On 5/7/07 19:35, in article , "Alan"
wrote:

In message , Sacha
wrote

Lots of cats are house cats and never, ever go outside. Dogs are either let
out or taken out, I agree. Personally, I think it's cruel to keep cats
cooped up in a house all the time, looking through the window at the
wildlife! However, friends in e.g. USA have explained to me that their cats
are house cats because of the number of predators that can harm them. Here
- apart from man, there are only two dangers I can think of for cats, dogs
and foxes.

Foxes are not a problem for cats otherwise there would be no problem
with the number of cats in my neighbourhood. There was a documentary on
TV some years ago about the urban fox. It showed a few encounters
between cats and the fox. They either avoided each other or the cat
always won.

Foxes will kill cats. I've had friends who have lost cats that way, e.g.
out on a wild and untamed piece of hillside above their house. I'm not
talking about urban foxes only - we have both cats and foxes in the
countryside, too!

I guess that most dogs kept as pets wouldn't know what to do with a cat
if they actually caught one.

?!


Cats are said by some to account for the loss of millions of songbirds in
Britain every year.

I find the remains of a bird (lots of feathers) in my urban garden about
once a week.

Possibly a sparrow hawk is using your garden as meals on wheels. That's a
classic sign of their presence.
snip


--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
(remove weeds from address)