Cats Are Our Friends

Right said:
I'm in the northern Piedmont, NC. I used to have my garden in the back yard, with a simple black nylon fence, but the trees have all grown in and now it's too much shade. Two years ago I started growing in the front yard in an area where I had to take a tree down. The sun is intense there and with the help of drip irrigation my plants did very well. Unfortunately this year the deer have gotten very bold and ate everything, and my HOA does not allow front yard fences. I'm reduced to growing in containers on the deck.
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Fox scent works pretty good at keeping them away. Here's an easy concoction that's easy to make that will keep them from eating your veggies.

In a one gallon milk jug add a cigar butt or an equivalent amount of tobacco,1 tsp ground cayenne pepper. Fill with water then add 1 tbsp dish soap. Let soak for a day our two, then decant into a squirt bottle or pesticide sprayer. Spray liberally over veggies about once every week or two. Makes them taste so nasty the critters leave them alone. Just remember to wash the veggies before you eat or cook them.
 
wonderful thread.. taking care of the stray cats -adopting and anything else helpful you can do is "good karma"
 
Ever heard of the Anaheim FIX project? It's one of a few that are meant to help stray cats out without necessarily allowing them free reign over the other animals.
 
Bill said:
LOL, ducks do that as well....... @ my last house, it was on a man-made lake & the damn ducks would crap on my deck.........

I have a friend a few miles away & her area is infested w/ them.. THey travel via the water drains.. I have seen them go in them, but I still can't imagine them traveling long distances in those tiny holes........ They are not afraid of ppl nor dogs......... Her neighbors pit bull got his butt kicked by one....... Cut his face up real bad..
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We have a lot of ducks where I live. They're really messy and they have no fear of the cats. Now there's a whole new batch of them with about 7 ducklings who are already almost full size in just one month. They don't interfere with my cat feeding though, since they're strictly daytime creatures, and I feed my cat strays between midnight and 4 AM. A few times when I went out to feed the cats during the day, they were a huge problem. They appear out of nowhere, and I've never seen an animal eat faster then them. They can gobble down my cat food in seconds.
 
anatta said:
wonderful thread.. taking care of the stray cats -adopting and anything else helpful you can do is "good karma"
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Thanks. Another good thing we can do is to trap the cats, and take them to the Humane Society to be fixed. They will do it for a fairly reasonable fee, and clip the cats ear, so you can tell that they are already fixed. Too many kittens is a bad thing. We had a litter of 5 recently. Only one has survived.
 
The best cats I ever had were pulled from a large feral litter well before weaning in order to help out the mother. My friend weaned them with an eyedropper, and I took them both. I gave the female to my grandfather who lived in Massachusetts and I kept the male for my house in Upstate NY. I already had a cat that I took from a dairy barn that turned out to be useless as a mouser. The new cat cleaned out the house of mice in less than a month, each critter presented to me at the front door in the mornings. Then he worked on the barn. Then my neighbor's house. Then the nearby woods of snakes. Then he would travel to a pond about 1/2 away and catch frogs.

He was amazing to watch clearing the barn. He found a hole under the floor slab at an outside corner and crouch in the grass for hours about ten feet away. I watched him hunt a robin one day. He'd hide in the grass and and slowly work towards them. When close enough, wait for the bird to go after a bug, then pounce.

He loved both my kids when they in turn arrived as new babies. The other cat tolerated my first, but after my second took to crapping on their possessions, so I got rid of him.

I took him with me when we moved to NC, of course. He cleared out the back yard of voles. He eventually got sick and couldn't take on water, so we gave him fluid injections to keep him comfortable. Both he and his sister, states apart, died within a day of each other.
 
protectionist said:
We have a lot of ducks where I live. They're really messy and they have no fear of the cats. Now there's a whole new batch of them with about 7 ducklings who are already almost full size in just one month. They don't interfere with my cat feeding though, since they're strictly daytime creatures, and I feed my cat strays between midnight and 4 AM. A few times when I went out to feed the cats during the day, they were a huge problem. They appear out of nowhere, and I've never seen an animal eat faster then them. They can gobble down my cat food in seconds.
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LOL.. My cat would just look @ the ducks.. One time I had some Canadian geese & he snuck up on them & when he caught there attention & got closer he realized they were huge & decided to look elsewhere for entertainment..
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Right said:
The best cats I ever had were pulled from a large feral litter well before weaning in order to help out the mother. My friend weaned them with an eyedropper, and I took them both. I gave the female to my grandfather who lived in Massachusetts and I kept the male for my house in Upstate NY. I already had a cat that I took from a dairy barn that turned out to be useless as a mouser. The new cat cleaned out the house of mice in less than a month, each critter presented to me at the front door in the mornings. Then he worked on the barn. Then my neighbor's house. Then the nearby woods of snakes. Then he would travel to a pond about 1/2 away and catch frogs.

He was amazing to watch clearing the barn. He found a hole under the floor slab at an outside corner and crouch in the grass for hours about ten feet away. I watched him hunt a robin one day. He'd hide in the grass and and slowly work towards them. When close enough, wait for the bird to go after a bug, then pounce.

He loved both my kids when they in turn arrived as new babies. The other cat tolerated my first, but after my second took to crapping on their possessions, so I got rid of him.

I took him with me when we moved to NC, of course. He cleared out the back yard of voles. He eventually got sick and couldn't take on water, so we gave him fluid injections to keep him comfortable. Both he and his sister, states apart, died within a day of each other.
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Sorry about your cat that died. Keeping them alive and healthy is quite a task. I keep my cats indoors so they have less contact with fleas, parasites, etc. Even still, they get sick at times. Veterinarians are too expensive, and cat medical insurance is impossible since (unlike human medical insurance) with pet insurance, YOU HAVE TO PAY WHOLE BILL UP FRONT (then get reimbursed later). Millions of cats and dogs die needlessly every year because of this strange set-up. Something ought to be done.
 
I recently became the proud stepfather of several cats, as I married a cat lady. Since I grew-up with cats, I have always been accustomed to them, and consider them my favorite pets.
 
protectionist said:
Sorry about your cat that died. Keeping them alive and healthy is quite a task. I keep my cats indoors so they have less contact with fleas, parasites, etc. Even still, they get sick at times. Veterinarians are too expensive, and cat medical insurance is impossible since (unlike human medical insurance) with pet insurance, YOU HAVE TO PAY WHOLE BILL UP FRONT (then get reimbursed later). Millions of cats and dogs die needlessly every year because of this strange set-up. Something ought to be done.
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That cat and his sister lived ten years- a full natural life. No need to be sorry about that.
 
Great audio on NPR on how you can train your cat.......




Sarah Ellis is a feline behavior specialist at the British charity group International Cat Care, which collaborates with organizations around the world involved with cat welfare. She has trained her cats to come when she calls, voluntarily walk into the cat carrier to go to the vet, take medicine and become acclimated to her dog and her baby.
Stuart Larter/Basic Books

TRANSCRIPT available @ source.....
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