Dear cat owners

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

Edit: feanelwasuggested that it's more likely to be a squirrel-squirrel affair. I like that idea better than the cat one, especially as our local cats previously seemed to be mostly gentle specimens.

Please control your beasts. Today I discovered a dead squirrel in our garden. It wasn't in sight of the door, and I don't have a cat, so it was pure luck that I found it when I was out by myself, and that Judith didnt find it first. She loves squirrels - I'm sure it would have been both upsetting and a health risk if she'd found it first.

I feel faintly sick. I wish I had some way of knowing which house the cat in question came from, I'd go and ask them to clean it up.

Comments

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

(Not that they couldn't escape a fox in exactly the same way, but the size, teeth and hunger difference means it's easier for a fox to actually kill a squirrel once it's got it cornered rather than get bitten and let it escape like a cat would, and then come limping in for £££ of vet treatment)

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I's be very surprised if it was a fox. It had hardly been touched, and anyway, the distance from the house and the fact that there are no known foxes in the area precludes that. Wouldn't a fox eat the squirrel? It might be a squirrel fight I suppose. I didn't think of that because the squirrel was some distance from the tree.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

A cat might equally have a bit of a nibble before getting bored - or, whatever killed it might have been scared off before it got chance to tuck in.

I object less to cats that kill things than those dog owners who leave their poo all over parks and let them bark their heads off at anybody who walks within thirty yards of their house (or, who leave them at home to cry pitifully all day - but they don't always know they make that much noise). At least the cat problem happens every now and again rather than every time you leave the house. Having said that, I generally dislike dogs and like cats, so maybe I'm biased.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

The dog poo thing I find at least equally objectionable. There's no excuse for it. Again, it's a matter of controlling your pets and cleaning up after them.