Ah don’t you just love the neighbours?

[sparkindarkness]

A drama that is retreating these past few weeks, but it seems I have been inexcusably giving my ever-so-delicate neighbour the vapours and fainting fits.

Because Mia, annoying visiting cat, is catching baby birds. yes, ‘twas that time of years when birds throw themselves out of their nest to fly or plummet. And if they plummeted, Mia was waiting. Bad Mia. No cookie.

The neighbour complained to me on multiple occasions. Bitterly, at length and sometimes tearfully. To which I sympathise, it isn’t nice to see the kitty pounce on the helpless baby bird. I wish it didn’t happen.

But being pounced on by a predator does tend to be the fate mother nature has chosen for the helpless baby birds who fall from their nests. And exactly what am I expected to do about it anyway? Convince Mia of the health benefits of a vegetarian diet? Eloquently persuade her the many merits of pacifism? Maybe get her a saffron robe and see if Buddhism is the path for her? She’s a CAT. Killing helpless baby birds is what cats DO.

Now, bowing to pressure, I have got her a collar with a bell on it. I hate these things and the minute the birds start flying away I’m taking it off her. My last cat had a collar and a bald ring round his neck where the collar had been all his life. And for an active cat climbing and sneaking and putting her head in everywhere, a collar that can get caught must be dangerous. Add to this the constant ringing is annoying ME, so what it must be doing to her super-sensitive hearing, I have no idea.

Of course, it didn’t help. Helpless baby birds that have fallen from their nests while learning how to fly are not especially able to run away from a cat no matter how much jingling said cat does.


So what to do - I want to take the collar off now the baby birds have either died or learned how to fly. The neighbour is still not happy. So, how do I stop Mia hunting short of locking her inside all day and should I just tell the neighbour to deal with it and stop being ridiculous?

Comments

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

I would vote for taking the collar off entirely. City birds take the same chances country birds take, predators exist everywhere in nature.

If you do choose to keep the collar, get one of the stretchy ones made especially for cats, which are designed for the situations you are worried about - her getting it caught on something and not being able to get out of it or strangling.

Kitty love to you from our annoying 4 AM alarm clock, Foofus the Goofus.

[stormcat.livejournal.com]

Neighbor needs to deal. If she's so damn worried she can go out and rescue the birds before the cat gets them. And she should be damned glad they're not baby rabbits -- those SCREAM. It's bloodcurdling.

[snuck.livejournal.com]

I'm with the others... neighbour needs to get over it.

I <3 birds, cats, fish and guinea pigs. Reality is that three of those are food for the fourth. If they can move quick they'll be fine - if they can't then it'll be some other cat if not yours.

You could very sweetly turn it back to her - point out that the collar isn't enough, and ask for her to help work out a solution - and then wash your hands of it :P

[seryan.livejournal.com]

Suggest she put collars on the birds instead, to freak out the cat, and leave it to her to work out the details. The cat's just doing what it does, and unfortunately for your neighbour, what it does is hunt small things.

[dontkickmycane.livejournal.com]

I have to tell you this story, and I swear, it is no word of a lie.

One day, my kids (then about six and three), Hubs and I were standing in our living room looking out on a lovely spring day and deciding our front lawn needed cutting when lo - a baby robin landed right there in front of us to be admired and cooed over by the girl. Not three seconds later, a hawk came, landed on the baby bird and flew away in a flurry of feathers. Right there in front of my two tiny impressionable children. Did they run screaming from the room? No. The boy said, and I quote "It left feathers behind. Can I go have them?" The girl said (after a brief, perhaps slightly shocked silence) "Oh well. I guess that's what happens. Hawks do have to eat." and she turned back to her colouring book. Are they scarred for life? No. Do they understand the cycle of life and know enough to be grateful they're at the top of the food chain? Yes. So I think you know where I'm going with this. If my teeny, tiny, impressionable kiddies can witness and accept that big, carnivorous things eat small, helpless meaty things, I think your neighbor needs to get out more.

One day, I'll tell you about the dead mice on the driveway (courtesy Billy the Great Hunter Cat) and the boy and his tricycle. Just not when you're eating.

[logophilos.livejournal.com]

Baby birds are nature's snack food.

However...since they are native and Mia is not, I strongly suggest you keep her indoors at night, to minimize the depredation on the local wildlife. Cats do most of their hunting at night.

What does your idiot neighbour think *happens* to baby birds who fall out of the nest? Get picked up by the baby bird fairy? No! They get et, simple as that.

[buddykat.livejournal.com]

I'm with the others. Your neighbor needs to deal. I'd recommend a "snap" collar for Mia if you must put a collar on her. They are designed to break away if they get hung up on something. The stretchy collars are good, but they can twist and hurt the kitty instead of coming off.

[meridae.livejournal.com]

Uh, isn't Mia just helping with the whole natural selection process? Baby birds that plummet instead of fly are deemed by nature to be too stupid to live and are therefore extremely undesirable candidates for contributing to the gene pool. Therefore Mother Nature created Mia and furry beasties like her, to munch on these yummy feathery snacks that fall conveniently from the trees into little kitty mouths (like apples only squirmier) to ensure that the too stupid to live ones don't get the opportunity to reproduce and create even more stupid birds.

I call it 'stupid bird' season, and Muffin often brings crunchy munchy tweety ones inside in her mouff. I don't particularly like disposing of the mutilated little bodies, and I hate it when she brings them in still tweeting, but I don't tell her off for it - it's kind of a natural thing, really.

(I always take the stupid bells off the collars . . . many cats learn to hunt without jingling them. My next door neighbour when I was growing up used to put three or four bells on her her cat's collar and Molly still bought birds in, for she was canny and a mighty huntress and mere bells didn't stop her).

[helbling.livejournal.com]

I am with the others - tell her to grow a spine and actually educate herself with what happens in nature. If she's really that worried, she can set up buckets under the nests or something to catch the damn things, so she can return them and give them a second chance. But it's her to really wants to stop the natural process from happening...so she can get out there and bust her arse to do it. They'll be just as dead regardless of whether it's Mia or another passing predator/omnivore (I've heard rats are v. fond of baby birds; if this is the case, then it's actually far far kinder to let Mia have them).

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

Tell her to get over it. Yes, it's sad, but that's nature. Mia's just being a cat.

[gnarlycranium.livejournal.com]

Domestic cats can decimate songbird populations and some other animals. Cities are much harder for wildlife to last in to begin with. Granted a lot of that damage is from cats gone feral, but still-- this is not nature.

Although, baby birds fallen from the nest are gonna die anyway.

[gnarlycranium.livejournal.com]

Rats definitely will eat anything. Squirrels too. Actually, the european gray squirrel is a voracious raider of bird nests and causes quite a bit of damage to native populations. Besides the damage it does to trees. Fuzzy vermin.

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

your neighbour's the *sensitive* type then - really - that's just ... people

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

It is true that domestic cats can decimate the populations of songbirds.

However, and sparky can correct me when I'm wrong: It sounds like Mia only goes after the baby birds that fall out or can't fly when they attempt to take off from the nest. So, she's being an opportunist, not actually hunting the birds... (Which is what I'm sure my cat would do if I allowed him to be an outdoor cat because he has shown behavior in play that makes me think he has caught things in midair flight and stuffed them right in his mouth with his paws during the "catch.") Also, it isn't specified if these are songbirds or some other bird that is more adapted to the city environment.

[ladyhelen.livejournal.com]

So, how do I stop Mia hunting short of locking her inside all day

You can't. She's a cat, that's what their instincts tell them to do, so they do it.

and should I just tell the neighbour to deal with it and stop being ridiculous?

Broadly, yes. :)

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Well, yes but at the same time any other predators a song bird may face are also absent in the city.

Sadly, round here song birds are vastly outnumbered and overwhelmed by the mobs of Starlings and the occasional seaguls. The blackbirds and sparrows are fighting a rearguard action but are badly outnumbered

Aye, I'm not saying Mias wouldn't hunt the others - but I don't think she has the skill

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I don't like collars at all, but I'm willing to keep it on for the sake of neighbourly peace so I can take it off her every night - especially if I can get a safe version.


Ah the early morning alarum clock! Where would we be without our near midnight demands for hugs?

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

Hrm... Ask her if she would be so freaked out if Mia was a mouser, exclusively, if she would have a problem if the cat was cutting down the mouse (and maybe rat) population instead?

Mini-rant: It's not that they're hunters, it's that they like to hunt something specific... This is always a problem with non-cat people. Oh noz! Not the pretty birdies! It's nature. Put your damned bird feeders in a spot inaccessible to a cat but still somewhere you can see it from your chair, behind your window, safe in your house. end mini-rant

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

There are song birds near us, but more starlings than anything that bully my poor blackbirds.

Mia will hunt ANY bird (except blackbirds. There was an incident where she tried to hunt a blackbird and the male blackbird took issue with her and kept diving at her. She won't touch them now), however, her ineptitude and habit of yowling at birds means she's rather unlikely to catch anything else.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

That's what we were doing for a week, chasing down baby birds to run them to the RSPCA (who rather respectfully told us to leave to to them while giving us "you're nuts" looks.)

That woujld definitely give her the vapors! But I don't think Mia roams far enough for rabbits

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

Oh no, it's not about the hugs... We know it's not about the hugs. Unless, by saying "hugs" you actually mean: "pay attention to me, your god, feed me, amuse me, just be present and awake in the room where I am and worship me" then I would agree with you.

Now. Imagine her chagrin if Mia (as most cats will and do) figures out how to move silently with the bell on. Many cats can do this once they get used to the collar.

Ohhhh! Points You said "Aye."

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

Well... yeah. Good thing we aren't planning on getting Phoenix and Mia together then, he would teach her how to silently hunt.

Has the woman thought of making a barrier around the nesting areas or a platform beneath the nest so that if they fall out they don't fall to the ground where any predators can reach?

I hate to say this, and I may get attacked for saying it; much as I love songbirds, this is natural selection at work.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I think I'll take that solution, if she thinks it's a problem then hopefully she can come up with a solution

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I just love the mental image, that would be classic

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Exactly, a kid can understand the concept of predator and prey, so why can;t a grown woman?