Pets' Corner

Lilymary

This is Toby being an idiot

Lilymary

And again. One time he did this the fully laden clothes horse fell over and pinned him against the door and I had to rescue him. He never learns.

Lilymary

Sussing out the neighbours

Lilymary

And finally (for today) Elsie would like it to be known that she did (just once) manage to make it to the top of the look out station before we fitted the little platforms. (You can just make out Toby in the background looking gobsmacked)

Mike1

Great photos Lillymary 😸

frogmorton

LilyMary they are gorgeous! My daughter's cat is over plumptious too more so than the lovely Elsie! She is sweet lookinga nd of course her place is on your lap! Where else?

My Daisy/AKA Sleek is a very good hunter and sadly eats the top half of all small rodents

Sometimes I can rescue them, but not often. It's the baby rabbits which upset me 😕

I'm so glad your Toby isn't eating his 'catches'.

I love what you've done for them with garden proofing and their own special perches ☺️

Lilymary

Thanks Toni,. That’s such a shame that Daisy catches so much, I’m sure Toby would be the same if he had full run of the neighbourhood, another reason for fencing them in. We moved the bird feeder to the front garden, once he showed a taste for dunnocks and blue tits, so we have saved a lot of lives that way. We don’t have many rabbits round here thankfully, although one of my previous cats brought a few home in his time,

I used to have a huge long haired tabby called Daisy, but sadly she was one of those who fell victim to the road. She was beautiful. Her companion Mo got run over twice but survived both times, but we lost him to cancer aged 7. He was a ferocious hunter, even got a jackdaw in through two cat flaps once, and also brought a snipe home one night! In 30 years I’ve never even seen one round here, but he managed to catch one!

frogmorton

Gosh Lilymary a snipe? have you got water nearby?

That is amazing what a cat. Must be the name with my Daisy also being an excellent hunter! She could bring home 4 creatures a day in her hey-day luckily slightly less these days.

I am so sorry you lost cats to the road much safer to keep them in the back. We specifically chose this bungalow because the road is pretty safe and we already had our Daisy (AKA Sleek). In fact we rejected several properties due to the road! How soft are we?

I can actually see a baby rabbit in my garden as i type so am watching for Daisy and I'll make a racket to scare him off if needs be. Oh she once caught a mole! the pest control man ( a friend we've not used him I like to leave nature be) said he'd employ her!!

Mike1

Not pets but I was getting bored sitting in my recliner with nothing much to see out of the front window so I put up a bird feeder. Trouble was that it attracted primarily Rooks and Magpies who did not let the small birds anywhere near it, so I put a cage up over it which has done the trick. Robins and Bluetits etc can fly in through the mesh quite easily and eat without being hassled.

A robin comes along at 08:15 every morning for breakfast and about 16:00 for his tea, the Tits come along as soon as the sun is up and keep popping back as often as they can. As for Vixen she is content watching the birds through the window (she is a mouser).

Mike1

Blue tits prefer the suet blocks; Coal tits prefer the peanuts; Finches prefer the seeds; Robins prefer the suet blocks and meal worms and the Magpies go for the full buffet!

frogmorton

I see a robin!

Lovely Mike1 Is Vixen and indoor puss then? My daisy would catch them so I can't have a feeder 🤔

https://us.v-cdn.net/6031919/uploads/991/Oops 047.jpg

You'll know this pose...I call it 'flat cat' she was waiting to pounce on one of the kids in our old house.

Mike1

Vixen is only indoors during the day - sleeping - unless I am sat in the garden in which case she has to be near. She is a night time mouser, often bringing me a pressie! Tis her 4th birthday tomorrow so have got her some cooked turkey for her breakfast which is her favourite.

If your cat would attack birds on the feeder put a cage over the top like I have or put a squirrel barrier on the pole.

frogmorton

Lovely! Just what you want a mouse for breakfast!

I was think that about your cage for my birds. 🤔

Happy belated 4th Birthday to Vixen.

I hope and am sure she loved her cooked Turkey 🙂

Mike1

Vixen had a good birthday thanks. The "cage" was made from plastic mesh that I got off EBay put together with zip ties and just plonked on top of the feeder pole. When adding food or changing the water just lift it up a bit, not easy on crutches but it can be done.

frogmorton

Ah good bless Vixen having good birthday. Of course I'm sure she knew it was her birthday. I did have some plastic mesh you know and I'm sure I can get some zip ties.

One of my neighbours is nurturing a slightly injured blackbird in her garden. He's eating well and his wife is visiting him too. Luckily for her she doesn't have cats!

Woken up to Daisy standing on me shrieking as soon as it got light this morning.......bless

KazandNoo

Hi there,I've been enjoying reading your posts and the lovely pics of your animals. I have 2 rescue cats,brother and sister. They're such a joy and help when I'm not feeling so good (psoriatic arthritis) I'll post some pics when I work out how to! 😁

Lilymary

A very late reply to Toni's comment - yes, we're opposite a river, but I've never seen a snipe in the neighbourhood, they're normally sea-shore or wetland wading birds.

Finding a cat-safe neighbourhood is always my first priority, but this road has got much busier since I got here. So I cat-proofed the garden, it cost a fortune and looks like a cross betwen Colditz and Whipsnade zoo (the chap who fitted it had done the lion enclosure at out local zoo!), but I'm soooo glad we did it - I know they're safe, it stops our idiot Toby from picking fights with every cat in the neighbourhood (despite him being a 5 pound weakling) and he would be slaughtering all the mice and birds on a daily basis. We now feed the birds in the front garden, where they're much safer, and any mice who are fool enough to enter the back garden and get caught and brought home by Toby are rescued and deposited in the front garden, where they can feast on all the seeds the sparrows drop from the feeder. He did bring a blue tit home the other day, so I grabbed him with blue tit in mouth, took him out, poked his mouth to make it open and the blue tit flew away out of his mouth!

Anyway, here's a picture of them socially distancing in the queue for the cat flap. Elsie is the ginger, Toby is the B&W. (The cushion is their step up to the cat flap, although Elsie often sleeps there to control Toby's shenanigans!)

Mike1

What lovely cats you have. I feed the birds in the front and back gardens, luckily my Vixen is a mouser so leaves them alone. I feed them more in the front as I have a good view of them from my recliner, which is where I spend most of my time. She brought a live mouse in the other evening which promptly dashed under the TV, half and hour later she grabbed it again and I shouted at her to take it out; Vixen got as far as the back door with it when she dropped the mouse and I had to get it with a "grabber" and put it out into the garden where it escaped.

Mike1

I took a photo of Vixen yesterday, she poked her tongue out so I guess she wasn't impressed! Cheeky madam!!

KazandNoo

Haha,aren't cats great?! 😁

Lilymary

She looks like the cat that got the cream!

Mike1

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/comment/668645#Comment_668645

Strangely enough, especially for a Cornish cat, she does not like cream! She is not fond of fish either except tinned Tuna which I buy just for her, it has to be in spring water though. She does, however, like cheese; raisins (especially chocolate raisins); pre-chewed peanuts and a few other weird things.

Lilymary

Ooh, don’t give her sultanas or raisins! They can cause kidney problems in cats! I had a cat who liked sultanas (among many other odd things, including garlic mushrooms), and in my ignorance occasionally let her have one or two. I lost her to kidney failure, and while I’m not drawing a direct link in this case, as it’s very common in cats, there’s a small corner of me that can’t help wondering .... 😢. Chocolate is toxic to dogs, don’t know about cats, but I wouldn’t want to find out the hard way. My puss obviously had no idea what was good for her, cos garlic and onions are supposed to be bad for cats too. I loved her to the moon and back, and still do 20 years later 💔

Mike1

Thanks Lilymary, luckily she hasn't had a raisin for ages and will stop giving her them.

Lilymary

Luckily most of my cats have only liked cat food apart from this one puss, although Toby goes into a feeding frenzy at the slightest whiff of ham!