I hate this time of year

[Bren22]

 

[angelinajolly]

My god bren sounds like a comedy show

[Bren22]

I meant featherless baby hatchlings!  The dessiccated birds bit reminded me of my mad cat Zeko (alias Psycho) who loved to get inside the storage area inside one of my spare beds - it was just a sliding panel and he could open it.  I once found a mummufied starling inside there and nearly had a heart attack.  Zeko used to catch a mouse and jump up onto the flat roof of the kitchen extension then through the open bathroom window.  Derek ( my beloved late husband) and I used to hear the 'mouthful' meow as Zeko landed on the floor, so he used to dash into the bathroom, chase Zeko downstairs into the kitchen and out of the backdoor.  Meanwhile I had to close the bathroom window before Zeko could get back up onto the roof and hurl himself at the window - then it was like Tom & Jerry as he slid down back on to the roof.  Life was never quiet with darling Zeko - he was the image of the Felix cat.

[angelinajolly]

I dread moving furniture in case i find a body gives me a jolt in the stomach.  I think the most frightening, for me, is when we heard a terrible commotion in the living room and found all cat's surrounding a young rat poor thing was screaming hubby caught it, couldn't kill & let it go won't be too popular with the neighbours All quiet here at the mo all cat's zonked out with the heat.

[maddercow]

Fascinated by the "naked chicks" Bren22!!

Its just heartache after heartache this time of year isn't it? Squashed hedgehogs, orphaned badger and fox cubs..... I picked up a young starling on Friday, not sure what had happened, possibly window strike but it couldn't fly and couldn't walk but it was shrieking, was dreadful.. Kept it warm overnight and to my surprise he was still alive the next morning and ate mealworms out of my hand, he was so cute. I got him to a wildlife rescue but I don't think there was much hope as it may have been a spinal injury, I don't dare contact them, I can't cope with death and illness in animals very well.  I am just going to assume he lives happily ever after and send them a cheque for their help.

My worst experience with cat kills was in my teens, I was an untidy little madam (still am) and rarely cleared the rubbish from under my bed but I did one weekend and found various beaks, feet and bird carcasses that my demon-cat Nero had kindly left me.  Why they didn't smell I do not know, although they were pretty dessicated. We had a few baby rabbits and mice brought in over the years but I had a pretty high success rate with rescuing them.

Is something we have to put up with I suppose, some cats are serious hunters, some don't seem to give a monkeys, we have a regular ginger visitor who will sit on the lawn surrounded by blackbirds and starlings and not even look at them!


Jo

[Peggy C]

Oh Peggy, maybe its just as well Oscar doesn't have all his teeth! 

sorry, i just had to say it! x

He is missing 7 teeth but obviously the rest are very effective   They manage to cope with dreamies too

[angelinajolly]

Must have been like a scene out of that film Bird's

[emmmy_lou]

Oh Peggy, maybe its just as well Oscar doesn't have all his teeth! 

sorry, i just had to say it! x

[Peggy C]

The other night Oscar brought in a blackbird which flew around all my downstairs rooms well out of his reach  Eventually it flew out of the kitchen door missing some feathers but seeming alive and well   
However the state of the house....  I am sure you can imagine!!!!!  I know it was meant to be a present for me !!
I just wish he wpuldn@t  But I love him really   

[angelinajolly]

You did the kindest thing Sheilarose, I had to kill a pigeon who had been poisoned i would never want to do it again.

[sheilarose]

I don't like to think about it but our worst experience has to be the half gutted sparrow that Beau brought in the house, over ten years ago, which he dropped and it escaped out of the window.
I tracked it down to a bush and pulled it out hoping to save it, but could see it was in half. I had to kill the poor thing myself which has to this day left a dark shadow in my heart. 

[angelinajolly]

Thinking about it Bren the cat's think they're doing good they are actually bringing us a present, what upsets me is when a chick dies that has never flown & i actually love hand rearing birds the only time i feel maternal, haven't got a maternal bone in my body normally
The bit i hate is releasing them, having to watch out for cat's  & knowing the chicks probably won't make it & also knowing they want to be free not caged, but not to worry hopefully cat's will be good this year & leave the chicks alone fingers crossed

[Bren22]

We've always had cats since I was quite small (I'm now very oldish) so I've had presents ranging from naked chicks on my bed when I was a child, to a dead pigeon on my doormat a couple of weeks ago.  I developed a phobia of dead birds............daft I know, but in the past some weren't quite dead and flew in my face........terrifying.  Collars and bells didn't work on my beautiful Honda, now long gone to the bridge.  I put a collar on him with two bells on it and then watched as he used his paw to wedge the bells under the collar to silence them.  No probs, he was a hunter but a real softy.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

They're just doing what comes naturally  Of course I don't have this problem with mine being indoor cats.  I just have to put up with knocked over tomato plants when they're in pursuit of a squirrel but with a pane of glass between them!    Mosi thinks he's well tough and would catch loads if he only had the chance.  I think otherwise and he'd probably get duffed up by a mouse.

[angelinajolly]

I'm frightened to put a collar on my cat's, when my little pony was young he had a head collar on cos he was hard to catch & he got it caught never used a head collar since I bribe em with food now. I find most adult bird's die of shock except pigeons who are pretty shock resistant!

[maddercow]

Birds are So delicate aren't they?  I have rarely managed to save one after a cat attack, they die of shock usually.  Mice are another thing altogether, they are pretty resilient and stand a good chance if you can just get the cat to drop them.

Hope your chicks get away unscathed, a BIG jangly bell on a cat collar may help (although  personally I think cat collars are the work of the devil!)

X

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Sorry 

[angelinajolly]

That's not helping Gill i'm trying to keep my sanity here   If i can just survive past the chicks leaving the nest stage without any more murders i shall relax

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

8 is just a juvenile LOL  My big cats aged 10 and 13 still hunt and catch!

[angelinajolly]

Hubby & I just completed another mouse rescue, Catty let it loose in the house this afternoon i'ts only just come out of hiding, frantic chase through living room finally caught it in the bathroom, i'm praying for snow Catty must be around 8 now surely she must retire from her duties soon, please god.

[Tiggy's Mum]

I am sooooo lucky, the boys are 5 now and *touch wood* they have never caught a bird or a mouse. They only have the catproof garden to go in and I think the netting puts the birds off!

My childhood cat caught a budgie (who was unharmed!) and a russian hamster, again unharmed and we had Abraham-ster for two years!

[angelinajolly]

Got to say i'm a damn good mouse catcher now, i think the cat's like to see me on all fours, my head is like a pincushion from yesterday's mouse hunt under the hawthorne hedge i beat 3 cat's to it released it, then Megan re caught it & ate it! My greatest claim to fame is when i caught a mouse in my trouser leg

[KittyB]

I think I've been very lucky with our four. We have yet to have any of them come in with a dead or dying anything. Then again we don't have a cat flap and I'm happy to be the doorman (well woman).
I did catch Carmen in the garden with a mouse a month a go. She looked like she was torturing it. I left her outside to get on with it as it seemed half dead. Not very nice at all. 
When I was a little girl and my first cat Patch used to bring pigeons in. I remeber my mum looking after them in a rabbit run in the kitchen. I can't remember any of them living for long though  .

[angelinajolly]

Being a parent is so hard is'nt it, we worry when they're in & worry when they're out at least human kid's grow up! The only bonus is they seem to stop hunting as they get older cat's that is

[maddercow]

Me too.

Mine are indoor cats but I still feel bad at this time of the year because the weather is gorgeous and my poor cats have to stay indoors. 

You can't win can you, you are either crying over the poor dead mouses and bunnies or upset 'cos your cats can't enjoy the outdoors.

Mine have never been out and don't seem bothered about it at all but I do sometimes regret my decision to keep them in... but then I have had too many run over, poisoned,
stolen or just plain disappeared and that's why they stay in.

Roll on winter then!

Jo

[angelinajolly]

Reminds me of my Angel emmmy lou, she wasn't the best hunter, mind she only had 3 legs, but she would proudly present me with mice that the other cat's had caught & discarded in the garden, they'd been dead for quite a while stiff as a board   But we always pretended she'd caught em & praised her!

[emmmy_lou]

Poor bunny, the little ones are everywhere at the minute.

Luckily my 2 cant even catch a cold! Sometimes I am a bit embarrased they are such pathetic cats 

I sometimes see little denzel creeping up towards the pidgeons on the lawn, but she always does it head on!  OH saw her playing with (I think) a tiny little magpie the other week. He insists that denzel killed it, but I reckon it fell out a nest or was dropped by something else. It certainly didn't look big enough to fly 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

RIP Bunny

THis is the cruel part of nature and cats are just doing what comes naturally, we think we have domesticated them but they show us that you cant domesticate their natural instincts

[angelinajolly]

OMG you must be a domestic goddess! White, except for white cat, is not allowed in our place

[Liz]

Some days on arriving home its like the killing fields at teh Clan cats homestead of course mine all take them in to the shiney white kitchen to do whatever and it looks like a scene from a horror film I mean who in their right mids has a white tiled floor with white shiney cupboards the folks before us 

[angelinajolly]

Suppose a collar & bell would help, but i dont put collar's on case they get caught.  Sadly poor bunny has died. 

[Dawn F]

we've had a bad run as well, a nice little brown and black bird and Oscar crunching on a mouse in the same day

[angelinajolly]

I'ts started already, yesterday Catty killed a little sparrow & Megan a mouse,today it was horrible Tom caught a beautiful baby bunny i've put it in a cat carrier but don't hold much hope 2 year's ago I ended up hand rearing 2 blackbird's and a robin in my bedroom i found mealworms in my bed    I know i'ts what cat's do but it's upsetting, sorry for my little moan!