GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - dog-poop?!?!

Billy[_4_] · 03-04-2008, 03:54 AM posted to rec.gardens

In article ,
(paghat) wrote:

In article , Jangchub
wrote:

On Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:10:56 -0700,
(paghat) wrote:

The record-holding oldest cats have had access to the outdoors and often
to barns and are permitted hunt. It is rare to hear of a completely indoor
cat that lives to age 20, the majority of cats that age having had access
to the outdoors or even living most of the time outdoors.

What happens to a cat if the moron next door puts out blue block
poison for rats and the sick rat gets caught alive and eaten by the
cat and the cat dies and the owner never knows what happened to the
cat and wonders forever? What then?

What happens if your house catches fire. What happens if your cat falls in
the toilet, the lid plops down, and though you manage to resuscitate it
with mouth to mouth, the fact that you save water by rarely flushing the
toilet means the cat got a terrible infection and died, and you had to
have your lips amputated. Hey, it's not scientifically impossible, so
start worryin!

Fact is the house burning down is a MUCH greater risk to the cat's
longevity than dying from poisons aimed at dehydrating animals that cannot
vomit, left out where kids or dogs or cats can get them. If you were
thinking rationally about it the poison threat is from eating carrion --
of any animal that has been poisoned.

Life is threatening. It doesn't get all that safer just because someone
seals their a cat up in a nice soft satin-lined coffin. If unlikely events
are your worry, why restrict them to what's outside? I had a ferret not
only open a cabinet I had no idea his little hands could open, but he
managed to spread soap all over the floor, then ran through it sliding and
having fun. Just luck he didn't open something poisonous. He was a house
ferret but eventually went to another owner who used him in the San Juans
as a rabbit hunter -- his quality of life rose by a lot with access to the
great outdoors at least now and then.

Why do you care so much about this? What's wrong, bad mood today?

I provided lots of notes on two sides of an issue with extra focus on the
side which people left off, but concluded that it was a case by case thing
and without ALL the facts a pet owner would inevitably make bad decisions.

The propoganda machine has to be overcome with big doses of reality and
only then can people can assess their situations and make rational choices
for themselves and their companion animals. If you believe only the
agendized slant & popular misinformation that only inside is safe, you
can't make an intelligent decision. And that looks cranky only to someone
who only wants to hear the "only inside is safe" arguments and gets
threatened or peevish when that turns out not to fit well with the entire
truth.

MOST people who never let their cats outside are killing them slowly and
will have them suffering of terrible diseases their last few years. That
doesn't necessarily mean they should let them outside now and then, but if
that's really not safe, then perhaps just shouldn't own a cat at all, if a
risk-free life is one's criteria.

In our neighborhood cats run free, though it's not legal. As my garden
attracts more birds than anyones, I'm visited by cats from a half-dozen
houses, and now and then a bird gets wasted but surprisingly few (no
super-hunters among these spoiled cats). Neighbor cats annoy me sometimes,
but so did the racoon that tore up my little pond, & I'm not going to lock
up all the racoons and the neighbors' cats for it. One cat's owner has a
hyperactive scottish terrier, so the cat has moved into our carport and is
there more than its home. It's a quiet suburban st reet of houses and I've
never seen a cat dead at the side of any street around here (and I walk
our dog three times a day so I'd see 'em). HAVE seen a few squirrels
flattened though. Maybe we should keep 'em in the house.

-paggers

Not a good idea. Was nursing a young squirrel, who screamed every time
you tried to leave her. When she wasn't racing around on the curtain
roods she would set on top of my 400 watt amplifier. I guess she thought
that since there was a grating, no one would notice if she relieved
herself. Boy, squirrel pee can really eat up a circuit board:-(
At least, the next time a squirrel comes to stay, I won't have that
problem:-(
--

Billy

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