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Problems with Morgan
This is Morgan.
He likes to hunt and has this thing about leaving me dead things at the back door. Once in a while I will find a dead Mole but yesterday I found a Mouse in …not so nice condition. Actually.... the mouse was in two parts…. What am I supposed to do with that? Reassemble? I would like him to stop doing this but have no idea how to stop him. I'd have a talk with him but I don't think that will do much good. Any thoughts on what to do? http://www.neflnewhomes.com/scott/morgan1.jpg http://www.neflnewhomes.com/scott/morgan2.jpg |
Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by Scott Mumford
..... I would like him to stop doing this but have no idea how to stop him. .....
BTW He's a fine looking cat! :) |
Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by Pulaski
Morgan is doing what cats will do. I don't believe that there is any way to stop him, and to try would be cruel - cats kill small animals, it's in their nature. You might as well try to stop a dog from fetching things, or a bird from cheeping. :rolleyes:
BTW He's a fine looking cat! :) They are gifts to you apparently. |
Re: Problems with Morgan
just doing what comes naturally.
When we lived in Scotland, every morning was a surprise. Think we've had half eaten kebabs items of childrens clothing (nope don't even want to know where they got them from) chips mice rats frogs rabbits (some alive, mostly not) blackbirds (same as the rabbits) seagulls :eek: :eek: , thankfully dead (no way i was taking on an injured half alive one :D ) I'd let him get on with it ;) |
Re: Problems with Morgan
My friend had this problem, so she got a small bell that attaches to the cat's collar. didn't stop the cat trying to catch the prey but it gave the prey a fighting chance because the noise of the bell alerted them.
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Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by Scott Mumford
This is Morgan.
He likes to hunt and has this thing about leaving me dead things at the back door. Once in a while I will find a dead Mole but yesterday I found a Mouse in …not so nice condition. Actually.... the mouse was in two parts…. What am I supposed to do with that? Reassemble? I would like him to stop doing this but have no idea how to stop him. I'd have a talk with him but I don't think that will do much good. Any thoughts on what to do? |
Re: Problems with Morgan
Aww nice orange kitty.
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Re: Problems with Morgan
Something left me a squirrel's head on the garden path in front of my house one day, a few weeks ago. It's eyes were open too! :eek:
NC Penguin |
Re: Problems with Morgan
Please be aware that there are a lot of people who don't like cats for irrational and rational reasons (they kill songbirds), and who trap them and kill them.
Being outdoors unsupervised, if the cat can get out of your garden, is a huge risk and shortens the cat's life. Especially at Halloween when some pranksters think it's hugely funny to assassinate cats. :( |
Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by snowbunny
Being outdoors unsupervised, if the cat can get out of your garden, is a huge risk and shortens the cat's life. Especially at Halloween when some pranksters think it's hugely funny to assassinate cats. :( |
Re: Problems with Morgan
I'm a dog person myself. Don't really care for cats...wouldn't wish them any harm though.
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Re: Problems with Morgan
1 Attachment(s)
Meet Bear .. our stealth cat who has helped with the annihilation of our chipmunks and squirrels, we usually find odd tails and other body parts in the barn but hes only doing what he knows best.
Sounds like Morgan is just doing what he knows best too :) Jan |
Re: Problems with Morgan
I've heard that chopping their tackle off can help......not saying I'd condone it, but thats what I'd heard......
DollyLlamas idea of a bell souds a bit more cat-friendly, although it'd have to be a bloody big bell to do anything about PaulS's problem with half eaten kebabs :D |
Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by DollyLlama
My friend had this problem, so she got a small bell that attaches to the cat's collar. didn't stop the cat trying to catch the prey but it gave the prey a fighting chance because the noise of the bell alerted them.
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Re: Problems with Morgan
My Mum's cat became very attached to half a mouse (the back end if you must ask). We're not sure what he did with the other half or if he merely found it like that. We buried it twice but the crafty bugger kept finding it and bringing it back to us. It's not very flattering being out-smarted by a cat.
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Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by NC Penguin
Something left me a squirrel's head on the garden path in front of my house one day, a few weeks ago. It's eyes were open too! :eek:
NC Penguin |
Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by snowbunny
Being outdoors unsupervised, if the cat can get out of your garden, is a huge risk and shortens the cat's life. Especially at Halloween when some pranksters think it's hugely funny to assassinate cats. :(
Our other cat is a fighter, only either he's not very good at it or he's picking on things much bigger than himself. It's been costing a fortune in vet bills, so I'd rather put up with him meowing at the back door. Flipping cats and dogs... I'm going back to goldfish after this lot. |
Re: Problems with Morgan
Ah, this all reminds me of my first girlfriend, who loved cats!
One week in winter I started to notice that my girlfriend had started to smell rather bad. Each time I met her she smelled a little worse. I didn't want to say anything... after all, she was my first girlfriend and teenage love is a tenuous thing! Finally the smell just got too bad, and I had to say something. She replied that she had noticed "a slight smell" from her winter coat. Then, as we sat in a crowded cafe, she proceeded to search through its pockets... until she found the two-week-old dead mouse that her cat had deposited in an inside pocket... What a thoughtful cat, making sure its owner didn't get caught without a snack, eh? |
Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by dbj1000
Ah, this all reminds me of my first girlfriend, who loved cats!
One week in winter I started to notice that my girlfriend had started to smell rather bad. Each time I met her she smelled a little worse. I didn't want to say anything... after all, she was my first girlfriend and teenage love is a tenuous thing! Finally the smell just got too bad, and I had to say something. She replied that she had noticed "a slight smell" from her winter coat. Then, as we sat in a crowded cafe, she proceeded to search through its pockets... until she found the two-week-old dead mouse that her cat had deposited in an inside pocket... What a thoughtful cat, making sure its owner didn't get caught without a snack, eh? |
Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by Sallyanne
Did you stay together?
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Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by dbj1000
Are you kidding? What would I want with a stinky girlfriend? :D
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Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by Scorchio
We try to keep our cat(s) in as much as possible. We lost one last year, we suspect through being eaten *by* the local wildlife. Coyotes maybe? We've noticed since that there's often lots of howling from out back during the night.
Our other cat is a fighter, only either he's not very good at it or he's picking on things much bigger than himself. It's been costing a fortune in vet bills, so I'd rather put up with him meowing at the back door. Flipping cats and dogs... I'm going back to goldfish after this lot. The howling you have been hearing is probably Coyote's, but un-neutered tom cats can certainly make a racket and are very territorial. Racoons and Opossum, both of which are regulars at my feeding station, will often get into fights with the cats as well. Strays and ferals will live in colonies, and the tom cats will fight any cat that they think is on their turf. The problem with this for your cat, aside from the injuries, is that he may well pick up FIV (Feline Aids) or FeLV (Feline Leukemia) from the outdoor cats. The FIV is spread by deep bite wounds and the FeLV by saliva. Both of these conditions are incurable. |
Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by Manc
That was Ray.
NC Penguin |
Re: Problems with Morgan
Originally Posted by Jerseygirl
I'm a dog person myself. Don't really care for cats...wouldn't wish them any harm though.
We also have three "outdoor" cats. They are virtually feral, and they are currently locked in our crawl space. I am building a "cage" wall, to lock them under the "bump-out breakfast nook, where I have installed a (currently locked) cat flap. When the cage is finished they will be able to come and go as they please, but they (And any other critters that find the cat flap) will only be able to get into "the cage" not have the run of our walk-in crawl space. From an earlier (November 12, 2005) post elsewhere: Back in early August [2005], the old man, who owned the house next-door-but-one to the house in town that we are renovating, died. We never spoke but waved some times as we came and went. He seemed well liked and respected, and was in his eighties, so he'd had a good innnings. He used to sit out on his porch and watch the world go by; sometimes he would come down and sit on the wall at the bottom of the bank in front of his home. No matter what the time of day it was he always seemed to be accompanied by his cats. I say "his" cats, but we think that they pretty much came and went as they pleased. After the old guy died, his children came and cleared out the house, put it up for sale, and took one or two of the cats they could catch, but left the rest. A couple of weeks later we were sitting on the porch of the house we are renovating, enjoying a fried fish lunch, when two hungry faces peered around the bushes. We tried to tempt them with some fish but they were too nervous. We did however decide to put some cat food out for them. After a couple of weeks at least five cats that the old man had been feeding were coming to our porch to be fed, and we were taking a six mile detour every evening on the way home to feed them. After a month or so two or three cats would regularly be waiting to greet us as we arrived to feed them. Despite this though they were still too nervous to allow us to get close to them, much less touch them. We had hoped that they would allow us to catch them, but it became obvious after a couple of months that that wasn't likley, maybe not even possible, and I gave-in and ordered two cat traps. We decided that we couldn't carry on for ever feeding them where they were, but we had already been planning to get some out-door cats to keep the rodent population under control (and thereby discourage snakes from coming near our house). Last Wednesday night we went and set a trap on the porch of our renovation project house, and in just a couple of minutes we caught "Kenny". We set the second trap, and after running a short errand, we came back to find that we had also caught "Mama". The next morning we took them to the vet to get them checked out, vaccinated, and "fixed", and on Friday morning we collected two sore and sorry looking puss-cats, both determined to be be female, even Kenny. We had prepared a double garage for them, in a house that we haven't yet prepared to rent, and let them out of their carry cages. On Thursday night we took the traps and set them again. This time we caught "Don Juan", but the others seemed to be getting smart, and we left a cage overnight to see what we might catch - on Friday morning we had "Papa" in custody too. We took them both to the vet too, but things took an unfortunate turn - by mid morning one had been found to be positive for leukemia, and the other for FIV (feline AIDS); both are untreatable and so both had to be euthanized. We believe that there are just two more to catch - a 6-8 month old kitten, that we have named "Rusty", and a very dark grey cat we named "Don Carlo". We think that Rusty is a female - it is smaller than its sibling Kenny that we know is female, and we are assuming that Don Carlo is male. On the basis of what has happened so far, and that the vet told us males are more susceptible to leukemia and FIV, we will likely have one more spaying to pay for and one more euthanization. Mama and Kenny are doing well, and have started eating again (they ate nothing the day after their surgery), but are very nervous. We have been visiting them twice a day as we have been on vacation, but are planning to spend some time with them each evening when we stop by to feed them. We took them two litter boxes, cleaned but "used" (not fresh litter) so that they would know what to use them for (our own cats now have two brand new litter boxes with fresh litter). On litter box usage we have had partial success - they have been using one for its intended purpose, ..... and sleeping in the other! If all goes acording to plan we are going to trap Rusty and Don Carlo next Thursday night so we can take them to the vet on the way to work on Friday morning. I nabbed Rusty on Thursday night/ Friday morning, another female, and had her checked out, vaccinated, and "fixed" on Friday. She was very sorry on Saturday, but eating again by Sunday, and we turned her loose in the garage with her sister and mother. On Saturday I thought that Moma had escaped, though I couldn't see how, until I found her sitting on top of the garage door mechanism. The door is unplugged, and padlocked shut, so it couldn't open, but she was looking daggers at us from up there - she still isn't a happy bunny, and I wonder how we are going to cage her and Kenny, to get them back to the vet for the second round of vaccines that she needs next weekend? I caught the sixth, and final, cat, Don Carlo, yesterday. I baited and set the traps in the morning, using a good amount of kitty kibble topped with servings of canned tuna. He might have been able to resist the tempation several times before but I got him yesterday with the tuna I collected him up in the evening, before he got too cold - it was raining with the rain trying to freeze as I collected the traps. I am not sure how long he had been in the trap - but when I set the traps I had covered them with half cardboard boxes to give him shelter from the forecast storm. I took him back to the house where the other three cats are living in the garage, and placed him, still in his cage, in the garage with them. When I could see him clearly under the flourescent lighting he was a fine cat - large, and heavy, with thick dark grey/brown fur, and feisty, very very feisty. When I first approached the trap he hissed at me, and threw himself at the cage bars, and every time I picked up the cage he hissed some more, and bounced off the bars. This cat certainly had character! I dropped him off at the vet's surgery this morning, but I heard just a few minutes ago that he was, like the other males, diseased, and so has had to be put down. So that is the end of the cats' tale, or at least the end of the beginning. It will be another four weeks before Moma and her two female kittens will complete their courses of vaccinations. |
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