

How about a small trebuchet then MT, so the little furry blighters can be air-lifted back to where they came from.......?  ;D ;D ;D