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Cats...


wiggyrichard

Love them or loathe them?  

226 members have voted

  1. 1. Love them or loathe them?

    • Love, they're so cute & cuddly!
      146
    • They're shite & should be considered vermin!
      85


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18 minutes ago, BOF said:

Cheers guys.

I managed the stoic stiff upper lip whilst biting the inside of the mouth trick, but it wouldn't have taken a whole lot more and I think they knew that.  Maybe my face and voice betrayed me as there was minimal conversation as they gave me back the empty cat box.

Oh, I was the same at the vets. It was when I got home I lost it. I buried him in the garden. :(

Edited by mjmooney
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10 hours ago, maqroll said:

If you let it out without supervision, it'll go wherever it wants. You could set up remote electro-schock parameters like people have for dogs, but then I'd have to find you and kill you.

that sounds a bit.... "Perimeter, activated.... perimeter, activated.... perimeter, activated"

 

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3 hours ago, Raver50032 said:

I couldn't help but think of Kit from Knight Rider, or the General Lee from Dukes Of Hazzard whizzing by your new house day in, day out!

That's how it seems fella, cars are maybe about 50-70mph but a cat crossing has not long to see / hear which direction its coming... and these roadkill animals never seem to get it right. i think i will though, but later in the year. Motorbikes though, motorcyslsits love that road, get a lot of groups and individuals come through flying down... 

I just hate mice and rats, really hate them. And these little guys will sort that, cats scent everything too so that alone helps keep these scumbags away. The page before there, there was someone saying about the rat in their house.... fair play to that cat. 

That cat, was bringing that rat in to show off, as in, look who i found skulking about outside OUR home, now just let me toy with him for a bit and eat his head and you can clear up. People say about dogs only ones that show companionship but there is definitely an US thing with cats, especially when they come to keeping your gaff clear of rodents. That's why theyre so proud when they catch something. 

Also, yeah sad to read about yours there @BOF 

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2 hours ago, Midfielder said:

That's how it seems fella, cars are maybe about 50-70mph but a cat crossing has not long to see / hear which direction its coming... and these roadkill animals never seem to get it right. i think i will though, but later in the year. Motorbikes though, motorcyslsits love that road, get a lot of groups and individuals come through flying down... 

I just hate mice and rats, really hate them. And these little guys will sort that, cats scent everything too so that alone helps keep these scumbags away. The page before there, there was someone saying about the rat in their house.... fair play to that cat. 

That cat, was bringing that rat in to show off, as in, look who i found skulking about outside OUR home, now just let me toy with him for a bit and eat his head and you can clear up. People say about dogs only ones that show companionship but there is definitely an US thing with cats, especially when they come to keeping your gaff clear of rodents. That's why theyre so proud when they catch something. 

Also, yeah sad to read about yours there @BOF 

Some cats learn to stay away from cars, however those sort of speeds could be a problem. There's been some good studies done with perimeter fences with pheromone activated collars, but they are extremely expensive and I think you'd feel quite bad for the cat as it gets used to it. 

Alternatively, owls. (just throwing that out there)

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13 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

Some cats learn to stay away from cars, however those sort of speeds could be a problem. There's been some good studies done with perimeter fences with pheromone activated collars, but they are extremely expensive and I think you'd feel quite bad for the cat as it gets used to it. 

Alternatively, owls. (just throwing that out there)

Got owls in and around also some huge birds of prey which when I think about it could quite fancy some kitten or cat for tea. 

Yeah I will definitely look into it. Later in the year house isn't fully habitable and with how much they sniff about and explore surfaces all one would encounter now is dust , chemical treatments and whatever. 

When it comes to cats and dogs I like both but the idea of something that can get a plus on mice is what I'm after. Won't be buying some pedigree just a moggy from some litter. And for sure it will be male so I can call it Mellberg maybe. If after a while it gets no confirmed kills I'll call it Balaban. 

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We had two cats, Louis (the one in my avatar), and his sister Ella. They were hilariously different - Ella was a killing machine. Fortunately, she specialised in rodents, with only the very occasional bird for variety. Louis didn't have the first clue about how to catch mice - he would follow her round and watch in utter amazement as she demonstrated the technique, but he never quite got it. And he seemed to actually like birds - to the point where the birds in our garden knew which cat was which. If they spotted Ella, they scarpered, but learned to ignore Louis, as being no threat. I once saw a blackbird digging for worms no more than a foot away from him.

But Ella HAD to catch a bare minimum of one mouse per day, or she'd get quite antsy. And it was her downfall - we live on a busy road, with a farmer's field on the other side. On one of her nocturnal hunts she fell foul of the traffic. Poor Louis was never the same again. They used to share their food dish, and for weeks after she died, he would eat his half (right half of the dish - Ella was 'left handed' opening doors, and was very OCDish about having to eat on the left side of the bowl) and leave the rest, and then go and wait by the catflap for her. But his timidity was good, because he never went near the road, and had a few more years before his liver gave out. 

 

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3 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

he would eat his half and leave the rest, and then go and wait by the catflap for her.

Ah jayzus.  The poor little sod :( 

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11 minutes ago, Midfielder said:

Got owls in and around also some huge birds of prey which when I think about it could quite fancy some kitten or cat for tea. 

Yeah I will definitely look into it. Later in the year house isn't fully habitable and with how much they sniff about and explore surfaces all one would encounter now is dust , chemical treatments and whatever. 

When it comes to cats and dogs I like both but the idea of something that can get a plus on mice is what I'm after. Won't be buying some pedigree just a moggy from some litter. And for sure it will be male so I can call it Mellberg maybe. If after a while it gets no confirmed kills I'll call it Balaban. 

I meant as in try to keep an owl in a nesting box in a tree if there's trees near by to catch the mice. No owl in Britain eats cats as cats are an African species. Even the biggest owl we have called the Eagle owl only eats rodents. Owls are even better at catching mice than cats are - I've got a mate who has a tawny owl breeding in his barn who has seen the same male owl catch 14 mice in one evening just before sunset.

Alternatively, get a dachshund. They're known to hunt and kill rats and rodents.

Edited by magnkarl
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Cheers pal. It'll be the cat, decided. Walks itself and if need be can get an automatic food dispenser that serves a few meals on rotation if I have to go away. Won't leave the thing entirely alone of course. 

I look forward to it. Until the day it starts on the corners of the furniture. But, "training" I guess. The road is a worry though. 

 

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She's lucky she had you as a friend @BOF Glad to hear she wasn't in distress.

My last cat was 19 years old when he died, and I really regret not putting him down earlier, because he suffered the throes of death for about 36 hours, but I was blinded. I'll never make that mistake again.

Amazing the bonds we form with the little creatures.

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Sorry to hear about your loss, BOF.  I've never had to put one down or even see the body of a pet that's passed, but I was crushed when Koko never came back from one of her walkabouts a few months ago.  My wife had to put down a cat that had been by her side for a dozen years, from earliest adulthood and wild parties with friends, through law school and onto parenthood, moving back and forth across the US with her.  She was a wreck when she came back from the vets, and if you were feeling anything like she looked that day I'm sure it must have been gut-wrenching.  For us, getting a couple of rescue kittens has helped in putting Koko's loss behind us, particularly the kids.

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On 20/05/2017 at 07:36, maqroll said:

@mjmooney, that post read like an Italian opera. Getting misty over here, wtf Mike.

Yeah I just read this through, makes quite sad reading. Us as a species that's one thing but despite their differences of how they think and their recall, it's sad reading Mooney's and BOf's posts because the other cats or dogs or any animal, they "get it" but don't get the answer. I know this is weird me trying to explain above but well read in behavioural sciences etc and it's weird and kinda quite sad to think they have different stages of grief to us. 

They never get closure in a way like we do but just pine for their sibling or "housemate" until the pining lessens but they aren't actually all that primal their recall is still significant to be continually on their mind. They don't fully know they are dead as to them themselves they're not inherently even aware of what death is to themselves (and their own killing / finding animal carcasses doesn't count) so they are left wondering when their bud is coming home or simply why they haven't and what was wrong  

So anyway quite sad reading these. Yeah maybe the above is a bit deep but no one really thinks about that stuff. 

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