Mike Novack wrote:CnP wrote:I used to like cats. Since getting a house with a garden though and having to clear up their poop so my children don't tread in it I'm less fond of them (and I don't have any of my own). Plus I like birds and cats also like birds but in a less good way.
1) This is a
garden? Normal soil with plants and not simply a paved outdoor space? It is dogs that openly leave deposits wherever they go. Normal cat behavior is to dig a hole and bury it.
However, you might see unburied poo if there is a territorial conflict going on as leaving an open deposit in another cat's territory is the cat equivalent of the finger. It may even be toward you that disrespect is being shown.
2) Do you eat chicken? (or turkey or duck, etc.). If so, explain just how the cat's liking of birds is less good than yours. If you are a vegan, I do apologize, and recommend rabbits, hamsters, or other vegetarian critters to be your companion animal. If you explain the less good because the cat does its own killing while you have somebody else to do it for you, well the cat isn't a hypocrite.
Hi Mike, looks like the cat's have hired a lawyer
yes it's a regular garden and sometimes the cats dig holes in the soil, sometimes they're just left on the grass. I can't tell if the cats are being disrespectfull to me or not (would be typical - noone respects me as I'm too much of a softie
). Interesting your comment regarding territory - since there's no resident cat that might make sense. Maybe one day there'll be a resident dog who's natural diet is cats who want to disrespect my garden.
"If you are a vegan, I do apologize, and recommend rabbits, hamsters, or other vegetarian critters to be your companion animal" - I don't keep pets other than a shoal of small tropical fish (who enjoy eating the small snails that have managed to get in the tank). It's other people's pet cats than get in to our garden, which is why I resent (a little) having to clear up after them - not that I 100% think it's 'my garden' just within the context of human law it is and noone else clears it up and there's often 4 small children playing in that area. - so I get none of the good bits of having a cat and just their poo.
I don't have a problem with cats killing and eating birds in theory - I'm no hypocrite thankyou & animals eating other animals is something I have no problem with. That comment was not meant as a criticism of the natural diet of cats it was about the assumption that humans keeping too many cats as pets was bad for bird population. (it's a common assumption - though having to justify it here, I did a bit of research online and came across the RSPB site which suggests no evidence for that so I respectfully retract that slur against our feline overlords
http://www.rspb.org.uk/makeahomeforwildlife/advice/gardening/unwantedvisitors/cats/birddeclines.aspxFinally, my last comment is that the original sentance was:
"Plus I like birds and cats also like birds but in a less good way." That sentence was not meant to imply that my consumption of chicken is better than a cats consumption of a robin btw. Just that I like looking at the robin and the cat likes to eat it. - less good for the robin if you see what I mean. To enjoy watching wildbirds in my garden and continue to eat chicken etc isn't something I consider hypocritical (it would be if I went around saying cats were morally wrong because they sometimes ate birds). It was written in a lighthearted way and intended in that fashion. - I honestly don't even care that much if a sweet little family of blackbirds become dinner for the neighbours cats - it's a non issue.
time for me to tenuki I think.