Dog Community

outside kitty

Posted : 5/22/2006 10:58:14 PM

My kitty, Willow, has been an outside cat for about a year. When she first became an outside cat, we had an older cat, Pumpkin. Pumpkin put up with the much younger Willow and I believe that he taught her how to hunt and master those kitty hunting skills. Pumpkin never brought us birds, always mice and such. But Willow has been stalking some baby birds recently. It breaks my heart, I guess I should deal with it because that's normal, right?

marynh

Posted : 5/23/2006 8:05:10 AM

it's only normal if the cat is outside.
My cats are inside only and my neighbors let their cats out - I feed the birds in the winter and I get furious when my neighbor's cats are sitting under my birdfeeders. And I have yet to figure out how to keep them away...worse yet I can't even plant my garden this year cause of the cat poop in there.
If it bothers you that your cat is killing wildlife keep the cat inside. It'll live longer and be healthier.
Bird population suffers from domesticated cats.
I had a cat who went outside and it broke my heart one day to come home to find a baby BlueJay torn apart all over my driveway. The poor parents were squawking, desperate to save their baby that my cat had torn up. They spent weeks raising that baby bluejay and it only took my cat minutes to spread it all over the driveway.
Heartless - but it's what cats do. So if you want your cat outside get used to it cause you won't be able to stop it.

Brian Berry

Posted : 5/23/2006 8:05:56 AM

He's just following his instincts. Theres not much you can do about it now that he has learned that its okay to stalk and kill things. The only think i can think of is making him an indoor cat.

Firestorm

Posted : 5/23/2006 12:34:55 PM

thats nature for you. We had barn cats when I was a kid and they hunted everything from birds to mice to cute lil bunnies.

sharismom

Posted : 5/23/2006 12:48:06 PM

[linkhttp://www.alleycat.org/]http://www.alleycat.org/[/link]

My cats are inside only and my neighbors let their cats out - I feed the birds in the winter and I get furious when my neighbor's cats are sitting under my birdfeeders. And I have yet to figure out how to keep them away...worse yet I can't even plant my garden this year cause of the cat poop in there.

Mary, the link above is about feral cats, but I remember reading some info somewhere on the site about keeping cats out of the garden.

I don't plant much of a garden, but my new neighbors let their cat out and it stalks my bird feeder. The cat is becoming well-acquainted with my garden hose and just how far I can shoot that stream of ice cold water.

He is The Boss

Posted : 5/23/2006 7:45:13 PM

LOL Tina!!!

I have a couple strays in my neighborhood that come over and pee all over both my front and back door no matter what I do.. but there's 7 cats in my house (who have never been outside), so I guess it's inevitable!

I have to deal with cats pooping in my big houseplants! Dang kitties!

Even inside they find a way to go with natural instinct though no matter how much it disgusted me or made me sad. When construction started next door I suddenly found myself with a mouse problem. One day I was complaining to my friend about it on the phone stating that with 7 cats in the house it shouldn't be an issue. The next day and a few more afterwards I was complaining even louder when I starting finding mouse corpses all over the house. They kill them but don't eat them! I think the mice got the hint and moved out though. .haven't seen on in a long time.