(no subject)
So I woke up this morning to discover that one of my pigeons had been eaten in the night. It was a bobcat. It stuck its paw right into the cage, pulled her up against the side and shredded her, pulling the pieces through a little bit at a time. At least that's what I figure.
As far as I'm concerned, this has signed the death warrant on said cat. Although the easiest solution would be to get animal control to do it, and I don't know if they catch and release them somewhere else, or what. IF anyone can get them to come down here. They're not...the most proactive. But I'm determined to be rid of it one way or the other. If I thought I could safely lay out poison for it, I'd do it.
Anyway, I've known it's been here for a couple weeks, because its been picking off the cats of one of the ladies mom goes to church with. And I've seen its prints. This means the outdoors only cat has been turned into an indoors at night cat, which was annoying for all involved. He doesn't actually WANT to be indoors, so this means that now he's taken to running away if he's approached any time around nightfall.
That was annoying, but I could deal with it. Now, the pigeons had to be moved INSIDE the old chicken coop, in the inner part so they are closed in there. That's okay for night time I guess, and if the wire is fixed on the outer part I suppose they could just get used to living in the coop. Not like there's any chickens living in it anymore. So I guess I shouldn't be so pissed off. But I am. It ate my baby, so it has to go. Well, that and I was planning to start putting the outdoor cat (Rufus) in it at night once it was more secure, so now he'll have to try out the garage, and I'm afraid it may never smell the same again.
The worst part is, I had one of those nameless premonitions of dread that something bad was going to happen to her. The night before it happened, I saw her sitting down on the ground, and just got this really bad feeling about it. Sitting down on the ground isn't normal behavior, but her mate (the one currently sharing my bathroom with me) was one of the more or less flightless kinds, so she got used to sitting down on the ground with him, like the good little pigeon wife she was. When I saw her sitting there, it just seemed really bad to me. I don't like her sitting there, I thought. I know she often sits there, but for some reason I wish she were up on the perch. Is she sick? Is that why I am thinking this?
So I took a look at her, checked her out, and she seemed to be okay. Nothing looked wrong to me. I even fed her a little food to check her appetite, see if there were any funny mucus noises when she swallowed, but she looked to be in perfect health. Yet I was still worried, and I had this feeling like something was going to happen. I even thought about taking her inside, just in case, but that didn't seem reasonable. In fact, it seemed kind of like a crazy person thought. There was really no reason to do it, except for an odd nagging feeling, so I ignored it. Instead I double checked to make everything was super secure, just to make sure she couldn't escape somehow, and vowed to watch her extra closely the next couple of days in case I was just super subconsciously noticing she was starting to get sick.
Only of course the next day she wasn't sick, she was horribly dead, just a bunch of messy blood and a few clumps of feathers. And I felt terrible, and I hadn't really even petted her when I had checked her out because I didn't really understand that she was going to die and I would never see her again. And she never got the new perch I picked out for her because I kept thinking that the one she sometimes did sit on was too close to the corner of the cage and for some reason I didn't like her sitting so close to it like that. And I couldn't really say good bye because there was nothing to say goodbye to.
I just felt angry at everything. I hadn't put the pieces of the puzzle together properly even though I had fair warning. Though I don't even know why I did. Why does one think these things? It's so confusing. I don't know how to tell when I'm right or wrong when I have these thoughts, because I can only figure it out in the negative: when I'm wrong. If I HAD taken her inside, nothing would have happened, and I would have just thought I was crazy person. I wouldn't know that I had been right. And what if it was just a coincidence? I don't know.
At any rate, even if it hadn't eaten her the bobcat would still have to go. Once they establish territory, they want to stay right within it, and this is its territory. And unfortunately, it seems to be like the bears at parks, it's gotten used to people and now views people's houses as where food (pets) come from. And there are just waaaay too many animals here that a bobcat can eat. They get up to 40 lbs and can kill things as large as a sheep or a deer (though they don't eat them all at once). Everyone has cats, and the neighbors behind me have dogs, geese and ducks, the neighbor one down has dogs and chickens, and someone down valley aways has goats...I don't know them but I can hear them when the wind is right. All those are potential bobcat chow.
I try to be understanding with animals, I get mad when I find big fat deer footprints on top of trampled leek tops, but I don't do anything about it because I want the deer to have their space too. I leave one whole side of the yard more or less wild, and it's okay for them to eat everything there and sleep under the trees. And I plant around the gophurs, I don't try to blast them out or poison them, I just put in stuff they don't like. But I can't handle this. I can't handle being paranoid about all my animals constantly and being afraid that I can't get Rufus in at night, and also I really don't want to see any of the neighbor's animals mangled. One of the neighbors hasn't been good about keeping their outdoor cat in, because they say he doesn't like it, and I'm worried he'll get eaten too. I like him, he often sleeps up on the porch and he's buddies with my cats and I pet him out in the garden.
Anyhow, my point is I'm basically like Ahab and the whale on this. I'm not resting till the bobcat is gone. This just isn't tolerable for me.
As far as I'm concerned, this has signed the death warrant on said cat. Although the easiest solution would be to get animal control to do it, and I don't know if they catch and release them somewhere else, or what. IF anyone can get them to come down here. They're not...the most proactive. But I'm determined to be rid of it one way or the other. If I thought I could safely lay out poison for it, I'd do it.
Anyway, I've known it's been here for a couple weeks, because its been picking off the cats of one of the ladies mom goes to church with. And I've seen its prints. This means the outdoors only cat has been turned into an indoors at night cat, which was annoying for all involved. He doesn't actually WANT to be indoors, so this means that now he's taken to running away if he's approached any time around nightfall.
That was annoying, but I could deal with it. Now, the pigeons had to be moved INSIDE the old chicken coop, in the inner part so they are closed in there. That's okay for night time I guess, and if the wire is fixed on the outer part I suppose they could just get used to living in the coop. Not like there's any chickens living in it anymore. So I guess I shouldn't be so pissed off. But I am. It ate my baby, so it has to go. Well, that and I was planning to start putting the outdoor cat (Rufus) in it at night once it was more secure, so now he'll have to try out the garage, and I'm afraid it may never smell the same again.
The worst part is, I had one of those nameless premonitions of dread that something bad was going to happen to her. The night before it happened, I saw her sitting down on the ground, and just got this really bad feeling about it. Sitting down on the ground isn't normal behavior, but her mate (the one currently sharing my bathroom with me) was one of the more or less flightless kinds, so she got used to sitting down on the ground with him, like the good little pigeon wife she was. When I saw her sitting there, it just seemed really bad to me. I don't like her sitting there, I thought. I know she often sits there, but for some reason I wish she were up on the perch. Is she sick? Is that why I am thinking this?
So I took a look at her, checked her out, and she seemed to be okay. Nothing looked wrong to me. I even fed her a little food to check her appetite, see if there were any funny mucus noises when she swallowed, but she looked to be in perfect health. Yet I was still worried, and I had this feeling like something was going to happen. I even thought about taking her inside, just in case, but that didn't seem reasonable. In fact, it seemed kind of like a crazy person thought. There was really no reason to do it, except for an odd nagging feeling, so I ignored it. Instead I double checked to make everything was super secure, just to make sure she couldn't escape somehow, and vowed to watch her extra closely the next couple of days in case I was just super subconsciously noticing she was starting to get sick.
Only of course the next day she wasn't sick, she was horribly dead, just a bunch of messy blood and a few clumps of feathers. And I felt terrible, and I hadn't really even petted her when I had checked her out because I didn't really understand that she was going to die and I would never see her again. And she never got the new perch I picked out for her because I kept thinking that the one she sometimes did sit on was too close to the corner of the cage and for some reason I didn't like her sitting so close to it like that. And I couldn't really say good bye because there was nothing to say goodbye to.
I just felt angry at everything. I hadn't put the pieces of the puzzle together properly even though I had fair warning. Though I don't even know why I did. Why does one think these things? It's so confusing. I don't know how to tell when I'm right or wrong when I have these thoughts, because I can only figure it out in the negative: when I'm wrong. If I HAD taken her inside, nothing would have happened, and I would have just thought I was crazy person. I wouldn't know that I had been right. And what if it was just a coincidence? I don't know.
At any rate, even if it hadn't eaten her the bobcat would still have to go. Once they establish territory, they want to stay right within it, and this is its territory. And unfortunately, it seems to be like the bears at parks, it's gotten used to people and now views people's houses as where food (pets) come from. And there are just waaaay too many animals here that a bobcat can eat. They get up to 40 lbs and can kill things as large as a sheep or a deer (though they don't eat them all at once). Everyone has cats, and the neighbors behind me have dogs, geese and ducks, the neighbor one down has dogs and chickens, and someone down valley aways has goats...I don't know them but I can hear them when the wind is right. All those are potential bobcat chow.
I try to be understanding with animals, I get mad when I find big fat deer footprints on top of trampled leek tops, but I don't do anything about it because I want the deer to have their space too. I leave one whole side of the yard more or less wild, and it's okay for them to eat everything there and sleep under the trees. And I plant around the gophurs, I don't try to blast them out or poison them, I just put in stuff they don't like. But I can't handle this. I can't handle being paranoid about all my animals constantly and being afraid that I can't get Rufus in at night, and also I really don't want to see any of the neighbor's animals mangled. One of the neighbors hasn't been good about keeping their outdoor cat in, because they say he doesn't like it, and I'm worried he'll get eaten too. I like him, he often sleeps up on the porch and he's buddies with my cats and I pet him out in the garden.
Anyhow, my point is I'm basically like Ahab and the whale on this. I'm not resting till the bobcat is gone. This just isn't tolerable for me.