Washingtonians

[Ogress]

Quote:
Yeah, you are right and I know this. I usually stay outside most of the time.
And I figured out why I more of a problem this year than ever before.
The people who used to live behind us moved. They had dogs and so not many predators came through there.
Now I am pretty sure that both times the Bobcat came through, it was through their yard and into our yard.
It was a truly beautiful animal, and I wouldn't want to shoot it.
But I would want to be able to scare it away at the very least.
It was interesting though, when I scared it enough to drop the chicken, he/she went into the pasture and sat there watching me watching it.
It layed down in the grass and it was hard to see if you didn't know where it was.
I know it was waiting for us to go away so it could come back and get another opportunity for dinner.
My DH went in and got his pistol and shot at it, to scare it totally of for the time being.
I am going to put TP out in my shed so I can just pee outside.
Our yard is private and I don't have an issue with using the outdoors.
it's just hard because I have never had a problem before this year.
It just makes me sad.

I wonder, if you borrowed a dog who was good at "marking" territory -- or likewise an unaltered male cat ...

I had a half-bobcat for awhile --- even though he was neutered, he was very good at marking and spraying

kept all other cats away

bobcat may not infringe on territory marked by someone else --- but not sure human marking would dissuade ...

I don't think that will work. I had a bobcat take a hen a couple months ago. When I am in my yard, my dogs are out with the chickens and me, and they all follow me around. When the chickens free-range (basically 8 am to pm this time of year), and I can't be out with them, I put my dogs in a large run in the center of the yard. The dogs also get an hour or more to run around free in the yard both in the morning and the evening once the chickens are locked up. They wander everywhere, sniffing, marking, and gobbling up all the chicken poop. About 1.5 acres of my yard is surrounded by 6' chainlink, the dogs are in the middles, and the chickens free - range all around them in the day time. I have never lost a chicken while the dogs are in their run. I took both dogs in for a couple hours to bathe them, and I lost a hen to a babcatin that short time. I bet they sit in the bushes and trees on the other side of the chainlink and watch for an opportunity. We spot them fairly frequently out here - they are beautiful, well fed and not very afraid of humans.

 

[Ogress]

Quote:
Yeah, you are right and I know this. I usually stay outside most of the time.
And I figured out why I more of a problem this year than ever before.
The people who used to live behind us moved. They had dogs and so not many predators came through there.
Now I am pretty sure that both times the Bobcat came through, it was through their yard and into our yard.
It was a truly beautiful animal, and I wouldn't want to shoot it.
But I would want to be able to scare it away at the very least.
It was interesting though, when I scared it enough to drop the chicken, he/she went into the pasture and sat there watching me watching it.
It layed down in the grass and it was hard to see if you didn't know where it was.
I know it was waiting for us to go away so it could come back and get another opportunity for dinner.
My DH went in and got his pistol and shot at it, to scare it totally of for the time being.
I am going to put TP out in my shed so I can just pee outside.
Our yard is private and I don't have an issue with using the outdoors.
it's just hard because I have never had a problem before this year.
It just makes me sad.

Having neighbors with dogs is a crucial point, I suspect. I know when I could let my dogs run the place (I live on a 40) we didn't lose cats to coyotes, either, but to do that we'd need to pasture fence the last bits of the boundary and keep the gates closed: there's a couple thousand more automobile trips past my place than there were ten years ago. Not that my current dogs are much use for predator discouragment, since they're old (13 and 14) and getting slower and more frail by the day. I've mentioned getting a guard llama to the committee of the whole, but the objections have been: expensive, and too stupid to distinguish between our dogs and invaders.

I know my crucial issue is that I've got blackberries and plum suckers providing cover for mammalian predators (and the former, food for and bait to rats, raccoons, and possums) but neither my husband nor I are up to clearing the mess and the money's not there to hire someone.

Sorry you lost your beautiful bird; sorry to for Tamara's dog: both losses struck close to home and switched my brain to lecture mode. My bad.

I used to own llamas - they are one of the cheapest pets to keep, way cheaper than dogs or even cats. They also are pretty smart, smarter than horses but not as smart as dogs. Unfortunately, in the North Bend area, cougars take llamas fairly regularly, so they are not the best guard animals.

This is Yasha, he was my favorite of my 3 llamas. I paid about $400 for him as a baby (my others were half that price), and because they are considerd livestock, he was cheaper than my cats to have him altered (males have internal organs, so you can't just put a rubber band around them). Yasha was a great lawnmower; he'd eat the lawn even, so the neighbors used to borrow him and tie him out when their mower was broken. Most days the llamas just grazed, we sometimes gave them a little alfalfa flake or pellets, but it wasn't really needed. They got plenty just foraging. Llamas LOVE blackberry bushes! their poop,with resembles deer poop, makes great fertilizer. Unfortunatley, kids loved Yasha too, and all the kids on the neighboring properties would feed him vegetable scraps, carrots and apples. One day a kid fed him rhodadendron leaves and he died.

 

[T Hi]

Cool Llama!!

Awesome awards CL!!!!

-------------------------------------- Does anybody know anything about a breed of cat called "Rag doll"? ----------------------------------------------

My DD loves cats but I'm a bit allergic to them and now she says that this breed is hypo-allergenic..

Boy I sure have been a needy person on the thread lately!! Sorry everybody!

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
Look up rag dolls on the internet. My experience is they look like a long haired siamese. I am not sure if they are a true breed or not...but they are super friendly and tolerable cats. But I don't know if they are hypoallergenic.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Having neighbors with dogs is a crucial point, I suspect. I know when I could let my dogs run the place (I live on a 40) we didn't lose cats to coyotes, either, but to do that we'd need to pasture fence the last bits of the boundary and keep the gates closed: there's a couple thousand more automobile trips past my place than there were ten years ago. Not that my current dogs are much use for predator discouragment, since they're old (13 and 14) and getting slower and more frail by the day. I've mentioned getting a guard llama to the committee of the whole, but the objections have been: expensive, and too stupid to distinguish between our dogs and invaders.

I know my crucial issue is that I've got blackberries and plum suckers providing cover for mammalian predators (and the former, food for and bait to rats, raccoons, and possums) but neither my husband nor I are up to clearing the mess and the money's not there to hire someone.

Sorry you lost your beautiful bird; sorry to for Tamara's dog: both losses struck close to home and switched my brain to lecture mode. My bad.

I used to own llamas - they are one of the cheapest pets to keep, way cheaper than dogs or even cats. They also are pretty smart, smarter than horses but not as smart as dogs. Unfortunately, in the North Bend area, cougars take llamas fairly regularly, so they are not the best guard animals.

This is Yasha, he was my favorite of my 3 llamas. I paid about $400 for him as a baby (my others were half that price), and because they are considerd livestock, he was cheaper than my cats to have him altered (males have internal organs, so you can't just put a rubber band around them). Yasha was a great lawnmower; he'd eat the lawn even, so the neighbors used to borrow him and tie him out when their mower was broken. Most days the llamas just grazed, we sometimes gave them a little alfalfa flake or pellets, but it wasn't really needed. They got plenty just foraging. Llamas LOVE blackberry bushes! their poop,with resembles deer poop, makes great fertilizer. Unfortunatley, kids loved Yasha too, and all the kids on the neighboring properties would feed him vegetable scraps, carrots and apples. One day a kid fed him rhodadendron leaves and he died.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/72609_yasha_001.jpg

Expense here is price of acquiring one. Cash-poor R us right now.

 

[Ogress]

Quote:

 

[Ogress]

Quote:
nope, not a Manx

bobcats have been known to breed with domestic cats -- some of those are the foundation stock behind the cats being bred as "pixie bobs" ... the breeders call the crosses "Legend Cats" since apparently no one has actually SEEN the matings, merely the offspring

(one strain of which originated right around here --- and that breeder really wanted Rug for her breeding program but he had already been neutered before he adopted us ... just showed up during a storm one night; one of our neighbors had been feeding him but quit because Rug sprayed on everything)

am sure this one was part bobcat because of his very large and muscular hind legs, his "chops", and his personality -- he walked like a wild cat (not a feral but a true wild), was intensely devoted to two of us and would not speak to anyone else (hid in the brambles when he wasn't right with us in the house) --- and his coloration was unusual, basic orange tabby BUT with aquamarine eyes --- not Siamese type blue, not white housecat type blue -- only other cat I ever saw with eyes like that was a cougar

There has now beeen genetic testing done on pixie-bobs and they contain no DNA from bobcats.

 

[Zgoatlady]

So I have a Hoss Orpington son if anyone wants him, ( remember Hoss is the English roo of RR) the son is a splash. I think I'll also have a Eglish % black roo that came from a different breeder. So just PM me

 

[Cowgirlgrace]

OK, I am donning socks and rubber boots (with shorts no less, lovely picture) and giving the horses a bath. They are going to love the attention.

 

[Zgoatlady]

Quote:
Im so sorry