Originally Posted by scifan57

It wanders all over the neighborhood and has no collar or licence. I have no idea who it belongs to.

Wow! Cats carry licences in Canada! Do they have to pass a test to get the licence?

The Archangel

LOL...a cat prowling around without a license!! We have that too in the States. Our animals have to pass both written and road test in order to roam the neighborhood!

Yes. They have to prove they're a cat.

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I love it, you guys are so funny!!

Believe it or not,there are leash laws for cats where I live. I actually saw a cat owner walking her cat on a leash!

Didn't one of our members have a blond moment with his cat a couple weeks ago?

The cat slipped the leash and went home without him, while he was dragging a leash around assuming there was a cat on the end of it. (Great story, Quake.)

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Yes...that was quake...walking his cat!! Good recall, Kevin!!

Originally Posted by skimonkey

That is just amazing that they are just roaming out in your backyard!! Do they mind you approaching them? They don't seem bothered at all by your presence.

?

They don't seem to care, I can now get to about 3 foot away from them, before they move away, ...I am very cautious of them just the same, have heard of them attacking people if threatened,...but I think they know they are safe, we love animals, birds etc. but will not have cats, a we have too many smaller birds building homes around our veranda , and they must be kept safe....

Re cats in the garden, we don't get many that are brave enough:-) But if we spot one (first), all we need to do is open the door, move out of the way & call out "CAT"!!!

Last summer we saw this rather shocking event take place while we watched with camera ready. There were birds on & around the feeders, then a sudden flash-by and they were all gone. On a fence a few metres away was this fellow, a sparrowhawk. (The third pic is a crop of the second.)

He sat for about 15 minutes eating what he had nabbed. We are not sure which of the birds he caught--we could see yellow & blue feathers(*)....:-(

Hard to watch. But I can--& do--accept that as the way of the animal world & it was a very, very fast death. Sparrowhawks are increasing in numbers here which indicates there must be enough prey around for them to live on, always a good sign when working for a healthier bio-diversity.

We appreciate (nearly) all animals, including cats, but as for allowing a well-fed domestic cat to hang around & grab one of "our" baby birds, that's a step too far.

EDIT (*) We picked up a few feathers from the ground after he left. Could have been a bluetit, great tit or greenfinch.
The garden was empty of birds during his stay -- they didn't return till about 10 mins afterwards.

Originally Posted by stranding

Re cats in the garden, we don't get many that are brave enough:-) But if we spot one (first), all we need to do is open the door, move out of the way & call out "CAT"!!!

Last summer we saw this rather shocking event take place while we watched with camera ready. There were birds on & around the feeders, then a sudden flash-by and they were all gone. On a fence a few metres away was this fellow, a sparrow hawk. (The third pic is a zoom-in of the second.)

He sat for about 15 minutes eating what he had nabbed. We are not sure which of the birds he caught--we could see yellow & blue feathers....:-(

Hard to watch. But I can & do accept that as the way the animal world works & it was a very, very fast death. Sparrowhawks are increasing in numbers here which indicates there must be enough prey around for them to live on, always a good sign when working for a healthier bio-diversity.

I appreciate (nearly) all animals but allowing a well-fed domestic cat to hang around & grab one of "our" baby birds is a step too far.

Poor bird, cool hawk photos though.