Posted on 12/01/2010 9:31:05 AM PST by TSgt
I live next to a ravine in No. Cal. My cats have claws, go out, occasionally bring back lizards, rats, and rarely a bird. However they are not allowed out at night because of the coyotes. The yotes seem to have pretty much eliminated the feral cat population.
No problem with feral cats here. The fisher cats take care of them—and occasionally someone’s pet cat as well.
While in Hawaii I complained about the feral cats. I was told that if they got rid of the cats I’d be complaining about rats. They eventually started trapping the cats, sterilizing them and releasing them. Worked for me.
Once in a while they’d get a mongoose in a trap. They are vicious when trapped.
Works for me. Quick and painless. Anything else is just wrong. Goes for squirrels and other “pests”, too.
That’s pretty funny. (Even though I like cats.)
There used to be a book, “101 uses for a dead cat”, and another one by the same guy that involved appropriate crimes for cat transgressions. Example:
CRIME: cat that jumps in the laundry basket on top of your clean clothes and gets hair all over them.
PUNISHMENT: Put clothes away. Then place cat in bathtub with laundry basket upside down over it. Weight top of basket with brick. Slowly fill bathtub with water.
Those books were funny too. Even though I like cats.
big problem with them, up here in the mountains, where I live...
it’s very humane, in my opinion, to put them down.. I have 2 cats in our home, indoor cats. I’m a cat lover. just sayin..
I’ve got six feral cats (all have been trapped, spayed and neutered)now. Three grew up here, their momma brought them in as kittens eight years ago, three more I just got from the city animal control. My house, barn and sheds are free of mice and I have no snakes. They are working very hard patroling the yard and garden area to kill the influx of voles I got this year.
I feed them every morning and make sure they have fresh water. I also have hundreds of quail, millions of starlings it seems and half the pigeons in northern Nevada. They only kill birds that land on the porch to eat their food.
They go out to the dirt road to do their business,my flower beds, yard and garden are not used as a litter box. All in all, I really appreciate them being here.
Wait until they start having a terrible rodent problem. Cats hunt their own eats. Plus, rodents are harder to hit with a shotgun.
Feral cats, even ones found as kittens will always act "wilder" and be more destructive. Even when supplied with scratching posts, they will still tear up stuff, including your hands and arms when you try to play with them. My young cat is an indoor cat and will always be so. I've had indoor cats before and they've never gotten out because I'm careful and aware that it could end their life to get out. It was either the kitten was declawed or she went to the shelter with her siblings. I most likely saved her life as only feral kittens younger than 6 to 8 weeks are salvageable. She was borderline.
Well..we are now the proud owner of a new kitten, thanks to its feral mother who dropped it in our backyard and ran (we were thinking of getting a kitten anyway.) However, his mother still is hanging around...we are trying to get her caught and spayed...and then? Not sure....but, we know she will not be INSIDE our home....where our new kitty will always reside. (This is the suburbs....not a farm area.)
If we had more Chinese Restaurants, Feral Cats would not be an issue.
Had a kitty bring me a mouse, he was sure I would love. He came in the dog door with it and dropped it at my feet. It got loose so I set traps up around the house. That morning I was fixing breakfast for the kids and all of a sudden the insides of the toaster started jumping all over the place. I flipped up the toast and out came a smoking mouse. He disappeared again to be caught in a trap a few hours later. The hair on his tail was completely gone, along with brandishing a few scars on his back. Needless to say the toaster was toast. No one would eat anything from it, had to buy a new one!
We have coyotes and the occasinal fox here. But what is a fisher cat?
I was told that if I kept them in a cage for about a month, they would consider my barn their home and wouldn't run away.
It worked like a charm, they hang around the barn and keep it rodent free. They have actually become pretty friendly too.
I tell them all the time, "Okay, I'll feed you, but I better not see any rats." LOL
I think using them as barn cats is a good way to save a lot of these animals. Every barn I have been to either has cats or rats. Most people prefer cats.
I’m completely against de-clawing.
But I do have a de-clawed cat that I rescued, and I can assure you that he is the toughest cat in our neighborhood.
He grew up as an outdoor cat in Wyoming and just won’t back down from anything.
Haven’t had any feral cats in our yard since we got him.
That’s a hoot. But I bet you didn’t think it was so funny at the time it happened!
My neighbors went into a rage on me for cage-trapping many litters of Feral kittens and turning them over to animal control. The kittens were credited to their un-neutered male. The neighbors were not willing to be responsible for the Feral litters. The lady of the house, would run around the yard holding the kittens, saying..”I’m a Grandma!” Then release the kittens to the neighborhood. Never once taking responsiblity for the animals. After a near knock down drag out, he called apologized for loosing his cool, and took his cat in for a neuter job. No more feral litters for now.
There in lies a solution, rather than the creation of another problem.
That’s pretty much how cats became domesticated.
They started hanging around humans because there were rodents aplenty.
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