mikeb@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Mike Burger) (12/03/89)
My Grandfather was troubled with the problem of cats and his beloved birds which he attracted to a well designed feeding station. He used a series of what I believe were called "Havahart Traps". They were large and captured the Cat quite unharmed. It was like a wire box with a metal drop door on each end connected to a trigger. He would dump the cat rather unceremoniously over the fence into the neighbor's yard where it belonged. If the cat offended too many times he would get mad enough to dump a bucket of water on it and the cage before dumping it, unharmed, but short of dignity, over the fence. Cats learn. I am very fond of cats and birds. I have kept cats several times during my life and loved them a lot. My Grandfather's approch did not hurt the cat, but did "educate" it to prowl elsewhere. The traps were available at any well equipted hardware store for not much money. Just be sure to check any trap line daily. That is only reponsible. It is hard to justify blasting away at cats in your back yard with firearms. But making your yard less hospitable to them in a humane way can make a difference. As an experienced cat owner, I can say that it is hard to refuse to allow a cat a good prowl now and again. It is in their genes. As a watcher and lover of birds, I would just as soon they did not spend their time outdoors killing birds. I think my Grandfather's approach was balanced and reasonable. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mike Burger, Chemistry, 2545 The Mall | University of Hawaii | BITNET: MIKEB@UHCCUX.bitnet | Honolulu, Hawaii, 96822 | INTERNET: mike@helium.chem.hawaii.edu Phone: (808) 948-7503
ooblick@intercon.com (Mikki Barry) (12/04/89)
I am sorry to inform you that no reasonable postings concerning cats and birds are appropriate for this newsgroup. Instead, may I direct you to talk.religion.misc for the morality of teaching lessons to cats, alt.aquaria for the environmental impact of dumping water on a cat, and rec.pets.dogma for the discussion of the genetic impact of prowling on cats. This group is only for strange people who go outside in the freezing cold to look at birds, and tangentially for the even stranger people who let birds shit in their houses. So unless you have a field book of cats, or keep your cat in a cage, you will have to go away. Mikki Barry p.s. (since I know some people don't know the word sarcasm :-) :-) :-)!!!)
nora@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (nora.y.mclaughlin) (12/08/89)
If no one is going to apologize to anyone for any of the awful insults going on in this net and get on with life, then I feel that I must apologize for ever bringing the topic of cats and bird feeders up. You see, it all started when I asked a very simple question and I quote,"how can I keep my neighbors cat from my bird feeder this winter". This was a simple question I posed to help me solve my problem. Well, I must say, in the beginning, I received some very good suggestions, and I thank all who contributed. But I am really sorry to see the anger that has resulted between everyone. I only hope things will settle down and all will bring things back to a rational level so we may enter into the holiday season with joyful hearts. There is still time to quench all the fires burning. God Bless!
brian@askinc.UUCP (brian) (11/30/90)
Does anybody have experience with keeping both cats and birds? My wife and I currently own a parrot and are thinking about getting a cat as well. We are concerned that the cats' instinct would be to be overly interested in the bird. Is this always true? Are there some cats less likely to act this way? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brian Stewart (brian@ask.COM or brian@askinc) ASK Computer Systems Mountain View, California -------------------------------------------------------------------------------