Thursday, June 26, 2014

Cats Belong Indoors

Today a neighbor sent me an email titled "Pets" with several dog and cat links.  Each link highlighted the antics of dogs and cats and how these are very different.  Cute.  You know, one of those emails that you may, or may not open, view and then quickly delete.

However, one of the links in particular stuck in my craw - (I like this idiom for this because "craw" is the throat of a bird.  When the something cannot be dislodged it is truly annoying.)

Cats relationship with birds

And, here is my email reply: "The only one I didn't like was the cat catching the bird.  Cats are one of the greatest threats to our wild bird population.  What was happening in that video was that the cat was watching that bird's nest with young and the adult/parent bird was trying to distract it.  Cats kill millions of wild birds annually.  One day when we wake up without bird song (hopefully not in your lifetime or mine) outdoor cats will have played a significant role.  This, in a nutshell, is why my cats are indoor cats. 


He looks like he could take out a few birds ...


... but, of the two, she's the skillful hunter!

Otherwise, it was cute.  Thanks for sending."  

For comparison, here is the video Dogs relationship with birds.   Incidentally, I think the bird in the cat video was a mockingbird - one of our great songsters.

I'm deleting the email now.

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