I know you love the feral kitties. I, too, am a fan of felines. However, if you give them a steady supply of food, they become like little welfare recipients; logy, dull, and disinclined to work. You cannot then complain when they lose the edge and don't eat the critters in your garden.
Help the kitties stay lean and hungry so they eat the nasty squirrels.
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21 comments:
The .380 is the perfect squirrel caliber.
Isn't that "nassssty squirrels?"
I don't like the feral kitties, they hiss and spit - I ran over one once, it was an accident, it should not hide under trucks.
Actually you can get 22 long rifle caps that are next to silent and have an effective range arount 25 - 30 yards. I use a Browing A-bolt for most critters. problem with ground squirrels is they rarely stop where you can get a shot, so they get the live trap and then some kind of disposal the wife is happy with.
Our back yard seems to attract a steady stream of targets. Some are even good to eat.
Cats will also help as there is no more effective hunter than a hungry feline.
Tam,
The British did a study of cats, and reported that feral cats kill about 2000 of various types of critters per year. And that free roaming house cats kill about 500. They are hard-wired to hunt, and do so even when well fed. 'Course, some are more active at it than others. I had a cat that I had to give a bunch of mice to play with one evening. After a bit more than a dozen, over a couple of hours, she seemed to finally get with the program. No more mice in the house, except a couple she brought inside for fun. She lived to hunt, after that. Prior to it, the house was overrun with mice.
squirrels are nasty?
I have to put up with the squirrels because my mother loves to watch them, but I have a couple of huge oak trees so they have all the acorns that they can eat and I don't see them causing too much damage otherwise. I have a friend who is fond of making squirrel stew however so if they ever do get out of line I can just call her up and she'll take care of everything.
s
Yes, cats are hard-wired to hunt, but they do not know instinctively how to kill--unlike dogs.
At one time, we had a young cat we got very young--she had not had time to learn to kill from her mother. Next door was an elderly lady with several pet ducks. Kitty would hide under the ferns at the edge of her yard, and when a duck came close enough she would charge from her hiding place, jump on the duck's back--and then when the duck took off quacking furiously would slide off with the most puzzled look, as if she was thinking "Something should have happened then..."
Fortunately, the lady was very good natured, and would laugh at the cat's antics and the ducks' reactions...
cap'n chumbucket
In the 1980's, I lived in the same house as had that former vet. One summer we had a crazy mockingbird living in a juniper outside our house who would wake at moonrise every night and sing and sing all night long. After about 3 nights of this, an Ag major who lived one door over came over and said not to go outside that night, that he was going to take care of the bird.
About 11:00 the moon rose, the bird started singing, and I heard a screen door open. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of a pump shotgun being loaded. Then I heard a bang. I heard no more singing.
In the morning I saw the vigilante in a serious discussion with the manager of the duplex houses. Later when I asked the manager if it was about the bird, he said yes. He informed the shooter that "scaring poor crazed birds with shotguns was not a good idea, and not to do it again, and it was a good thing that he had not shot the Texas state bird." Apparently the manager was helping him get his story straight in case the cops showed up to investigate the shooting....
Know anyone with an illicit Marten? That'll settle some rat hash...
My Dad always fed our barn cats because he believed that a well-fed cat was a more patient and effective hunter. He said that a hungry cat was too anxious to make the kill and would blow the stalk or pounce too soon.
One of the local crazy ladies is a protector of cats. She says ferals should not be molested. Even if they do kill a few songbirds. And other endangered species.
But I learned long ago that .22 shot shells will take care of both rats the size of cats - and stray cats.
Back then, rats brought a dime each, when shells were 42 cents for fifty. The cats did not have a bounty, but they did not kill any more robins or meadowlarks either.
Stranger
The same people who like feral cats think the squirrels are cute. Cats and squirrels are fine, in moderation and the proper place.
What about a pellet gun?
Good enough pelletgun will work just fine... some people hunt wild boar with them. Mind you that's with some pretty extreme pelletguns(1600+ fps). But a bog-standard .177 pelletgun will take care of squirrels.
Yeah, but the city of Indianapolis gets its knickers all in a twist if you shoot a pellet gun inside city limits other than at a designated range.
More importantly than the remote possibility of actually getting caught using my .22" Benjamin-Sheridan to dispatch Nutso the Squirrel, I lack a good sniper's nest that would cover the area of the front porch that I need to deny to the rodent enemy and still leave me with an adequate backstop.
How 'bout pepper spray? Or you could always lay out some strips of duct tape sticky side up for the fleabag. Certainly works for keeping stray cats off of cars...
Reading this, I immediately flashed back to the notorious "Feral Cats" story by Farmer Frank in a mid-90s issue of "Guns". He mentioned how much he liked using a can-equipped rifle to rid his farm of feline felons. Hooboy....
Feeding feral cats is a good way to turn them into a colony, which is always only a matter of time before it becomes a holocaust of horribly dying cats as they pass around cat flu, panleukopenia, or FIP.
At best, people wonder where the cats went. At worst, people are prying them out from under their porches. Or watching the poor brain-melted panleuk cases stagger in circles.
I don't like people who feed feral cats anymore.
Tam,
The 5 letter dept issued a ruling that said it was ok to build a can on an air powered gun such as paintball or pellet, without needing to register, since they are not firearms. However, the can must be permanently attached, or Bad Things Happen! (There was something about puss & boots, but I wasn't clear on it.)
An associate of mine and a local wandering feline tag-team squirrels. The cat flushes them and keeps them distracted while Annie dispatches the rodents with a pellet gun. The cat takes care of disposal and everyone's happy.
www.buckstix.com/CoehornMortarHunt.html
You WILL laugh your ass off.
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