... and you don't have a laser pointer.

You are missing out. Get one. It's highly amusing.

Dogs are better than cats.
FACT.

I agree. I have a couple of each though.

Well that was a trolling fail

The last cat I owned was a British Shorthair, a cat with dog-like qualities. I don`t remember him falling for the old laser/mirrored sun trick though. He would follow me everywhere, if I was working outside he's stare at me through a window until I came back in (he'd then resume following).

I taught him to jump through a hoop and, one day, a photo of him doing this was shown on live breakfast TV!

He never used claws or teeth when I tickled him, he'd just lie there and have fun. Good cat, sadly missed.

I've owned cats for 20 odd years (all pre canada cats are dead now), but this laser pointer thing is new to me. I only tried it last night and they went batshit crazy - leaping 6 ft into the air to chase it.

You did well to train a cat to do anything. I tend to think, that while you can condition certain responses you can't really get much out of them. There isn't much intelligence behind that enigmatic stare; especially when compared to dogs. They are cute though.

Kittens and mirrors are a fab combination too.

I'd really recommend that breed to anyone, he was so calm and attentive.

The training was surprisingly easy (even though I was thinking "he's a cat, why bother?"). I had a dog-pull toy for a hoop and some stinky cheesy treats that he could never refuse. In the first session I stood the hoop on the floor for him to walk through (to get the treat) and he just seemed to understand, straight away, what he had to do. The next time I picked up the 'hoop' for some training, he jumped right through it as I picked it up

Cats are thought of so differently here: outdoor cats are thought of as coyote-fodder or just there to de-mouse the barn. Indoor cats are typically de-clawed, uninsured and act all stoned all the time, no idea why this is but there is definitely a huge difference in perception of cat ownership between here and Britain. Took me a long time to get used to this.

Ours are indoors (but not de-clawed - wtf? that's just nasty). I can't say I like it very much - outdoor cats have a much nicer life. But around here an outdoor cats life expectancy is low - what with the local wildlife trying to eat it constantly.

Something that I did think was odd was that if I want an outdoor cat, one of the local rescue places actually has feral cats up for adoption - they aren't house trained, or friendly, or even pets. Supposedly, you let them live wild, put food down for them in case they can't catch any mice, and catch them and take them to the vets once a year for shots, but otherwise you just leave them alone to get on with their probably quite short feral cat lives. If I had a hobby farm I would definitely do this.

I agree that Canada isn't a place for cats. Good (i.e. ones that won't bite your head off or try and kill any nearby children) dogs don't stay at the SPCA for more than a few days, but there are always loads of cats available.

we had 2 cats that were indoor-outdoor cats (indoors at night, outdoors during the day) . Still we couldn't prevent them from being eaten by coyotes. After that happened, I didn't want any more cats, because losing them hurt too much.

Now a stray cat decided to stay with us, she is catching mice and hangs around the porch at night, I feed her, but I try to not to get emotionally attached to her. For some stupid reason this one doesn't get eaten by the coyotes who are living within earshot.

Aren't those feral cats that you talk about simply wildlife that you feed?

Our cat's not the slightest bit interested. Doesn't even look around the other side like a previous one used to.

It does, however, like to chase bugs. And eat them. Even moths and earwigs.

He's also fond of pens. He doesn't eat those, but they do keep disappearing.

It's happened to a few outdoor cats around here.

Yes, I think that's the idea. But if you have a barn, or something like that then they pay their way by killing the mice and rats.

We have a couple of cats. They're indoor/outdoor in that we leave a window open and they come and go. We've just been gone for a week and a bit and here they are. One's from a litter born on the farm when I lived in the country, the result of adopting the mother who lived under the fire escape at the office, most of the siblings were eaten by coyotes or foxes but this one was sly and lives on. We have some dogs too but, frankly, the cats make them seem a bit dim.

There's definitely something lost, instinct-wise, in most cats that are interested in attention and respect from humans. Perhaps they lose a bit of that self-preservation sense after a generation or two living in the human family (obviously I have no idea how they tick, but this intrigues me).

I know some cats at a nearby barn. Apparently, every year or two another semi-feral cat will appear out of nowhere and join the clan. One or two are very friendly, one or two will play for a short while then do some serious damage to human flesh. The others hang about nearby, watching, but they're scaredy cats and making friends with humans is not on their agenda.

Sometimes they will all follow one of the barn owners around, in a line that is brave/friendly cat first through to the most scaredy cat last. It's bizarre.

Even though they mostly live on the vermin, they coexist with the barn owners and chickens (but if one dies the cats consume their uncooked flesh in hours). Some are little ninjas when hungry, catching a mouse in minutes of leaving the barn.

But somehow, with coyotes and other hungry critters all around, they always manage to stay out of trouble.

Someone should do a study on this, or something.

We have been saddled with 4 strays, yes we could have ignored them and let them starve and let their kittens starve...nope couldn't do it...people seem to drop their strays here. We have in less then a year spayed (as everyone drops off females) vaccinated, dewormed, deflead 4 female cate~All costing a fortune. My husband is horrible allergic and we had to rehome 6 kittens, b/c of course they had to not drop females but pregnant ones! They also fall for the light on the wall...husband thinks it is great fun to watch them jump on my furniture and curtains and scratch the walls..I ON THE OTHER HAND do not find this amusing. They are indoor/outdoor cats, we live in middle of no where, normally 3 out of 4 cats are in at night, as fourth is still a bit wild and even being in house for near a year it is like pulling teeth getting her in. She does however sleep under the deck..we have sensor lights all over outside of house and so far I have never seen wolf/coyote in my yard. They are to interested in our hen house to bother the cats.