On Fri, 11 Nov 2016 10:59:55 -0500, jmcquown
wrote:

On 11/11/2016 9:49 AM, dgk wrote:
On Thu, 10 Nov 2016 08:10:29 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

This was a number of years ago, but you will enjoy this:

http://people.eku.edu/styere/Bird-Watching2.jpg

Gene

I always thought that it was sort of unfair to the bird to have to
live with cats trying to figure out how to get in.

I used to try to put birdseed out after the cats were inside, but
sometimes the logistics just worked out that the cats were outside
while there was still birdseed in the feeders. Now that is a conflict
of interest, but the birds almost always got to eat in peace anyway
since my cats weren't really great hunters.

I've only ever been owned by two cats. Persia, whom someone had front
de-clawed before she came to live with me. And now Buffy, fully clawed.
Doesn't matter. They're indoor-only cats.

The hunting instinct is satisfied by play. I've got tons of toys and
Buffy loves batting golf balls around even when I'm in another room. No
cat of mine will ever be an outdoor cat. The birds are safe, she just
watches. It took a while before she even showed any interest. I was
just posting pics of the bluebirds. Didn't mean to start a debate about
indoor-out.

Jill
Jill

That's one advantage about living in Florida. I am (slowly) working on
getting a fence put in so I can let the cats out without them roaming
away, but almost all of the birds are the size of the cats so I'm not
thiinking that they're going to be killing any of them. The Ibisis
travel in large flocks, and the Egrets are just too big for anything
less than a really hungry cat to try attacking.

But I do worry a bit about the little lizards. Those are big enough
for the cats to show an interest, and small enough so they present no
danger. Well, most of them. There are a few real monster lizards
around the lake but they stay by the lake.

And we do have poison frogs and snakes, and those do concen me. The
frogs mostly only come out at night and hang around the lake, but
snakes to travel around. Most are harmless but one isn't.

I'm thinking of maybe having a patio built. The house originally had a
patio but the original owners had it enclosed and now it's the Florida
room. All glass. So maybe a new patio would be nice for the cats -
Marlo loves the one at Mom's house, but they're not really outside,
not really on the ground. Maybe I'll have a patio but leave some real
grass amd a few plants instead of having all of the floor tiled?