Anyone ever see a cat jump in a pond?

[crsublette]

Fortunately, I have two high traffic farm to market roads next to my place so the truck traffic, coyotes, great horned owls, and farm/truck equipment keep the population of my feral farm cats controlled.... And... unfortunately, seems like a fun past time for some ignorant farm workers is to lure cats with poisoned food.

I never have more than 12 or so farm cats on my lot coming Spring... even though they have kittens like crazy... Seems like the lifespan of a feral farm cat is about 2 years on my farm.

The farm cats actually save me money in equipment repairs and seed due to how varmints can so easily screw up things and I can't afford to place everything in my barns.... but... then again... the money I save then goes to invest in me occasionally feeding them. Doh...

 

[crsublette]

How do you do that? Ive known people that shoot old dogs but how do you kill a cat? Hold it and slit its throat? Your right! Most people dont have the stomach for that. When I was a kid, a feral cat had kittens under a house and they were so eaten by worms they were pouring out these kittens butts. My friend and I took these kittens and cut their heads off with a shovel. My friend missed and hit it mid spine...he couldnt even look at it. It was awful! I would never ask someone to do that.

Yeah, tough when ya have to kill defenseless animals, but sometimes its just what ya gotta do. However... Tougher to see the animal suffer for no good reason... I don't like doing it at all when comes time that it is needed...

 

[KC Crook]

Fortunately, I have two high traffic farm to market roads next to my place so the truck traffic, coyotes, great horned owls, and farm/truck equipment keep the population of my feral farm cats controlled.... And... unfortunately, seems like a fun past time for some ignorant farm workers is to lure cats with poisoned food.

I never have more than 12 or so farm cats on my lot coming Spring... even though they have kittens like crazy... Seems like the lifespan of a feral farm cat is about 2 years.

The farm cats actually save me money in equipment repairs and seed due to how varmints can so easily screw up things and I can't afford to place everything in my barns.... but... then again... the money I save then goes to invest in me occasionally feeding them. Doh...

I am no stranger to farm cats...hung out in small barns and farms my entire life, but 12 cats seems a bit improportional to the need. You must have alot of rats.

 

[teeemkay]

Oh! They do that here too! Thats good. Enjoy her. My sis in law has managed over a few years to turn those cats into pets and they love her. When my old male disappeared (yes fixed at 6 months old) I was praying he would come home and expected him to be missing (another) part of his ear. Sadly, he never returned. Guess he died somewhere. He sure was a sweet cat though. Never tolerated being indoors tho.

Our little pal doesn't like to be indoors, either. Well, I take that back--she will come into our little porch/entryway thing, but only if we keep the outer door open for her once she's in. The wind blew the door closed once when she was in there and she freaked out. Other than that, she is the sweetest little kitty in the world--she enjoys hanging out with us if we are working in the yard or sitting on the patio.

 

[crsublette]

I am no stranger to farm cats...hung out in small barns and farms my entire life, but 12 cats seems a bit improportional to the need. You must have alot of rats.

Well, I don't know about the rats... I haven't seen one in 6 years... haha. These cats are survivors until a truck or animal or something else gets them.

The cats aren't scrawny looking either. I control how much food I feed cause I don't want them reliant on it... I built a nice little shelter for them and have one of those motion sensor video cameras (ones used by hunters)... I have never seen more than 8 or so cats in the shelter.

My human neighbors are spread out all about my area... I got one 6 miles west of me, 4 miles south me, and another about 9 miles east of me.... So, no worries about these cats being fed and multiplying like crazy as you see in urban areas.

Interesting to watch them. Appears they created a type of social structure and I think some cats get "kicked out of the clan".

 

[crsublette]

There was one farm cat that somehow figured out to survive for about 5 years... He's now a house cat at my place for his good luck of surviving so long, call him B.B. (as in Big Boy), and this dude is 14 pounds of pure muscle... He's not the one that slipped outside taking a swan dive into the pond... When Big Boy goes outside, NONE of my farm cats jack with him... Very interesting to watch. B.B. hates the outdoors now... He only wants to stay outside while I am outside working on my landscaping.

Anyways... enough of that... lol

 

[KC Crook]

Well, I don't know about the rats... I haven't seen one in 6 years... haha. These cats are survivors until a truck or animal or something else gets them.

The cats aren't scrawny looking either. I control how much food I feed cause I don't want them reliant on it... I built a nice little shelter for them and have one of those motion sensor video cameras (ones used by hunters)... I have never seen more than 8 or so cats in the shelter.

My human neighbors are spread out all about my area... I got one 6 miles west of me, 4 miles south me, and another about 9 miles east of me.... So, no worries about these cats being fed and multiplying like crazy as you say in urban areas.

Interesting to watch them. Appears they created a type of social structure and I think some cats get "kicked out of the clan".

Lol, I dont think the US has the same issues Australia has, where the the native wildlife is being totally decimated by feral cats so if your cats are controlled by mother nature then all good. No arguments from me. Im no coddler of cats.

 

[KC Crook]

Our little pal doesn't like to be indoors, either. Well, I take that back--she will come into our little porch/entryway thing, but only if we keep the outer door open for her once she's in. The wind blew the door closed once when she was in there and she freaked out. Other than that, she is the sweetest little kitty in the world--she enjoys hanging out with us if we are working in the yard or sitting on the patio.

One of my totally indoor cats got out one night and we didnt know. Next morning I opened the front door and the poor terrified thing was huddled against our front door. I felt awful for her.
We loved to tease the indoor cats though. We were living in AZ at the time, and we got a rare snow. Really a dusting...but we decided to be straight up mean, tbh...lol. We tossed the kitties into our backyard on that cold snow to see what they would do. Beeline straight into the house. We were in peels of laughter! Im sure they hated us for a whole 30 seconds while their feet dried off, lol!

 

[crsublette]

Lol, I dont think the US has the same issues Australia has, where the the native wildlife is being totally decimated by feral cats so if your cats are controlled by mother nature then all good. No arguments from me. Im no coddler of cats.

Yeah, I completely understand the invasive issue and I am with you about not being a coddler... I feel terrible for all the feral and stray animals in the urban areas and how people feed them, leading the cats to multiply like crazy, it's not right.

We have a problem with stray dogs here. People feed them but never want to control them. A pack of domesticated dogs can easily take down, kill an adult cow, which occasionally happens here.

My mom gives me grief how I don't do more for my feral farm cats... It is cause of my mom why I built a nice little barn shelter for them during our winters... not my fault the stupid cats don't want to use it. hahaha

 

[crsublette]

We tossed the kitties into our backyard on that cold snow to see what they would do. Beeline straight into the house. We were in peels of laughter! Im sure they hated us for a whole 30 seconds while their feet dried off, lol!

Yep yep... I think that is a required ritual of most cat owners every Winter. Let them know Winter is here.

 

[KC Crook]

Yah, I hear ya. One of my neighbors fed the cats and so many lined my fence it looked like a damn old lady cross stitch pattern. I was livid. Little pathetic kittens, untamed running through my backyard...and nothing to eat. Except her, feeding them. I told her to stop feeding the damn outdoor cats. She knew it was bad, Im sure she didnt listen. I called the local spca about traps...we are a rural, poor county...they had no help for me. It seemed after I told her to stop feeding them, they were less obvious but idk. It was pretty bad. We would pull onto our property and cats would scatter like roaches. They even came into my house for the food I was feeding MY cat if I left the door open. Now see? Thats a problem, and tbh? i may not have had an issue shooting some of them, given a chance.

 

[KC Crook]

There was one farm cat that somehow figured out to survive for about 5 years... He's now a house cat at my place for his good luck of surviving so long, call him B.B. (as in Big Boy), and this dude is 14 pounds of pure muscle... He's not the one that slipped outside taking a swan dive into the pond... When Big Boy goes outside, NONE of my farm cats jack with him... Very interesting to watch. B.B. hates the outdoors now... He only wants to stay outside while I am outside working on my landscaping.

Anyways... enough of that... lol

My old Tom was like that, tough as nails, but to the day he disappeared he never wanted to be indoors. He was not a "barn cat" persay but that cat killed anything and everything...birds, mice, bats even. What he never messed with was possums tho, they have way bigger teeth! Lol! Unlike my lab who would bring my dad possums by the tail! Lol. My dad would just take it and walk to the woods behind our house and let it go. Labs werent built for killing after all, lol.

 

[MitchM]

It's always sad to see domesticated animals roaming in our rural areas.
Sometimes people from the city will abandon their pets in the country, thinking either they will survive on their own, or more likely, some local land owner will take them in.
One day when we were out for a walk, we saw a Vietnamese Pot bellied pig in our neighbour's field!
The pig wanted nothing to do with me, but didn't mind my wife approaching him.
It turns out that the pig had been left behind by some family and had been living for a couple of years on scraps from local farmers. Some local hired hand claimed that the pig was attacking him, so had to be killed and the hand bragged about the head he had mounted.
The general consensus was that the hired hand was bored and just shot the poor thing for fun. The pig minded his own business and was a local celebrity. The hired hand wasn't to be seen again because the local residents were so angry with him.
We also have a donkey that makes the rounds that no one knows who owns.
Cougars, wolves and coyotes usually take care of any small animals that are left out here.

 

[crsublette]

@MitchM Yeah, people drop off dogs near my farm all the time. One time a litter of puppies and a male dog (guess the owner wanted to keep the female) were dropped off.. I was so pissed off.. Frickn people... There's a no-kill dog pound near my place on a 200 acre lot, except they reach full capacity, but they were kind enough to take the litter of puppies. I donate money to them when I can... When they get full, people just start to drop off dogs... Pisses me off just thinking about when i see a dog trying to get some food by eating road kill off the road... Unfortunately, many of those dropped of dogs distrust humans so much, get so angry, can't do much with them... I do what I can but they're not all salvageable...

@MitchM That's crazy about the donkey and pig.

 

[Smaug]

How do I kill feral cats? 22 rifle or high end 22 caliber air rifle. I am not going to waste resources or time getting feral cats spayed or neutered. As far as muffing a shot and having an inhumane kill,that's not gonna happen.