Thought it might lighten things up to hear some of our funniest experiences dealing with predators and pests.
I'll start.
A few years ago, my sister who was staying here and I had an annoying problem with a neighbor's big thick coated beautiful Himalayan cat. Now this cat wasn't preying on chickens or anything, but it started hanging out over here, and keeping my old 16 yr old cat and my sister's old 18 yr old cat intimidated when they were outside (didn't have such a predator problem killing cats here back then), kept them run off their food and water on the porch, bullied the two old girls until they either hid or stayed inside most the time. In addition, it was one of these overly freindly pushy annoying demanding cats that persists in wrapping itself around your legs everytime you walk outside, squalling for food, tripping you, and trying to dash into the house every time a door opens. My sister, a cancer patient, was very frail by then, and all she needed was a stupid cat tripping her , making her fall and break a bone or something.
I had told the neighbor the problem and asked them to please keep the cat home, to no avail, to the usual, oh he's so sweet, he'd not hurt anything! And the cat just kept coming. We'd tried water pistols filled with stinky, throwing things at him, swatting him with newpapers, all we were doing was teaching him to hide and jump out when he caught us off guard, with no 'weapon' in hand.
One night we came in very late after all day in Houston for my sister's dr appointments and chemo treatments, and I had a pile of groceries to carry in out of the car to boot, and here's that darned cat, wrapping itself around my legs and squaling that it was hungry and trying to dash in the door everytime i opened it.
Noticing one of my vari-kennels over by the shed, I grabbed that cat up, went over and threw it in and locked the door. It squaled like it was being killed. I went on and finished up and we went to bed, I'd deal with the cat in the morning, tell the owner I'd had it with this nonsense. I didn't let it out that night because our cats were hungry,(it had eatern all their food, of course) and we had to feed them.
Next morning, i walk out to that crate, and all i could say over and over was OMG! OMG!
My sister came running, asking whats wrong, but stopped short and just stared, speechless.
Seems I had forgotten about that crate, I had used it several weeks before to haul a dog for someone else, and the dog had peed and pooped in it big time! I had tossed it over there to wash it later, forgot about it. meantime there had been a couple rains and it had rained into it.
I'm going to tell you, 20+ years as a pet groomer, including cats, and I'd sure not want to have seen that thing come through my shop door! I'd have probably refused it! We burst out laughing so hard we couldn't even talk. I opened the crate door and the cat was off like a shot, headed home!
My sister dryly observed, "I bet it doesn't come back THIS time!"
And she was right! I would see it wandering the owners yard and other yards, but it never again to best of my knowledge set paw on my place again!
I'll start.
A few years ago, my sister who was staying here and I had an annoying problem with a neighbor's big thick coated beautiful Himalayan cat. Now this cat wasn't preying on chickens or anything, but it started hanging out over here, and keeping my old 16 yr old cat and my sister's old 18 yr old cat intimidated when they were outside (didn't have such a predator problem killing cats here back then), kept them run off their food and water on the porch, bullied the two old girls until they either hid or stayed inside most the time. In addition, it was one of these overly freindly pushy annoying demanding cats that persists in wrapping itself around your legs everytime you walk outside, squalling for food, tripping you, and trying to dash into the house every time a door opens. My sister, a cancer patient, was very frail by then, and all she needed was a stupid cat tripping her , making her fall and break a bone or something.
I had told the neighbor the problem and asked them to please keep the cat home, to no avail, to the usual, oh he's so sweet, he'd not hurt anything! And the cat just kept coming. We'd tried water pistols filled with stinky, throwing things at him, swatting him with newpapers, all we were doing was teaching him to hide and jump out when he caught us off guard, with no 'weapon' in hand.
One night we came in very late after all day in Houston for my sister's dr appointments and chemo treatments, and I had a pile of groceries to carry in out of the car to boot, and here's that darned cat, wrapping itself around my legs and squaling that it was hungry and trying to dash in the door everytime i opened it.
Noticing one of my vari-kennels over by the shed, I grabbed that cat up, went over and threw it in and locked the door. It squaled like it was being killed. I went on and finished up and we went to bed, I'd deal with the cat in the morning, tell the owner I'd had it with this nonsense. I didn't let it out that night because our cats were hungry,(it had eatern all their food, of course) and we had to feed them.
Next morning, i walk out to that crate, and all i could say over and over was OMG! OMG!
My sister came running, asking whats wrong, but stopped short and just stared, speechless.
Seems I had forgotten about that crate, I had used it several weeks before to haul a dog for someone else, and the dog had peed and pooped in it big time! I had tossed it over there to wash it later, forgot about it. meantime there had been a couple rains and it had rained into it.
I'm going to tell you, 20+ years as a pet groomer, including cats, and I'd sure not want to have seen that thing come through my shop door! I'd have probably refused it! We burst out laughing so hard we couldn't even talk. I opened the crate door and the cat was off like a shot, headed home!
My sister dryly observed, "I bet it doesn't come back THIS time!"
And she was right! I would see it wandering the owners yard and other yards, but it never again to best of my knowledge set paw on my place again!