No more dead birds!
For me, this past week has been the Week of Dead Birds...
I was with my friend Amanda on Friday, and we decided to go to dinner. When I walked up to the car, I saw that there was a blob of something on the concrete. At first I thought it was a leaf or a piece of food. Nope--it was a dead chickadee, smashed almost completely flat. There was a ring of dried fluid on the ground around it. The thing was a pancake. I'm guessing Amanda ran it over with her front tire. But we both think that birds aren't exactly prone to getting run over like that, so it must have been injured beforehand. Probably by a cat on the prowl. Lovely.
Episode 2: Today when I was walking the dog, I heard something rustling around in the bushes. I looked closer and saw this big beautiful bird. It was mostly brown, but it also had white and yellow spots along its wings. Its eyes were pretty. Cool, I thought. Then I noticed that its right wing was fanned away from its body--as if someone had grabbed it, yanked it out, and dislocated it. The bird just hopped along the ground, dragging its wing with it. The wing swept the rocks like a broom. The bird was in a relatively sheltered spot, and I decided to check back later. This afternoon, it was still there. This evening, it wasn't. Later I found it in the neighbor's driveway, breathing hard and not able to move as much. Dad and I both wanted to do something, but we know we couldn't. There's no way it'll survive.
Episode 3: On the same morning walk with my dog (just after seeing the bird with the broken wing), I came about an inch close to stepping on another dead bird. This one was a sparrow. It was just a little ball of feathers. I was going to bury it or something, but it mysteriously disappeared. Cats again. I can just imagine how horrible it would've been to step on the dead body. This must be the fifteenth dead bird we've found this year.
Oh, and this doesn't even include the injured chipmunk we discovered in our driveway a couple weeks ago. That's right, an injured chipmunk. I'd seen it earlier when it was just fine. It was the cutest thing ever. Instead of the bigger stripes along its sides, it had several smaller ones. Later in the driveway, I couldn't see any wounds on it--but it also wasn't moving at all. It breathed hard for awhile. When I checked on it later, it had expired.
Seriously. What's with this? I've had enough tiny carcasses in the backyard for now. We think it's the neighbor's cats. We see them hunting around our house all the time. One of the other neighbors has observed the cats literally leaping into the air to catch birds before they get far off the ground. I've also seen them flinging various small rodents around. They do it just for fun. It's like there's some kind of carnage-fest going on. A Holocaust of small animals. It makes me sad. Assuming it's the cats, that makes me even sadder. Those cats are fed very well. They don't need to hunt so aggressively. I know it's in their nature, but come on.
The cats sometimes keep me up at night, too. Just the other night, they decided to get together for a massive catfight in our backyard. Have you ever heard a catfight? During fights, cats make the weirdest, creepiest sounds. In my half-asleep state, I thought someone was dying a miserable death outside my window. Finally Mom scared all of the cats away.
I like cats as animals. I think they're beautiful and svelte and sleek. They're very good at hunting and fighting. But I do not like cats as pets, at least when they're primarily outdoor pets. It seems almost cruel to keep cats that try and kill everything within the area. I won't be getting a cat anytime soon. No offense to all you cat lovers...
So do you have any advice for "humanely" keeping cats out of your backyard? Or dealing with the maimed victims they leave behind?
I was with my friend Amanda on Friday, and we decided to go to dinner. When I walked up to the car, I saw that there was a blob of something on the concrete. At first I thought it was a leaf or a piece of food. Nope--it was a dead chickadee, smashed almost completely flat. There was a ring of dried fluid on the ground around it. The thing was a pancake. I'm guessing Amanda ran it over with her front tire. But we both think that birds aren't exactly prone to getting run over like that, so it must have been injured beforehand. Probably by a cat on the prowl. Lovely.
Episode 2: Today when I was walking the dog, I heard something rustling around in the bushes. I looked closer and saw this big beautiful bird. It was mostly brown, but it also had white and yellow spots along its wings. Its eyes were pretty. Cool, I thought. Then I noticed that its right wing was fanned away from its body--as if someone had grabbed it, yanked it out, and dislocated it. The bird just hopped along the ground, dragging its wing with it. The wing swept the rocks like a broom. The bird was in a relatively sheltered spot, and I decided to check back later. This afternoon, it was still there. This evening, it wasn't. Later I found it in the neighbor's driveway, breathing hard and not able to move as much. Dad and I both wanted to do something, but we know we couldn't. There's no way it'll survive.
Episode 3: On the same morning walk with my dog (just after seeing the bird with the broken wing), I came about an inch close to stepping on another dead bird. This one was a sparrow. It was just a little ball of feathers. I was going to bury it or something, but it mysteriously disappeared. Cats again. I can just imagine how horrible it would've been to step on the dead body. This must be the fifteenth dead bird we've found this year.
Oh, and this doesn't even include the injured chipmunk we discovered in our driveway a couple weeks ago. That's right, an injured chipmunk. I'd seen it earlier when it was just fine. It was the cutest thing ever. Instead of the bigger stripes along its sides, it had several smaller ones. Later in the driveway, I couldn't see any wounds on it--but it also wasn't moving at all. It breathed hard for awhile. When I checked on it later, it had expired.
Seriously. What's with this? I've had enough tiny carcasses in the backyard for now. We think it's the neighbor's cats. We see them hunting around our house all the time. One of the other neighbors has observed the cats literally leaping into the air to catch birds before they get far off the ground. I've also seen them flinging various small rodents around. They do it just for fun. It's like there's some kind of carnage-fest going on. A Holocaust of small animals. It makes me sad. Assuming it's the cats, that makes me even sadder. Those cats are fed very well. They don't need to hunt so aggressively. I know it's in their nature, but come on.
The cats sometimes keep me up at night, too. Just the other night, they decided to get together for a massive catfight in our backyard. Have you ever heard a catfight? During fights, cats make the weirdest, creepiest sounds. In my half-asleep state, I thought someone was dying a miserable death outside my window. Finally Mom scared all of the cats away.
I like cats as animals. I think they're beautiful and svelte and sleek. They're very good at hunting and fighting. But I do not like cats as pets, at least when they're primarily outdoor pets. It seems almost cruel to keep cats that try and kill everything within the area. I won't be getting a cat anytime soon. No offense to all you cat lovers...
So do you have any advice for "humanely" keeping cats out of your backyard? Or dealing with the maimed victims they leave behind?