And so it begins.

[Dragonlady2]

I love spring...green grass, flowers and baby birds.

However, I saw my first victim this morning. A cat had caught what I presume was a bird, too big for a rodent, and was sitting in the driveway across the road with it. It wasn't moving or I would have hot-footed it over there. I know it is not their cat. Cats have been pooping in my gardens so I have been laying wild raspberry canes in the open areas. Time to get the live traps out.
I always keep a bird cage handy for any baby birds that have or are being harassed by cats and release the next morning. I am hoping I won't have to use it.

[PlaxMacaws]

That's something that bothers me a great deal, too, Helena. I can't stand the vicious brutality imposed upon innocent wild birds by neighborhood cats! It's horrific and in my view each incident is an act of pure terrorism . At times the cats fail to even eat the birds, instead leaving them to biodegrade. Such a waste and such a tragedy! Like you, I also rescue these feathered victims when it's possible. Unfortunately, I'm usually always too late. It's indeed a heart-wrenching thing

[Lady]

Geez, this is a sad topic. I can't imagine the suffering .

[Dragonlady2]

If I recall correctly, in Australia, cats are not allowed to roam freely. Free roaming/feral cats are caught and I believe euthanized. I wish we had something similar here. My problem is I feed the squirrels, birds and rabbits here and I start checking my windows to keep track of cats. I just chased one off my property. I want a big bazooka water gun so I can nail them with a blast of water. Where I used to live, it wouldn't be unusual to see me running barefoot and in my nightgown, chasing down cats who had captured baby birds. . I am sure my neighbors thought I was crazy.

[Lady]

Yes feral and stray animals can be a problem, but mankind is mostly the reason why. I surely don't agree with the suffering they can bring to their victims or if they are taking their lives for any reason but food to survive but if more people did the right thing to begin with they wouldn't be creating havoc.
We actually have quite a group of opossums which are not easily moved, they would rather play dead and just lay there, which can be okay unless they are in front of your passage to the car to go to work.

[Lady]

Well we're still waiting for spring weather. Guess we missed it because the weather is saying we will be in the 90's next week !!

[Stephen12]

It is so nice of you that you care about baby birds so much. You are definitely doing a good work by protecting them.

[Quakerella]

We have a major problem with stray cats. We live in the country and there are so many barn cats roaming around and multiplying like crazy. Not sure what can be done about it.

[Dragonlady2]

We have a major problem with stray cats. We live in the country and there are so many barn cats roaming around and multiplying like crazy. Not sure what can be done about it.

That's how we ended up with 5 cats. A wild mother cat ended up in our yard toting 4 kittens. She had three litters. Long story short, we ended up trapping the females and getting them spayed. We just couldn't afford to do all of them (males). We have the mother and a daughter in our outdoor cat condo and two of the last litter in the house along with a kitten my husband found on a back road, the mother was dead. The males left on their own and we took others to the humane society. I haven't seen too many cats roaming around here.
This morning I woke up to find a beautiful black chicken in our yard eating the seed I put out for the birds. I hope it finds its way home...I don't need an other animal to worry about. On a positive note, the weather is beautiful today.