General Chat

One of mine (Mr Mau) was out.
Betty ocasionally watched.
George was riveted!!


However, when they recorded/played the 'food' purr - they both harrassed me until I fed them!!

Mr Mau is still out.........

It was quite entertaining when the cat fight happened. he climbed up on the TV stand and tried to join in. :-D

I've just got the three now - Suzi the calico cat, she's 15 and just likes peace and quiet.

Eric and Ernie are the two Siamese/Bengal crosses age 5 and they are a right handful. Hobbies are annoying Suzi, playing in their paddling pool (an old recycling box) having water fights, fetching anything you throw and making a lot of noise. They're Siamese shape with Bengal markings.

Ernie likes to go for a little walk on his lead, but Eric's not fussed.

My cats stay in at night (the catflap has a timer control) and don't seem to like being anywhere we aren't.

What is it with male cats?
My two males (short haired black moggies) love harrassing Betty (extremely small, with long black & white fur).
George in particular is a pain. Betty will be sleeping - and he'll just jump on her and run off :-|
All 3 are siblings aged 7.

These 2 males dare not harass Fuzzy the old lady as she soon puts them in their places. She rules the roost here , even us humans don't mess with her :-D :-D. This Bengal cross is Siamese size too and a lovely boy, so good with the children in the household as is the Abysynian

A song bird weighs about 150gm. They mostly build their nests in places where cats, average weight 4kg, cannot go because the branches cannot support them. Easily the leading predators of nesting song birds are grey squirrels - who can get to the places that cats cannot - , jays, magpies.

Many bird species will happily turf out the eggs/chicks of a rival in order to take over the nest and female e.g. robins, ducks.

Those to whom their garden is a shirne tend to have a deep hatred of cats and will trot out any amount of untested assertions as a result. The birders are hardly any better.

Gardener's Tip 1: What cat's like is nice soft recently tilled earth such as a seed bed. Once the seedlings have got going and the earth is no longer so soft the attraction goes away. In the meantime just cover the area with plastic netting, quick cheap n ez. This also keeps off the birds who like to eat the young plants.

Gardener's Tip 2: Some cats are very good at catching moles who will destroy any garden or lawn.

Yesterday's Horizon program showed what might have been guessed. Today's well fed moggies are pretty lazy when it comes to hunting.

Poison is a dreadful idea for rodents etc. as other animals that eat the rodents ingest the poison and also die a painful and lingering death. That included one of my cats :-( The Horizon program showed a farmer who had found that cats were easily the best answer to his rodent problems.

Keep going Rollo - prove what you like, or maybe disprove is the correct word, but whatever you say and do, KEEP YOUR BLOODY CAT OUT OF MY GARDEN !

Poison,Some Ratbag Poisened one of our cats with Anti freeze, If I ever get hold of them I,ll give them a Cocktail of it and see how they like dieing in agony. Staffy, If you like your garden (As I do) use a hosepipe or water pistol on the cats, They,ll soon get the message and keep away.**M**.

Why should it be ME who has to keep YOUR cat off my garden. If my dog came and pooped on your lawn or on a public footpath I would, (quite rightly), be liable to prosecution.

Responsible owners , and there are many of these, train their cats to use litter trays and do not let them roam at night.

I repeat why should the onus be on ME to keep YOUR cat off MY garden?

My cats use litter trays,and stay in at night. You could consider yourself fortunate, I have had to resort to Locking the front gates securely to stop humans crapping in my garden.Now that you would,nt like, much worse than cats or dogs.**M**.

Merlin, first, thank you for being a responsible cat owner.

Secondly, I do not consider myself fortunate, I spend a lot of time and money on my garden and it attracts every loose feline in the area. Its no use cat lovers telling me to scare cats with water sprays etc. It is during the night when I am in bed when they howl, fight, scratch my new seedlings up and pooh.

And if you are angry at someone poisoning your cats and say that you would make the punishment fit the crime by poisoning the culprit, I agree with you, it was a despicable thing to do and completely unjustified. However, by the same measure, I would be justified in throwing cat pooh into the homes of the owners of the cats which use my garden as a toilet.

Once again Merlin - many thanks for being a responsible owner.

I agree, collect it up an deposit it on their doorstep if you know who,s cat is responsible.Take care and enjoy your garden as I do.**M**.

Oh dear Rollo now you say my cat scarer is breaking the law, not to worry I think I have found a device on a US site to send off for it's called a Winchester Repeater! :-D :-D











NO NO cat lovers only joking!!!!!!! ;-)

I live in a built up area and have seen about three cats walking through my garden in the 4 years I have lived here, my own cat stays in...but if I had my own way she would be let out, but it was some stupid clause in my tenancy agreement....it is not easy trying to keep a cat in 24/7

Not seen any of these cats do anything they should not, but often find foxes crap and holes dug up in the lawn and flower beds where they have been trying to bury their food.

Flower tubs have also been damaged by squirrels burying their nuts (we have a cob nut tree) Not really a great deal we can do about it.

My neighbours have told us there is also a badger that roams the area and digs up their plants??? I am not too sure about that though...but there could be I suppose??

To stop cat pooing in your garden put down some orange skins it does work.

Jax - As I said in an earlier post, two wrongs do not make a right.
Even if its foxes, badgers, squirrels or any other animal spoiling a garden, it does not mean that a cat is innocent.

And no one has yet answered my question:

Why should the onus be on ME to stop YOUR cat crapping on MY garden?

StaffyKnot,

You will never convince cat owners that their beloved "pet" can be a PEST and a bloody nuisance, all we can do really is try to keep the bloody things out of our gardens by various means.

A mate of mine who's garden is fenced also had problems, he strung a taught wire about 3 inches along to top of the fence, and the gate, which stopped the cats getting in, he was quite prepared to invest in one of those electric wires, a smaller version to what farmers use if that failed, but the wire seems to do the trick.

I agree with you, you should not have to pay out to keep other peoples PESTS from your property.

George

Absolutely amazing 50 cats with trackers attached to them. 17 with video camera's.

Learned a lot.

Loads of people round here have cats. Least the foxes and grey squirals are minimal this year. Loads have those high pitch animal deterrents which buzz at night - who said you can't hear them

As was stated on the programme, Staffy, a cat is still basically a wild animal, that has been semi domesticated.

So if you object to cats, I only hope you object to other wildlife in your garden!!
Personally, I welcome the sloworms, hedgehogs, blue tits and blackbirds in my garden, but am glad there are no rats or mice.

Of course, with my own cats around, I don't feed the birds, but have plants they feed off - or should that be ruin?

I've also had unwelcome vicious cats - usually un-neutered males, who terrorised my cats, not only in the garden, but in my house.
They attacked, sprayed and generally stank the place out.
I had to keep my cats locked in for over a year until the un-neutered ones disappeared.
Not the cats' fault - it's the owner.

There is a Horizon sequel tonight 10pm.

My cats come home round midnight all of their own accord and zizz until 7 or 8. If the weather is bad they are worse to get up than teenagers.

Staffy may not have picked up in the Horizon program that without cats to keep the rodents down farming and modern civilisation may not have happened at all. It also showed that cats remain the most efficient way to deal with rodents as my French farmer friends will agree.

Children who grow up with cats and dogs tend to have far better health and resistance to diseases and tend to be better adjusted. The EU are considering a law banning landlords from banning cats. btw Eurostar will not allow cats and dogs, not even in boxes, not even for the blind (!).

A friend in the Forest of Dean is also a keen gardener. She has to contend not with cats but with wild boar. Goodness only knows how Staffy would react to and deal with one of these! They taste good though.