Coffee 1-21-12

LsFarm wrote:.....
Smitty, I have a bunch of barn cats, several generations, they come and go, when they go, I assume the coyotes got one yet again.
But I have a serious problem, the damned cats eat the food I put out, stay in the insulated box i put out for them in the winter,
but do you think they'd let me touch 'em, even once? Nope. they run away, won't let me get near 'em.
I even tried to catch a few of them when they were kittens to pet and 'socialize' them,, no luck..

so for ME: to hell with cats, I'll take my friendly affectionate pooch anyday. ....

I hear ya Greg - they're definitely a "different animal".

It took me years to appreciate cats. Used to hate them in my younger years for the same reasons. After living with an ex that had 2 of them, I started to like them. They were the same way to her - never letting her touch them much, and not showing her much interest. I took pride in throwing it in her face that even though she raised them from birth, they liked me better. They'd always let me pet them, & I could get them to meow on command. Some personalities are just incompatible with cats ... and the same is true with dogs. I like dogs, but I feel they're too needy & clingy ... & don't think I could live with one. I like how the cats only come around when they feel like it, so I'm not smothered. Although I'd obviously rather have a dog in a defensive situation. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Although this one is getting clingy today ....

Yeah, you got to have a cat around an old place like mine. This one here has been an excellent mouser and is quite happy with just having the run of the house/barn. Kinda weird as most cats I've ever had can't wait to get outside. This one, I can leave the porch door open bring in grocery's and she'll just sit there at the door. She's getting up there now and doesn't seem to see as well as she used to but she's 14yrs old.

Mine will all be 9 this summer. Gotta have a mouser.

Don't get me wrong, the reason they hang around is 'cause I feed 'em. They like to hang out near the food bowl, so I place that where I can see it from one of the kitchen windows.. they line up in the morning to suck up the heat from the morning sun and wait till I show up with food,

They still get mice, and the occational bird, and I've seen one digging in a mole tunnel.. not THAT one I need to breed !!

But it's just WRONG that I feed em and take care of them, and they won't even come within 6 feet of me!! I ought to let em go hungry
and cold ! but i'm an old softie. and I hate mice..

Greg L

Ha.ha,ha,ha Smitty! That second picture is all about the love they have for Daddy! Left ya a tasty treat. That's respect.

Since this is the pet thread I guess I’ll tell what I did last Saturday. I went with my wife to a pet first aid class. We did CPR on a dog and cat manikin. They actually make manikins to practice CPR on dogs and cats. It was interesting and informative and surprise, surprise I was the only guy in attendance, who would have thunk it. To be honest it was a last minute thing, someone cancelled and the wife needed a driver on the snowy roads.

LsFarm wrote:But it's just WRONG that I feed em and take care of them, and they won't even come within 6 feet of me!

Greg..... those cats, are they stray cats or ferral cats? I'm going to say they are acting perfectly normal. Any cat born in the wild is a ferral cat. A stray cat can become ferral in nature. They differ from domestic cats & you are experiencing one difference...the major difference. They don't trust humans! They can be domesticated, but it takes more than a bowl of food. I say this from experience, and here's my story of "Tigger" :

We have always had one or two cats. We have never purchased a cat. Sometimes we may go a while without one, but before long one always comes along. After we built this house & moved in we noticed a cat, a hungry looking cat. We put out a bowl of food out on the picnic table every day and the food kept disappearing, but, we never saw the cat since that first time. I dusted around the food bowl with flour & sure enough, the footprints showed it was a cat. So, we started leaving the bowl out for 8 hours a day & over the Spring & into the summer we changed the time so that the food was only out during daylight. Sure enough, we finally started seeing him. We cut the hours down so if he wanted food he had to come within an hour each day. Then we started moving the bowl toward the back door. Every couple of days we'd move it a foot closer. Then one by one, up the back steps. It got so he was forced to come within 3 feet of the back door. Then looking through the door we started watching him eat. The first time or two he left without food. Finally he allowed us to watch. Then I opened the door so just the screen door was between us. He left without food. Every other day we left only the screen door between us. Every other day he left without food. After a week or so, he relented & allowed us to watch through the screen door. We'd calmly talk to him. He didn't seem to mind that. You know what's coming next, we propped the screen door open. As expected, he left without the food. And, as before, he gave in and let us stand three feet away while he ate. If we bent toward him, his meal was done. After a few days of this we got an idea. We only put a mouthful of food in the bowl. We sat on the floor about 8 feet away. After he ate the morsel, we tossed him bits of cooked chicken. Ohhh, he liked that! But, only if the chicken landed outside. By now it's getting to be late September. We kept up the chicken routine and after a week or so of that, he'd step inside if a piece "fell short". We took turns & kept getting him closer and close until he was eating bits from our hands. If we tried to pet him...gone! Yup, a week or so and we could pet his head. One day while Marty was feeding and getting in a pat or two "the wind" blew the door shut. Oh, gosh, panic! He took off, ran down the hall, and hid. To this day we do not know where. We opened the back door & an hour or so later he came flying down the hall & out the door. We figured we'd lost him, but the next day he was back. We kept feeding him. Always with the doors open, some days lure him with chicken for a pat, others he just came & went. We never shut him in against his will again. Marty questioned if he'd ever become a pet. I said "Come cold weather I'll bet he starts looking for a winter hide away". Well, gosh, within a few days of saying that we had a cold night. At about 10PM the temperature had dropped to 25. We heard a scratching at the back door. I opened the doors & he stuck his head in. I said "It's OK come on in". We came in. I shut the door behind him and walked away. He looked at the door, he looked at me sitting 15 feet away. He laid on the rug by the door & spent the night. Come morning he hadn't moved. We fed him & let him out. That night he asked to come in and honest to God, it was like he was the long lost pet come home. From that moment on, it was like we had owned him his entire life. He loved to be in a lap. He'd twine around your feet everywhere you went. He was the most loving cat we've ever had. He left as he came....from nature. After a long life one night he just never came home. Slow in his old age & a coyote got him? We'll never know.

Nice story Freddy, yep these are strays that just showed up. First was a pregnant calico, that had her kittens under a sheet of old plywood that was held off the ground by a concrete block,making a sort of shallow 'lean-to'. The homeowner is a bit of a slob !! .

The kittens showed up, and they used a 3' diameter roll of wire fencing as a 'gym' to play on, pounce on each other etc.. I started the feeding routine similar to what you mentioned, but the goal was to get the cats away from the make-do home and into the barn, where there was shelter and mice to eat.

Eventually they moved into the barns.. but that was at least 3 generations ago.. I think these cats are kept 'thinned out' by the coyotes or maybe possums?

I know I have the occasional raccoon, that gets 'high speed lead poisoning', and ground hogs who's fate is the same..
But anyway, I rarely have more that 4-5 cats.. a kitten fully grown eventually go away, where? don't know..

We have a few that must make the rounds of the various farms and homes nearby, 'cause they seem to come back every month or two.

I would like to just be able to pat them on the head and maybe have them rub agains my ankle once or twice a month.. just
a 'thanks' for providing food, water and a warm place to sleep. but they are just too damned independant..

I'll take my dog,, who comes by and lays his head on my arm as I type.. wanting his ears scratched.. not that's affection..

Greg L

LsFarm wrote:I would like to just be able to pat them on the head and maybe have them rub against my ankle once or twice a month..

I'd bet that in order for that to happen, you'd have to grab one when it's a few days old, bottle feed it & bring it up in the house. Of course if you ever let that one outside he'd have a bunch of strangers greet him in the barn & probably rip him apart.

Freddy's tip for bring home a new house cat: Have a litter box prepared before you bring the cat home. Have food & water where ever it's going to be fed. Carry the cat into the house. Carry it to the litter box. Set the cat into the litter box, pat his head, walk away & leave it ta' hell alone! His world will start from there. Before you know it he'll be visiting the food & you.

They take patience, that's for sure. The one we took in from my inlaws did a Mike Tyson routine on my head when I tried rubbing my face against hers, like I do to all the other cats out of habit. I was pissed (and bleeding) so I left her alone for a couple days, hiding under the bed. Took a solid month of me going up there every day to coax her out from under there. Now she's my buddy. Hangs out next to me on the couch, & I can put my face near her all I want without getting used as a punching bag. Took a while to get to that point!

The feral ones around here you can't even get near. We feed them every so often, but with 4 cats of our own it gets a bit expensive. I;ve tried to get near them - not happening. As soon as they hear a door open, they're outta here. I accidentally trapped one once that was exploring my barn. I came in on the other side not knowing she was in there. Absolute panic. Ran up the street & didn't see her back for days. The ferals don't last long around here. Lots of things around here that eat them or run them over. Found one on the side of the road last summer. My neighbor took it home & buried it. One of the reasons I never let my cats out unless I'm with them.

Wow, a cat thread! I am with Smitty exactly on my feelings about dogs. To needy and to many people put them on a pedestal and treat them better then people. While another class of people have to have the biggest meanest Sob they can get and starve it for attention or abuse it. Some of my neighbors for instance and they let them run loose. I have had many cats, the last 2 are gone more then a year ago, and I aint replacing them. Nothing like a cat deciding your his best buddy.

Kevin

Its nice that you look after those ferral cats Greg, I know people that would shoot them to protect the birds!

NOT fond of the fact that feral cats are killing off the songbirds.. but I can't put much of a dent in the cat population. I'll let the local coyotes keep the feral cat population under control

As long as they just run and hide when I come around.. if they hiss at me, they're gone !!

Worst thing lately,, is they have decided that 'the place' to take a crap is near my front doors.. even on the sidewalk flags.. If I see one squattin', he's gonna get a bruise from a pellet gun..

I put a bucket load of sand near the barn for them to crap in, some use it but at least one of the cats thinks my sidewalk and front steps need 'adornment'

Greg L

I'm with you Greg. I guess we're BOTH gettin old & grumpy.Pellet gun, my ass.

My first shooting experience was the result of my father stepping in a 'pile' from our neighbor's StBernard.. Dad was so pissed he went and bought a pump pellet rifle for me to use to 'train' the dog to NOT crap in our yard..

So that St.Bernard learned that he seemed to get 'stung' everytime he walked onto our property. I got pretty good with that pellet gun.. and I was sneaky,, I'd not just go out the closest door, I'd exit the house on the opposite side and run around the house, then 'sting' him in the butt. it only took about 8-10 'stings' and he got the message..

I certainly will not support too many more feral cats, the revolving generations of the original are ok, but I saw a black /white cat today,, that's a new one. hope it doesn't stickaround.

Greg.

Speaking of cats,,,, i think these two birds are throwing coal on the fire !!! What were the 2 carton birds names,,,heckel and jecquel ?