A cat…..
If you were watching the bird feeder livestream this morning between 9:15 and about 9:30AM Central Time, you saw no birds, but you did see a large, beautifully furred, well taken care of gray cat sitting on the ground under the feeders. I was upstairs talking on the phone and happened to glance out the window at the feeders, saw it, threw the phone down, ran to the top of the stairs yelling, “CLEON!!!!! CLEON!!!!! THERE’S A CAT AT THE BIRD FEEDERS!!!!!!!!!!!
He immediately went out onto the deck which is close to the feeders, yelled, and the cat took off. We have been watching the area off and on all day, the birds have all returned, and the cat has not.
This is a problem many home owners with yards and feeders that are in neighborhoods face. Cats are the number one predator of birds in neighborhoods. According to AI, domestic cats kill 1.3-4 billion birds a year in the U.S. alone and thevetdesk.com, sciencenews.org, and The National Feline Research Council agree with that. The World Animal Organization puts the number at about 2.4 billion. And many of these cats are not feral, but well-fed, well groomed, and much-loved house pets. So, what to do if you have bird feeders and your neighbor has an outdoor cat?
In my opinion this is a black and white issue – there is no gray area. Cats kill birds. And it is all cats – whether they are hungry or not. It is their nature. Even cats that have had their claws removed can kill a bird. So what are Cleon and I going to do?
First, we will see if the cat returns. If it does not, it is possible the problem is solved. If it does, we will try to determine where it lives. This is an obliviously very well-taken-care-of pet. Someone loves this cat. We are almost positive it is no one on our block as most have dogs, have never had cats, and two neighbors do not want pets of any kind. Chances are we do not know the owners. However, once we find the owners, we will make every attempt to talk to them as kindly and gently as possible – but also with firmness. That we have feeders, a livestream over the internet, and that this is also a business for me as I am selling PDF’s on birds. And we will request the cat be kept in their yard.
I have never had a cat – I am a dog person. But Cleon has and he knows very well that trying to keep a cat in its own yard is just about impossible. We do have friends who have cats and who have them outside, but only on a leash. And we have other friends who have cats who think that is just a terrible idea almost amounting to animal cruelty – to leash a cat. I am not wading into that charged issue. But I do think cat owners – just like dog owners – are responsible for their pets and that their neighbors do not have to put up with unwanted pets on their property. And this is also very tricky business.
My guess is no matter how hard we try, we will not be able to convince the owners of this cat to keep it inside or confined to their yard – most homes in our neighborhood do not have any sort of fencing at all – including ours. I will request the cat have a collar with a bell to at least give the birds a warning the cat is coming. If even that request is refused then I will call our township, county, and state offices to find out what my rights are as a property owner and what their rights are as the owners of a cat and then I will proceed according to the law. And in the meantime, Cleon or I will chase this cat off our property every time it even puts one claw over our line.
Do not get the wrong idea, I am not a cat hater. But I am first, and foremost, a bird lover and our feeders and birdbath are not a buffet line for someone’s well-fed cat. We are not attracting birds to live in our yard so they can be killed by an animal that has no need to kill them. For us, this is black and white. Cats kill birds. You cannot have both. They will not form an uneasy truce and attempt to co-exist. Cats kill birds.
If you are interested, here is a link to a video from Animalogic in conjunction with Nature Canada: Animalogic – cats kill billions of birds every year.
If any of you have a suggestion for me as to how to handle this in a different way from what I described, please click the button at the top of the Blog page: Share Your thoughts. I would love some good suggestions!