Cat 2 Gopher 0 *(warning: will see pic of losing team)*

[ascott]

Well, I know this will not cause all of the gopher problems to disappear over night...however, the neighbor brought a few cats to their house awhile back..and cut em loose....well, I noticed they were not feeding them very often (I mean like once a week, maybe)...so I did the cardinal sin and put some food out for one that was young and prego when it was still cold out...well, she along with another female have decided they like to chill around our house.....

So, speed forward several months to Monday....I am sitting on the porch watching the old man muck around....and notice the second female cat staring into the black medic plant...it wiggles...she crouches...it wiggles and pow......a little scuffle and she is the winner...off she goes to eat the opponent .....today I am moving the old mans pen over to a fresh area and notice same cat at same spot same crouching tiger pose...wiggle of the plant...pow!!! Cat struts off to eat her prize...

So...cat 2, gopher zip.....good kitty....

 

[N2TORTS]

Dat's one "screwed" gopher ..... ( hence the phillips!)

 

[Laura]

my dog ate one he caught last night! EWWWWWW hate the sound.. makes me gag.. but he is a good little hunter...

 

[dmarcus]

So did the cat use the screw driver to ambush the gopher?

 

[ascott]

Lol....I don't know what happen...maybe after she grabbed him she beat him down with the screwdriver....and it is a gross sound, she ate every last bit....

 

[ascott]

Well.....cat 3 and gopher 0 and now squirrel 0....she is one superb hunter....but this time she left me half the eaten head, tail and dash of guts right next to where I bring the bigger RFs out to play outside...I am going to have to go pick up the remains....I think the smell is driving Goliath crazy.....lol....

 

[dmmj]

I was thinking the same thing, did the cat use the screw driver to finish the job?

 

[bigred]

You all beat me to it, did the cat shank the gopher. You got rid of gophers and gained cats

 

[ascott]

You guys are silly.... and I believe she is not only shanking the gophers and squirrels....but I think I watched her threatening the neighbors dog....the shine from the shank caught my attention.....lol.....

 

[rockyMTNtortoise]

I would keep that cat coming around.

 

[bigred]

You guys are silly.... and I believe she is not only shanking the gophers and squirrels....but I think I watched her threatening the neighbors dog....the shine from the shank caught my attention.....lol.....

Does the cat really catch squirrels. My 2 cat are always chasing squirrels but never catch them. They catch birds and crunch on them and eat them.

 

[KimandKarasi]

haha, it's like the game CLUE; It was the cat, in the back yard, WITH A SCREW DRIVER!! lol!

---

Does the cat really catch squirrels. My 2 cat are always chasing squirrels but never catch them. They catch birds and crunch on them and eat them.

My cat is a cheater.. She sits in my fern bush right behind the bird bath and pounces on the unsuspecting prey! lol! There's never a time my garage isn't full of feathers..

 

[Tom]

I LOVE those kind of cats! I've had a couple like that. They don't mess with my wild birds or lizards, but they are hell on the rabbits, ground squirrels and gophers. How do they know which ones to mess with and which ones I want them to leave alone? My one kitty was a maine coon mix and he'd leave me either a squirrel tail or a cotton tail and a stomach nearly every morning. He would eat the stomach of everything else, just not the rabbits. One time he left me a very large rattlesnake head. Only the head. That cat was bad a$$, I tell you. All that while evading coyotes and other predators.

 

[EricIvins]

So cats being outside, killing native wildlife is a good thing?

 

[KimandKarasi]

So cats being outside, killing native wildlife is a good thing?

XD XD XD

 

[bigred]

So cats being outside, killing native wildlife is a good thing?

I think so, Cats are going to do what comes natural to them. I think its worse to keep a cat inside and not allow them to be cats. My cats sleep on the roof of my house to avoid predators. I pulled up in my driveway the other day my cat greets me like he does everyday when I get home from work. He has a bird in his mouth and he eats it. Thats just what they do. They help manage the mice and rats.

 

[EricIvins]

So cats being outside, killing native wildlife is a good thing?

I think so, Cats are going to do what comes natural to them. I think its worse to keep a cat inside and not allow them to be cats. My cats sleep on the roof of my house to avoid predators. I pulled up in my driveway the other day my cat greets me like he does everyday when I get home from work. He has a bird in his mouth and he eats it. Thats just what they do. They help manage the mice and rats.

I can't help to shake my head at this logic.......They help manage Mice and Rats huh? Seems to me, that's the last thing they do.......

http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/ec1781/build/ec1781.pdf
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/feral-cat-US.html#cr
http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/materials/predation.pdf

And in the UK........

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-19353/Cats-kill-275-million-animals-year.html

 

[Tom]

So cats being outside, killing native wildlife is a good thing?

Absolutely it is! First of all, the cottontails here are not native, they are introduced. Secondly, my cats are performing the same role that the natural predators would be performing if all the human activity had not driven them away and kept them at bay. My cats are helping to balance an un-natural situation that we have created by moving our homes into natural areas. With out the normal predators to control the numbers of these animals they reproduce to levels that the environment cannot sustain and then they have huge disease epidemics or massive die offs due to starvation every year around this time when the winter vegetation dries up and food becomes scarce. Around here we have way too many of these pest species (rabbits, gophers and ground squirrels) and controlling/reducing their numbers is a full time job. Every one that my cat gets, is one less that I have to get. I legally trap and or kill dozens of these pests every year under CA depredation laws and a good cat is a useful tool for me in my constant battle against these over abundant pests with no more natural controls.

I don't drive my cat out to the middle of the national Forrest and turn him loose to wreak havoc on a natural situation. He performs his useful tasks on my property and that of my neighbors who share the same problems and also appreciate his efforts.

Btw, I suspect the rattlesnake was a road kill, but do not honestly know.

 

[Katherine]

Have to side with Eric on this one. I can not own a cat because they are always staring out the window looking trapped and unhappy, and I can not let them out knowing they will kill baby birds, lizards, and other wildlife not naturally subject to predation by domestic animals. I understand where Tom is coming from (I think) but I do not think domestic cats actually posses the discretion to determine which wildlife is nonnative and pesky and then exclusively target it, in my experience they are indiscriminate hunters and they themselves are nonnative. Lots of people have and will continue to have outdoor cats, but I find it unfortunate and not for me. To be fair, you warned us in the heading of this post, I should have listened to your solid 'heads up,' sorry

 

[Tom]

I would not let a cat out, or continue to leave one out, that killed indiscriminately. That's what is so cool about a certain few trained cats that I've had. They DO discriminate and they don't bother the native birds or lizards.

What difference does it make if an intruding ground squirrel is killed by my trap, my bullet, my dog, or my cat? Their numbers are out of control. The natural order of things is disturbed by my presence, and the presence of my other animals, including my tortoises, so measures must be taken to control the numbers of destructive pests. If my cat was running around killing everything, I could see your point, but he's not for whatever reason.