McCOMB — I never have cared much for cats. I don’t hate them, but I prefer dogs as pets. My family has had a few felines over the years, and my wife keeps threatening to get a kitten, although I’m pleased to report she has so far put it off for one reason or another.
She tried to adopt a stray cat a few months ago, feeding him in a fenced area under a shed where our dog couldn’t get to him.
The cat stuck around for several days until he started gaining weight and looking better. After an encounter with our dog — in which neither was injured — the cat left. We didn’t see him again, although he was reported by a neighbor to be alive and well in the vicinity.
Of the few cats we have owned, my favorite was a small tomcat named Herman who, pound for pound, may have been the toughest being, animal or human, I’ve ever known. He killed squirrels, small rabbits and birds. He got beat up by larger cats on occasion, but it never stopped his wandering ways or aggressive nature.
Yes, I know we should have had him neutered and confined, and I promise never again to be so negligent with animals. That was a long time ago, so don’t blame me for any cat misdeeds now. Herman’s been dead for at least 30 years.
This cat musing is brought on by an article in USA Today by Elizabeth Wise citing research from the University of Georgia as finding that cats are far more destructive to wildlife than previously believed.
The researchers attached what they called a “kittycam” to some house cats to record their activity while outdoors.
They found that while only 30 percent of the roaming cats killed prey, those who did averaged two animals a week.
These included birds, lizards, snakes, frogs and small mammals.
I’m not surprised. It has long been theorized by quail hunters that country housecats are a nuisance to game.
Of course, they also catch and kill rats and mice, which is a good thing.
The article said the researchers recruited 60 owners of cats in the Athens, Ga., area. Each owner put a small video camera mounted on a collar on a cat in the morning and let the cat out, then removed the camera and downloaded the footage at night.
Aside from the description of the technology, here’s a paragraph in the article I found interesting:
“Cats aren’t just a danger to others, they’re also a danger to themselves. The cats in the study were seen engaging in such risky behavior as crossing roadways (45 percent), eating and drinking things they found (25 percent), exploring storm drains (20 percent) and entering crawl spaces where they could become trapped (20 percent). Male cats were more likely to do risky things than female cats, and older cats were more careful than younger ones.”
Those cats sound human, don’t they?
