Si James

Hi,

I have just moved house and managed to capture one cat and bring it with me OK.

The other cat (called *****, silly mame I know) evaded capture.

Has anyone got any ideas how I could capture it before it starves
to death? How long can a cat last without regular meals anyway?

Si

MarkO

Don't worry, cats are perfectly able to fend for themselves. Your biggest fear is a traffic interface, but with a bit of luck you'll find that your *****'s just getting to know the area.

One of our cats disappeared for 5 days last year, and came back none the worse for it. I think she might have got locked in somebody's garage or something.

You did keep the cat inside the house for a couple of weeks after moving, though, didn't you? If not, there's a good chance he doesn't realise it's his new home and is attempting to head back to the old one. My cousin had this happen - the cat was found near their old house over 50 miles away from the new one (good sense of direction, clearly).

Si James

The cat that has moved we let straight out - and she is fine.


Its *****, yhe one we ;eft behind at our old house that I worry about.


Si

dsmith

Hopefully she'll meet a group of wild horses who'll teach her how to hunt. Should imagine a weasel would be too much for a cat but the horse would hopefully be able to teach her to trap mice.

Mice_Elf

You could try getting one of those humane rabbit traps that just shut the rabbit in the cage, rather than hurting it. Place some cat food in the back of the cage and put it near a known haunt of the missing cat's. If it's hungry enough it will go in to eat the food and the door will shut.

Apparently, a cat will turn feral if left to its own devices for more than a week. I think that that depends on the cat. One of mine got run over and went missing for 2 weeks. He was found on the other side of the A1 and taken to a vets where they scanned him in, found his chip and I got him back. He had fractured his leg and couldn't hunt for himself so he was bone-thin when I got him back but he's still as soft as anything.

One trick I always used when I moved house was to put the cats on a lead one at a time and spend 30 minutes or so in the new garden allowing them to walk around it and put their scent onto plants and borders to mark their territory. Do this for 1 - 2 weeks and then let them out. Initially they will patrol their boundaries and then get braver and explore further.

Si James

Mice_Elf - good advice - will try it if I can catch the bloody thing. The cat is a "farm cat", no warm sofas etc. , just a cold steading (that's a barn to you southern guys).

The cat does in fact like horses, and sits on my wife's horse when it is asleap - if this common behavior?????

It also catches loads of little feathered and furry things. What's the largest thing your cat has caught guys?


Si

Mice_Elf

If it's a barn cat and used to catching its own food, it will last for ages, probably quite happily on its own. A friend of my dad's had about 12 barn cats and used to feed them one tin of cat food a week - enough to keep them at the barn but not enough to stop them catching the mice that ate his grain.

Mine have also discovered the Fast-Food Restaurant that is Mother Nature and catch all sorts of wild rabbits, moles, shrews, mice, birds (although not so many of those) and rats. Couple of houses down the way has horses, which attract the rats and my biggest cat came home dragging this huge black lump, to the extent that he was tripping on it as he walked. Turned out to be a rat that wasn't a lot smaller than my smallest cat. It was massive. Hopefully there aren't many of that size about though...

mattstant

when i was a kid we used to take two cats to wales every summer on holiday with us without any problems whatsoever.
but the ginger tom who was the biggest un nutured cat i have ever seen dragged a rabbit into the house and up the sairs it took half an hour to remove it from his jaws.
this is the same ginger tom my sisters would dress in dolls clothes and stick into a pram where he would lie uncomplaning for hours.!!!!

Reffro

Our cats will catch full grown rabbits for fun but prefer baby rabbits for ease of eating. We often see them trotting about with half a rabbit hanging out of their mouths, them waddling in with a football for a stomach. We know they eat them as they never leave them as gifts for us, we only get mice and birds left as gifts, rabbits must be too tasty a treat to give up.

Mice_Elf

There's always that adorable habit that mine do as well . If they are hungry, then they will eat the entire rabbit, no problem. If slightly peckish, they will eat the head, going for the brains and leave the rest. If they have killed for the sake of it, they dismemeber the rabbit and strew the bits on the lawn, hence requiring the Bunny-Bit Patrol to come out every time we try to mow the jolly thing!

Alpine

I was once woken in the middle of the night to find my cat trying to drag a live crow through the cat flap... cat on the inside... legs through the flap.. crow's wings on the door.... Both of them were well into thr scrap and kept going for me when I tried to split them...

dsmith

If Cats catch rabbits for "fun" does this mean all cats should be banned - or is it only wrong if people watch the cats have fun and derive the fun themselves also ?

Wondering where "Rabbit being mauled by Cat (Not being watched)" stands on the scoobynet suffrometer acceptability rating and whether its above "Fish having its lips ripped off" but below "Fox being mauled by Dog (Is watched)". Perhaps on a par with "Unwanted horse being humanely shot (paying spectators only)" ?

Its all a bit of minefield it would seem - Now there may lie an answer to Puff Mother-in-law/Cat issue.. hmm but thats for another thread.

Deano

Si James

My cat regularly gets fully-grown ****-Pheasants.

It does not like frogs or toads though.

So my lawn mower gets them...........its hell washing the
gunk off your wellies when you get one, especially as my wellies are yellow.


Si

RichB

These animal threads get funnier and funnier, cheers dsmith

Seriously though, I hope you find your ***** soon...

[Edited by RichB - 5/21/2002 2:06:53 PM]

roadtrip

dunno worry bout it
i ran over the feckin thing 2day and its feckin dead 4 sure

made a feckin mess of me mota
where can i send ya tha bill 4 cleanin it?

RoadyT

stevem2k

My mate in the states caught one of their cats trying to get a skunk through the cat-flap. The house stunk for weeks.

Steve