On Sat, 16 Oct 2010 13:56:48 +0100, Alan
wrote:

In message , Gordon H
wrote
In message ,
writes
Gordon H wrote:
Have you ever owned a cat? ;-)

I thought cats generally owned people.

Exactly my point. The only way they can be controlled is by caging
them in some way.

Exactly!! Socially responsible cat ownership means that you don't annoy
your neighbours - and I don't next mean just next door.

We used to have three dogs. They were trained to get up in the morning
and do their business in a particular place in the garden where it was
easy to clean up. When they went for walks, the male might
occasionally scent a lamppost (well try, he'd been snipped) but
otherwise nothing "happened". Sometimes it was fun - as soon as we got
home, they'd run to the back door to be let out to do whatever. when
the last died, we both swore we'd never have another pet as the pain
of passing was too much.

I used to hate cats - I mean really hate them and I'd be criticised
for the venom I spouted forth in their general direction. I've gone
at (former) neigbours who had three cats, only let into the house to
be fed in the evening (cats eat more than once a day). Another
neighbour collected their cats' products from his garden and deposited
it through their letterbox.

More recently a neighbour had three cats (now two - one of which never
goes outdoors for some reason). One of those was a real pain to the
street. Then one day the "pain" simply moved in with us. He got
snipped (twice). We introduced him to cat litter (took a few months
but he now goes in it (solid wise) a couple of times a day so
hopefully not a problem for others, to not going for birds (he now
sits on the lawn watching the bird table but doesn't go for them). Yes
he does sometimes bring home (live) mice and shrews which he likes to
let loose in the house. Once we catch them, we find they're rarely
injured. Put back outside he doesn't chase after them. OK, he does
tend to snip off the tail end of slow-worms a lot.

The only creatures he regularly kills (quickly we've noticed) are
moles that pop up from the ground. And we're not complaining about
that.

He probably spends all bar a few hours a day either in the house or in
the garden (he goes out at 6 ish in the morning and is back about
9-10ish). Then a mid afternoon stroll for an hour or so.

So it IS possible to socialise a cat. All it takes is a bit of effort,
a bit of love and an acceptance that YOU are the cat's pet.

Plus since he moved in, no cat poop has been found anywhere in the
garden. He's aggressively teritorial. And neighbours who used to say
they'd happily kill him now say he's ok.

Not all cats are bad; just some cat owners.