Give a cat a bad name....

[alanc]

Had a complaint that Badger had been killing baby blackbirds this morning. Considering he has been dead nearly two years, that is some feat!

[Ruth B]

Wow! that is an impressive feat for him.

Unfortunately cats will be cats and it is one reason that I don't actively invite birds into my garden.

I've noticed how people always go on about cats killing birds, but never seem to mind if they get a mouse or two, and are positively impressed when they kill a rat, they seem to forget the same cat may be responsible for all the kills.

[Lilith]

Wow. Clever Badger!

I've always said cats are capable of anything.

Yeah, I too get annoyed when people get hysterical over cats hunting birds. 'But they torture them!' they'll tell you. I don't care for it myself; I'm glad that now my cats can't roam and hunt and I never allowed a cat of mine to bring home a prey of any sort and play with it (I'd sooner put a quick end to the poor prey myself) but even this 'play' is instinctive - it stems from the mother cat's need to educate her kittens to hunt. It's humans who have learned to torture.

And these same sensitive souls will watch a sitcom on the TV and roar with laughter when one of the characters trips over the cat, with the resulting screech, ha ha ha.

I once got really mad when someone told me a sick joke concerning a cat. I just looked at him and said, 'would you find that so funny if it was about a baby or a puppy?' He was deeply offended.

Cats don't seem to have it so good do they?

[alanc]

Ruth
I agree - likewise have never encouraged birds into my garden since I had a cat.
Tilly was being praised 2 weeks ago for removing a pair of Rats that had set up shop in the neighbors gardens and eluded the rat traps, a feat now forgotten and its my "dam cats" killing the wildlife. Actually, Tilly has an alibi for this incident, having been indoors with me.
Its amazing how the local sparrowhawk can get away with killing 20 times as many birds as Badger and Tilly have ever done but that is only "killing the weak, infirm or unwary" - quite why people think Badger and Tilly only went for the fit and agile ones I don't know! In fact, I think Tilly has been instrumental in keeping the Green Finch disease in check round here by removing diseased birds before they can infect the others.
Lilith
Its programmes like that which are one reason I don't and never will have a TV. People laughing at animals getting hurt makes me sick.
Alan

[bobbys girl]

I'm on another forum (gardening - what else! ) most of the members are vehemently anti cat and blame cats for everything. At the moment one member is having problems with pigeons eating his veg. I offered to loan him a cat - he declined

They all maintain cats are responsible for the decline in wildlife in general. I put it this way - I fed and housed wild birds long before I had cats. This year our garden is chock full of birds, including many more uncommon ones, Bullfinches, Siskins, Red Poll as well as more common ones. Yes we have had a few casualties and it is always upsetting. BUT, my next door neighbour (who has a lovely, soppy dog and a bigger garden has hardly any birds at all. Our, cat-filled garden is full of birds - they are all singing right now.

We keep an old bird cage for 'emergencies' mostly in the form of birds who have flown into windows and stunned themselves. A couple of hours in a quiet, dark place and many of them fly off without a backward glance.

I have to add, I thought Purdy was remarkable, hunting with only one eye, but hunting from beyond the grave takes some doing!

[Lilith]

Ha - Bobbys girl, I blame magpies for a great deal of the decline in birdlife. You get a colony of those black and white beauties established and you can say goodbye to other smaller, rarer birds.

I once heard a terrible screeching here and looked out into the street to see a magpie pinning another magpie down and stabbing at its belly, while a third stood nearby and watched. Before I could do anything a local cat dashed up and sent them on their way. They're gorgeous birds but they have unpleasant habits.

Alan, I won't have a TV either. If I had more room I'd have a flat screen somewhere unobtrusive that I could watch DVDs on, but then I'D choose what I could watch, but I refuse to have an ugly thing glaring at me in my living room. I know I'm a Luddite lol!

[bobbys girl]

We have magpies too! They often fall out with their cousins, the jackdaws. They all have nests in the same trees - quite a racket. I think that's how we ended up with Kafka last year. BTW it was a polecat that did for him.

[MarySkater]

Had a complaint that Badger had been killing baby blackbirds this morning. Considering he has been dead nearly two years, that is some feat!

But once you are known as a cat owner, every cat-related problem in the street will be laid at your door. And once people have found someone to blame, it's easier to remember that, than to look at the real facts of the case.

[Lilith]

Ain't that the truth, Mary!

They also think that you're a cheap pet-sitting service, vet, cat rescue worker, because you 'love cats' which means you'll come running every time they have a problem ... sorry to sound so cynical, but ever since a neighbour told me, 'oh you're our local cat lady', warning bells began to ring and I'm not quite such a soft touch any more.

Grr.

I'm afraid I do have some tragicomic memories of cats hunting, they DO do it of course. Regulars will have read about George aka the Beast of Bodmin double. The time I found him on top of a rabbit hutch (I bred rabbits for food, which George appreciated.) He'd managed to unlatch the hutch and the litter of newly borns was no longer in the hutch, but inside George ... he must have scarfed them down like a snake.

And the time he returned from a fruitful evening's hunting to puke a whole nestful of fledglings on the kitchen carpet, beaks, eyes and all. Delightful.

Cats can be disgusting - but to blame them for every damn thing is not on

[Judy Barnett]

I agree with Lilith, we have far more problems with magpies than we ever have or have had with cats. We too have nest boxes in the garden and with the odd exception with fledglings, our cats catch more 'dangerous killer' earth worms than birds.

[alanc]

Thanks for your responses, folks. I am beginning to be able to see the funny side of this, with the thought that Badger's ghost has returned to haunt his old hunting grounds! Tuesday, I was spitting with fury about it as it had reminded me all to brutally of my loss.
Judy - you need to give those earthworms a wide berth. Tilly terrorizes my house with the dead(ly) leaves.