Killer cats and other questions

emine · May 2011

What lovely news to come to on a Monday morning that Stroud Green's missing cats have been found. That most entertaining thread revealed a lot of cat owners - can you help? Over the weekend, my cat Kipper brought two birds in to torture. He's never done this before. Both happened in the afternoon so he's not going hunting in the early morning when the birds are feeding. He had a bell on his collar, but I've added another four so he now jangles like a murderous morris man. I'm hoping this will do it but grateful for any other advice. He is well-fed, gets lots of attention, and is neutered. He is now sleeping on my feet, gathering his strength before his next killing spree I think.

krappyrubsnif · May 2011

My cat has taken to indiscriminate peeing all over the house. Suggestions?

emine · May 2011

Urinary infection maybe? The vet will sort that out. Or he/she could be being bullied by other cats, perhaps foxes, in the area and is scared to go outside, and is anxious generally.

mapsa · May 2011

Peeing all over its house is the last thing a cat would ever want to do, so something is up. One of my cats did that for a while when we moved into our new flat - there is a really horrible, vicious tom cat that lives on Mount View Road, which was constantly attacking her (as well as all the other cats in the area), she had to go the vets a couple of times to get patched up. She did get over it, though she still gets bullied by the same cat (if you live up that way, you'll probably know which one I mean).

Arkady · May 2011

Yeah, it gives me the evils all the time.

Four Eyes · May 2011

@emine I understand how Kipper bringing in birdies is unpleasant, but he's only following his kitty instincts. The birds in question were probably just a 'love gift' for you. You should pet him and tell him he's a good boy. If this is the first time he's done it, the chances are it'll be a long time before he gets lucky again...

barebackreader · May 2011

@emine - you may not be able to stop him entirely but I recommend taking the bells off for starters. In my experience bells make cats better hunters as they're forced to learn to move even more stealthily. How big were the birds? If they were small they could just be fledglings that literally fell out of a tree. That's the only way the least hunting-proficient of my cats can catch birds.

@krappyrubsnif - sounds like anxiety/bullying. If there's nothing else wrong with your cat try Feliway for calm and do whatever you can to make sure no other cats can get into your house. We had a serious spraying problem (territory issues when lots of new cats were introduced to the neighbourhood) that went away when we got a microchip operated catflap.

@mapsa - I'm on Mount View Road, which tomcat is this? Am slightly worried that, as none of my cats get bullied, one might actually be the vicious bastard in question...

poxy · May 2011

Feliway is good but v. expensive @ >£20/month.

Buy a cheap plug-in timer and set it 12 hours on - 12 hours off. Just as effective and the timer will pay for itself within a week.

sophie · May 2011

@barebackreader how well do the microchip catflaps work? is there a delay before it opens? our cat often comes hurtling towards the flap at breakneck speed, being chased, and has previously done a comedy turn running round the house with the catflap round his tummy. we were recommended a chip-operated one by the vet but were worried that it would be slow so the cat would end up banging his head on it and being dragged out by the tail by the bastard tom.

barebackreader · May 2011

@sophie - it seems to work very well. It opens fast and the whole thing is sturdy - I had similar reservations, as our cats regularly destroyed previous catflaps with high-speed chases, but they've not even dented this one and we've had it for a couple of years.

There's a slight delay in the flap locking again once the cat's in, but it's so short that even in quite close situations no unauthorised cat has been able to put so much as a whisker through. They're expensive (I think we paid £85) but in my opinion completely worth it.

barebackreader · May 2011

Also, 'scanning' the cats for the first time so that the flap can read their microchip IDs is hilarious. If you're watching someone else do it. If you have to do it yourself it's probably more like working on the world's worst checkout.

Liz · May 2011

@ emine - I think BBR is right that it is probably a seasonal thing, and your cat has brought in young birds who hadn't been around long enough to be scared of cats, even with bells. I have several friends with younger cats who have the same problem (my cat is ancient now, so no dead things for me). My mum, who lives in the countryside, gets a veritable collection of dead baby things at this time of year, every year. Her cats also have bells, so I don't think there is much you can do about it.

emine · May 2011

@Four Eyes, hope you're right. And he does love me an insane amount. @BBR & Liz, thanks, I will rethink the bells. The birds he brought in weren't fledglings though - one was a female blackbird (what about her babies!), the other a pigeon. He is a pretty good hunter - I've seen him take down flies and moths mid-air. I had no idea you could get microchip catflaps. Mine is a magnet one but there is a delay opening it, which has always worried me a bit. Will look into microchip one.

mapsa · May 2011

@barebackreader Big silver-coated, blue eyed fella (ocicat, perhaps?). Really striking, really beautiful cat. Sadly, also totally out of control. Went missing a while back, the owners put up posters - from memory, it may be called Shiva. Has been responsible for 3 bad injuries (a gashed leg, a gashed tail, and a gashed forehead) to other cats that I know of in the last 18 months. I suspect the gashed ear that my year-old kitten had last month was down to it too. Completely savage.

barebackreader · May 2011

@mapsa - oh dear. I do know this cat. Not one of mine (thank god) but he lives next door. Haven't seem him for ages, but my partner often sees him crossing FPR so I assume he now operates on the other side of MVR from where we live.

I'm really sad to hear that he's such a bastard. Not surprised though. I won't go into detail but we had months of trouble when 5 kittens (incl. Shiva) moved in next door.

I think there might be a bit of denial going on. Many's the time I've heard a mad cat-scrap going on in the near-distance and this neighbour shrieking at one of my cats to stop it. Which confuses the hell out of him as he's generally sitting on my lap at the time. I'm not daft enough to think that my cats never fight, but they can't be in two places at once!

Ali · May 2011

It is hilarious that people complain about their Cats been bullied by other Cats or foxes. Cats have form, how about the poor little birds that get a bit more than a bullying ! It’s jungle out there! I have never understood why people get as emotional about their Cats as they always tend to be quite unpleasant to wildlife and crap all over peoples gardens usually not theirs! I do think grey squirrels are marginally worse because of the damage they cause and they are slightly dimmer

barebackreader · May 2011

@Ali - responsible cat owners (such as the original poster emine) make efforts to minimise their cat's impact on wildlife and the neighbour's begonias.

And there's a difference between day-to-day territorial scrapping and the random thuggery of badly socialised pets.

People get 'emotional' because they give a toss about the welfare of the animals in their care. Not sure what's hard to understand about that.

mapsa · May 2011

@barebackreader Still around, sadly, it "dropped by" just this morning. Its territory seems to extend from the Spinney all the way over to the reservoir (and who knows how far beyond). I can confirm that whenever you hear cats shrieking in the area, it is ALWAYS Shiva attacking another cat, or a cat howling to try to scare it away. @Ali People have pets. People get attached to their pets. People don't really like to find them with gaping wounds, covered in blood (as well as having to pay for the vet bill), whether they are cats, dogs, hamsters, budgies or whatever. This isn't a particularly new or unusual phenomenon.

barebackreader · May 2011

@mapsa and everybody else - sorry to hear that this problem is so widespread. I think the reason he doesn't bother us is a combination of early lessons (he was driven off our territory loads of times as a kitten) and again the catflap - he basically tried to move in at one point but stopped hanging around once he realised he wasn't going to be able to get inside.

Ali · May 2011

Talking about pets our Budgies fell foul to a Cat coming into the house through the backdoor and attacking them and our pond frogs were dealt with by a I think a rather large Ginger cat. If you want the beasts as a pet why can’t they be kept in the house or restrained in someway that they stay in the garden where they live . From my experience some cats will attack something for no good reason (they don’t often eat what they kill) then the next minute smooze up to who ever . Apparently Cats kill 150m animals a year in the UK, not nice ! <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/15/cats-kill-wildlife>; I wonder if this research verified this? Do you really know what you Cat gets up to when it is out, remember it is your pet ?

miss annie · May 2011

Never seen so many @';s on one thread! I like cats and we are considering getting a rescue cat, but grey squirrels are much smarter than cats. Have you ever seen a cat catch a squirrel even though they chase them constantly? And I'd like to see a cat try this... <

Emma · May 2011

Ali, cats kill animals as offerings to their owners - hence not eating their prey, and then being affectionate to the recipient of their gift.

Whilst it's not pleasant that they kill smaller animals, it's very much in their nature and would be cruel to "restrain" them. A lot of people are like you and dislike what cats get up to but there are things you can do to keep cats out of your safe haven.

First of all, I would recommend not leaving your back door open (especially not if you have budgies that you wish to remain in your home!!). You could also try shaking a tin of pebbles at the cats - they don't like the noise. Similarly shooting a water pistol at them is a good deterrent. People say leaving orange peel around the garden stops them using it as a toilet but I don't know if that works. I know the first two do though.

Emma · May 2011

PS: "Do you really know what you Cat gets up to when it is out"

I tried to persuade my sister to <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Uncle-Milton-Pets-View-Camera/dp/B0017T7Q00/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305638605&sr=8-1">buy some of these for her cats</a> but she was having none of it. Bah.

val · May 2011

Emma is right. Cats are natural hunters - well some of them. My European Domestic cat only catches, and eats, young frogs, but the one with a touch of Abyssinian brings in frogs, baby birds, mice and baby rats, all as gifts. I try to rescue anything still undamaged but cannot scold her.

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