Not farm cats anymore

On Mar 6, 3:44*pm, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
wrote:
Sherry wrote:
Ummm....I don't want to put a damper on the dead-squirrel party going
on over there,
but you do know that squirrels are notorious for carrying fleas and
mites.

SFAIK, so are rats and mice! *(Also feral cats and dogs - anything with
fur, for that matter, unless it undergoes regular bathing or flea-spraying.)

I don't know about rats and mice, personally, I've never held one.
I've held
many flea-ridden kittens, puppies, etc., and never seen mites on them.
It was
the *mites* that blew me away. Zillions of them. All over me. From 3
tiny
baby squirrels. Granted, I probably got some of them from the nest
itself
reaching into the tree to get them and just didn't notice until we
were
driving down the road. You naturally get a few fleas jump off on you
from
animals, that doesn't bother me. It was the *mites*.
My head is itching again. I'm not going to talk about this
anymore. :-)

Sherry

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

A genius and a perfect little gentleman to so care for KFC!

But how did he realise and understand that bringing back collared doves
was pointless now?
There are lots of them he could catch if he wanted to but he doesn't any
more, as I said, he does not eat them himself. He's not up to getting the
feathers off. Unlike KFC when she ate them, she ate all the feathers
except for the big wing feathers.
Wonderful for her bowels ;-)

Tweed

He's a smart little dude! I'm sure he could reason out that the doves were
no longer needed when he brought them to her and she didn't eat them -
though most cats don't reason that way... Taffy still leaves birds at my
son's doorstep every few days. It's just a shame she doesn't eat them any
more - as you said, it is good for her and her natural prey. But at her
age, that she eats anything at all is a triumph.

Hugs,

CatNipped

Sherry wrote:

I don't know about rats and mice, personally, I've never held one.
I've held
many flea-ridden kittens, puppies, etc., and never seen mites on them.
It was
the *mites* that blew me away.

Oh yes, mites! I wasn't TOO disturbed by rats in the attic, when I
lived in Pasadena across from a freeway embankment, until i started
finding exceedingly itchy insect bites around my waist. Foggers in the
closet would eliminate the problem for a few hours, but mites breed so
quickly that they really didn't do much good. When the landlord called
in an exterminator we discovered that the biting critters were
"oriental rat mites". Got rid of the rats, but for a couple of months I
went around smelling of flea spray, because the only way I eventually
got rid of the mites was to spray my closets night and morning with
Black Flag, then pull out the clothes I wanted to wear and spray them
with a "safe for pets" product before I put them on. (I probably
exposed myself to far too much toxic material, but those darned mite
bites ITCH worse than any fleabite I ever had!)

On Mar 5, 11:11*pm, "Pat" wrote:

None of the kitties took as much as a bite out of that poor squirrel. I can
remember a time when they'd have fought over it and it would have been gone
in a matter of minutes. But they're all too domesticated now, I guess.
Spoiled rotten lazy city housecats, will they even still eat mice?

Ummm, not meaning to be offensive and I know how everyone on this
group gets their panties in a wad over everything, but I'm glad I'm a
city girl, born and bred. Yuck! And poor squirrel.

Candace

On Mar 7, 12:33*pm, wrote:
On Mar 5, 11:11*pm, "Pat" wrote:



None of the kitties took as much as a bite out of that poor squirrel. I can
remember a time when they'd have fought over it and it would have been gone
in a matter of minutes. But they're all too domesticated now, I guess.
Spoiled rotten lazy city housecats, will they even still eat mice?

Ummm, not meaning to be offensive and I know how everyone on this
group gets their panties in a wad over everything, but I'm glad I'm a
city girl, born and bred. Yuck! *And poor squirrel.

Candace

Well, poor squirrel because it got killed in the first place. I don't
think
the squirrel probably cared much what happened after that.
No, I wouldn't touch a dead squirrel on the road, but I am
*definitely*
not a city girl. To each his own.
Actually I saw more squirrels when we lived in the city than we do
here.
Sherry

wrote in message
...
On Mar 5, 11:11 pm, "Pat" wrote:

None of the kitties took as much as a bite out of that poor squirrel. I
can
remember a time when they'd have fought over it and it would have been
gone
in a matter of minutes. But they're all too domesticated now, I guess.
Spoiled rotten lazy city housecats, will they even still eat mice?

Ummm, not meaning to be offensive and I know how everyone on this
group gets their panties in a wad over everything, but I'm glad I'm a
city girl, born and bred. Yuck! And poor squirrel.

Candace

Squirrel tastes like chicken wings ;-)

wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:

He's a gallant soul.

Hmm, he probably is but I am interested to know how how he realised that
it
was pointless to catch collared doves for Kitty any more.
Did he watch her eat them and think it was still a good idea when she
did,
and decide not to bother when she didn't?
How could he understand that concept? I don't think he could but the
fact
remains that after 2 or 3 rejections of his offerings he hasn't brought
a
dove or a mousie to the house since.

What I meant was that maybe it doesn't take smarts so much as attention
to how one's actions are received. I think every animal that interacts
with other animals has to do that on some level. They might not reflect
on it consciously the same way a human would, but just like a cat learns
that doing a certain behavior will earn them a treat, maybe he learned
that bringing collared doves to KFC earned him the satisfaction of
watching her eat it. And once he stopped getting that reward, maybe he
just didn't have any more motivation to do it?

I don't think the fact that a cat would stop doing something he's no
longer rewarded for is unusual in itself. So to me, the question is, why
was watching KFC eat the doves he brought her so rewarding to him in the
first place? Maybe it's some kind of feline social behavior that most
people aren't aware of. A kind of mothering behavior that maybe Boyfie
learned from his mother? And when he perceived some frailty in KFC
(something all predators are very sensitive to), that triggered a
nurturing response in him? Just an idea.

That's why I think of it more as a character issue than an intelligence
issue (not to say that he's not intelligent). He was nurturing her. And
once she stopped being interested in his mothering activities, he didn't
have any reason to keep doing it. Again, just a thought.

You are probably right, although there is no reason why he should nuture her
or mother her. He's a boycat and she is not his kitten so I wonder why he
did it in the first place. It's no advantage to him whatsoever.
Plus he knows he regularly gets a swipe upside the head from her, you'd
think he'd like to let her starve ;-)
Tweed

Christina Websell wrote:

That's why I think of it more as a character issue than an intelligence
issue (not to say that he's not intelligent). He was nurturing her. And
once she stopped being interested in his mothering activities, he didn't
have any reason to keep doing it. Again, just a thought.

You are probably right, although there is no reason why he should nuture her
or mother her. He's a boycat and she is not his kitten so I wonder why he
did it in the first place. It's no advantage to him whatsoever.

And that's what makes him such a special cat. There are instances of
animals nurturing other animals without regard to whether they're related,
or to the gender of the nurturer, or even the species involved. Male
mammals do engage in nurturing, "mothering" behavior sometimes.

Plus he knows he regularly gets a swipe upside the head from her, you'd
think he'd like to let her starve ;-)

But, as I said, he is a gallant soul.

You can tell I'm a Boyfie fan!

--
Joyce ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.

wrote

| There are instances of animals nurturing other animals without
| regard to whether they're related, or to the gender of the nurturer,
| or even the species involved. Male mammals do engage in nurturing,
| "mothering" behavior sometimes.

Indeed. I had an all-black male owner named Egypt once upon a time, who
allowed younger cats to nurse on him. And current owner Tommy always used to
bring dead prey into the house, lay it on the floor and call the younger
cats to dinner.

Christina Websell wrote:
wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:

He's a gallant soul.
Hmm, he probably is but I am interested to know how how he realised that
it
was pointless to catch collared doves for Kitty any more.
Did he watch her eat them and think it was still a good idea when she
did,
and decide not to bother when she didn't?
How could he understand that concept? I don't think he could but the
fact
remains that after 2 or 3 rejections of his offerings he hasn't brought
a
dove or a mousie to the house since.
What I meant was that maybe it doesn't take smarts so much as attention
to how one's actions are received. I think every animal that interacts
with other animals has to do that on some level. They might not reflect
on it consciously the same way a human would, but just like a cat learns
that doing a certain behavior will earn them a treat, maybe he learned
that bringing collared doves to KFC earned him the satisfaction of
watching her eat it. And once he stopped getting that reward, maybe he
just didn't have any more motivation to do it?

I don't think the fact that a cat would stop doing something he's no
longer rewarded for is unusual in itself. So to me, the question is, why
was watching KFC eat the doves he brought her so rewarding to him in the
first place? Maybe it's some kind of feline social behavior that most
people aren't aware of. A kind of mothering behavior that maybe Boyfie
learned from his mother? And when he perceived some frailty in KFC
(something all predators are very sensitive to), that triggered a
nurturing response in him? Just an idea.

That's why I think of it more as a character issue than an intelligence
issue (not to say that he's not intelligent). He was nurturing her. And
once she stopped being interested in his mothering activities, he didn't
have any reason to keep doing it. Again, just a thought.

You are probably right, although there is no reason why he should nuture her
or mother her. He's a boycat and she is not his kitten so I wonder why he
did it in the first place. It's no advantage to him whatsoever.
Plus he knows he regularly gets a swipe upside the head from her, you'd
think he'd like to let her starve ;-)
Tweed


IMHO Animals are intelligent -- some more than others. If you observe
closely, you can watch them reason things out. I learned a lot when I
watched the 13 ferals. After all, if they couldn't think, they would
not last long ion the wild. MLB