Hard Decision to Make about a Feral Cat

[hunter]

14. Our local coyotes often relieve us of these difficult decisions.

The coyotes hear a late night cat fight and one or both of the fighting cats are eaten.



Please everyone, spay and neuter your cats and dogs. "Indoor cats" are preferable to "outdoor cats," if possible. It's a dangerous world for outdoor cats and they often hunt birds that ought to be left alone.

Just recently my kid rescued two dogs from a busy street, one a larger female in heat, the other a smaller un-neutered male of coyote-meal size. The dogs both jumped into the car so they were obviously pets, but they might have been road kill or coyote food. We took them to our local animal shelter which is very good, but they'll not release a dog or cat that's not been spayed or neutered. These dogs' breeding days were over whoever took them home, original owners or not.

We usually have three shelter dogs, the most our city allows without a special permit. My wife tends to favor the unadoptable dogs -- elderly dogs, and dogs with behavior or health problems.

Our current threesome is the most trouble we've ever had. That's saying a lot considering the Catahoula Leopard Dog we once adopted. She was scary intelligent, like a youtube border collie but with a fiercely independent streak. In dog school her teachers thought she was perfect. Well mannered and instant comprehension of any command. Why are you here? But she could open unlocked doors or yard gates and vanish for hours. She was the worst food thief I ever met. Blink and the dinner roast was gone and she'd be sitting there looking innocent. Twice she stole our kid's dental retainers and buried them in the back yard, about $350 each. We didn't find the stolen retainers until later. She'd play gently with our pet rats, rabbits, and birds, or neighborhood cats, but she'd also play with wild rats and wild rabbits in the garden. She did eat gophers, grasshoppers, and flies, so she wasn't entirely useless as vermin control.

We were very sad when she died.

Our current dogs are misfits too. One was used as a fashion accessory. She learned how to be an ordinary dog from the Catahoula, but it took a few years. One of our dogs was feral. She still has a lot of feral traits but my wife is master of feral dog's universe so full domestication is likely. Our most recent dog was kept chained in a back yard and neglected because his owners couldn't control him. Now he's a very happy creature because he gets to sleep on the sofa, and he loves all people but he's still got many bad habits. He can't walk past the vacuum cleaner without peeing on it and he's an escape artist like our Catahoula was but without the fierce loyalty. He'd be happy to sleep on anyone's sofa. One friendly human as good as any other.