PSA
June 13, 2012 - 10:15 pm
Irradiated by LabRat
Irradiated by LabRat
Sorry for silence. Yesterday was busy. So was today.
People, please don’t let your cats roam. I know some seem happier that way, but even if you’re willing to accept its likely early, violent demise that doesn’t necessarily mean your neighbors have been in on your life decision, though they may be on what it does in life and may be on that final bit, whether they like it or not, too.
June 14th, 2012 at 5:24 am
Feral cats… Shoot em all… And feral dogs too for that matter… Those cute little furballs end up carrying disease and are prone to rabies.
June 14th, 2012 at 5:37 am
I have to admit thats one problem I expected living here and don’t have. Not sure if its just that there aren’t many people here with loose cats, or if its the local wildlife taking care of the problem before I see it….
June 14th, 2012 at 6:05 am
I hope the dogs weren’t involved in its demise. Has puppy learned that cats aren’t food?
June 14th, 2012 at 6:06 am
when i first moved into the house, i felt bad for the cats. now, i just want’em gone. i’m thoroughly glad for the dog, as he’s run most cats out of the yard permanently. only one stupid cat comes back, and he continues to tree her whenever he sees her.
June 14th, 2012 at 8:57 am
Mine do. I put an invisible fence collar on them, figured that they were trained, took it off when the batteries died, and found that they still roamed.
I mark my cats with garish collars, and they of course get their shots and flea meds. Last week I had to take one into the vet for a bladder infection, to the tune of $140.
Both are rescues from feral as kittens. Their life is better than it was headed for at birth. My wife and I refuse to keep a box of feces in the house.
I like Old NFO’s policy, if one can verify that they’re feral. Sadly, my job makes it problematic to do so. Life is choices.
June 14th, 2012 at 9:08 am
The cat that inspired the post was clearly not feral, and clearly an outdoor kitty, as it had a collar with a bell. No tag, though, which was a pity.
Kang is safe with any animal she has been introduced to, but she kills anything strange that comes over that fence. Anything. And it broke my fucking heart to see that collar.
And thus I wept over someone else’s pet, and took care of its body, and worried and grieved for its people, whom I did not know and did not have a way to find, all through absolutely no fucking fault of my own, because my animals stay on my property.
June 14th, 2012 at 9:39 am
My grandma’s cat roams. It’s a farm cat, though. It also seems to stick entirely to our property, oddly enough. I’m not quite sure exactly how it’s survived as long as it has; there are plenty of coyotes around and it also has to cross a country road to get from one side of the property to the other, which means it has to dodge 55 mph traffic.
June 14th, 2012 at 10:29 am
Oh, and the other thing that gets me? Los Alamos’s county animal control laws are very friendly to the property owner if the animal is on its own property, but if we lived in one of many other places, and I reported the incident, the cat’s owners could have Kang declared a dangerous dog and potentially euthanized or banned from the county.
June 14th, 2012 at 10:36 am
A shame.
I will tell you that I, as the owner of my cats, would fill no ill toward a dog like Kang in such an instance.
June 14th, 2012 at 3:20 pm
“kills anything strange that comes over that fence.”
Comcast be warned…..
BGM
June 14th, 2012 at 3:24 pm
I thought that the dogs would be involved, but I’m on your side here. No shooting involved, just shovel and shut up, assuming that the neighbor does not read this blog.
June 14th, 2012 at 3:49 pm
My condolences at having to deal with someone else’s bad decisions.
Been there. Accidentally ran over someone’s lap dog when it leaped into downtown traffic in front of my car, and broke its back. Took me and a traffic cop an hour and a half to trace the owner from a rabies tag … she lived 20 miles away and had just let the dog out to “go to the bathroom” the day before.
Don’t make others clean up after your mess.
June 14th, 2012 at 7:44 pm
I’m so sorry, LabRat.
I tried my best to keep my cats inside (for almost a year, as a matter of fact), but they are the nth generation of barn cats, and while very well socialized, they want OUT.
Of course, the lovely vet bills make me want to tear my hair out, and I’m always worried about coyotes, foxes, etc., but that’s the price I pay for adopting barn kittens. And yes, even though Bruiser found his own forever home (the ungrateful bastard), I still worry about him, too. And at least he comes over to visit.
June 14th, 2012 at 7:45 pm
Oh, and my cat has a tag with his name and my phone number!
June 14th, 2012 at 8:24 pm
Chas: I didn’t. I read the county animal control ordinances first to make sure the law was on my side, granted, but I ended up taking the poor thing to our vet to have her scanned for a microchip (none) and cremated (their service does it for free for stray/found animals). And let SOMEone who might be asked know what happened to a cat of that description.
June 15th, 2012 at 7:31 am
[I]f we lived in one of many other places, and I reported the incident, the cat’s owners could have Kang declared a dangerous dog and potentially euthanized or banned from the county.
That’s absolutely ridiculous. Apparently we need a Castle Law for dogs, too.
June 15th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
I am so sorry. I know from experience how tough it is - we had a dog like Kang and no wandering cat was safe. Over his life he caught many cats. I stopped taking the collars back to the idiot owners. It made me feel worse for something that was completely not my fault. Their cat came into our fenced yard, and our dog was always contained either on leash or fenced.
Cat owners… Look into cat fencing or a cat run if your cat needs outdoor time. Please!
July 3rd, 2012 at 6:10 pm
I have had cats so am not anti.
Never the less, after removing a cat that entered my (rare as you know) pigeon loft three times over two months and killed several young birds, and doing so with some difficulty…
And it then killed another pigeon, inside the loft, and attempted to bite me…
I went in, retrieved my .22, and shot it.
Therefore, when one of my (smaller female) hounds brought me half a cat one morning from the same (8- foot fenced) yard, I said “good dog”.
My animals do not roam. My dogs are very nice to introduced animals who do not run including cats. Fuck a bunch of roaming illegal predators and their enablers.
.. your emerging from isolation friend…. (and good to see you both in good form).