OT - but I found it funny

"dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I fell about laughing this morning. The cat food is placed
in bowls in the utility room, and the outside door of the
utility is kept open during the

day

Quoted message said:

as the cats have free access to the outside, and are free-
fed, as that way

it

Quoted message said:

stops a certain one-eyed black-furred ladycat from
stuffing herself full

in one

Quoted message said:

go and promptly throwing up.

Anyhow, this morning I wandered into the kitchen and could
not believe

what I

Quoted message said:

was seeing in the utility room, via the glass door to it.
There, perched

on the

Quoted message said:

side of Waffles's food dish, stuffing its face with Royal
Canin dry

catfood

Quoted message said:

was... a robin! It then hopped over to Waffles's water
dish and took a

drink!

Quoted message said:

Why do I not have a digital camera with me at all times!!!

Methinks this robin is taking liberties when it is
actually coming into

the

Quoted message said:

house to pinch food from the cat bowls ;-)

Our local birds shy away when the cats look on through the
glass walls of the conservatory at them feeding in the
garden, so your robin must have been brave or stupid!

--
Simon M.

"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message news:20040624130744.04845.00000345@mb-
m24.aol.com...

Quoted message said:

I fell about laughing this morning. The cat food is
placed in bowls in

the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

utility room, and the outside door of the utility is
kept open during

the

Quoted message said:

day

Quoted message said:

as the cats have free access to the outside, and are free-
fed, as that

way

Quoted message said:

it

Quoted message said:

stops a certain one-eyed black-furred ladycat from
stuffing herself

full

Quoted message said:

in one

Quoted message said:

go and promptly throwing up.

Anyhow, this morning I wandered into the kitchen and
could not believe

what I

Quoted message said:

was seeing in the utility room, via the glass door to
it. There,

perched

Quoted message said:

on the

Quoted message said:

side of Waffles's food dish, stuffing its face with
Royal Canin dry

catfood

Quoted message said:

was... a robin! It then hopped over to Waffles's water
dish and took a

drink!

Quoted message said:

Why do I not have a digital camera with me at all
times!!!

Methinks this robin is taking liberties when it is
actually coming into

the

Quoted message said:

house to pinch food from the cat bowls ;-)

Our local birds shy away when the cats look on through
the glass walls

of

Quoted message said:

the conservatory at them feeding in the garden, so your
robin must have

been

Quoted message said:

brave or stupid!

--
Simon M.

Robins can be particularly bold birds and will appraoch
quite close when you dig over the garden so as to catch any
worms. More especially if you're on "their territory". You'd
imagine they'd be vulnerable to cats being ground feeders
but when we kept a cat the only kills were sparrows and the
odd starling. But thankfully never any "friendly" robins.
All brought to the back door for our inspection.

Curious

dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers said:

Anyhow, this morning I wandered into the kitchen and could
not believe what I was seeing in the utility room, via the
glass door to it. There, perched on the side of Waffles's
food dish, stuffing its face with Royal Canin dry catfood
was... a robin! It then hopped over to Waffles's water dish
and took a drink!

Why do I not have a digital camera with me at all times!!!

If you'd had one it wouldn't have been there. Golden rule of
photography!

Quoted message said:

Methinks this robin is taking liberties when it is actually
coming into the house to pinch food from the cat bowls ;-)

Robins are bold little fellas and if the cats were absent
wouldn't think twice about nabbing some free grub.

The GF's parents have a blackbird that regularly pops into
the kitchen for some cheese. Wensleydale is a favourite
apparently.

Anyway, must go, England's just scored...

Frink

--
Doctor J. Frink : 'Rampant Ribald Ringtail' See his mind
here : cmp.liv.ac.ukfrinkOpen ↗ Annoy his mind here :
pjf at cmp dot liv dot ack dot ook "No sir, I didn't like
it!" - Mr Horse

Dr Curious [email hidden] opined the following...

Quoted message said:

Robins can be particularly bold birds and will appraoch
quite close when you dig over the garden so as to catch
any worms. More especially if you're on "their territory".
You'd imagine they'd be vulnerable to cats being ground
feeders but when we kept a cat the only kills were
sparrows and the odd starling. But thankfully never any
"friendly" robins. All brought to the back door for our
inspection.

However, their territorial attitude can also be their
downfall. They tend to keep going back to the same place.
Our cat once brought the same robin home three times (We
watched as it gradually lost tailfeathers!). We managed to
revive it twice (Shoebox, tissue paper, bird seed!) but the
third time she'd managed to kill it. Testament to the cat's
ability to keep the thing alive, but she must have been
going back where she'd caught it and just opening her mouth.

Ah well. Survival of the fittest an' all!

Jon

Quoted message said:

Our local birds shy away when the cats look on through the
glass walls of the conservatory at them feeding in the
garden, so your robin must have been brave or stupid!

Our local birds effectively taunt my three (who all have
collars with bells on and rarely get birds, preferring
shrews, mice, voles, the odd rat or rabbit). In the winter I
have bird feeding stations dangling off the hanging basket
supports at the front of the house. The birds seem to *know*
the cats can't get at them from behind glass - and will land
on a feeder literally inches from the cats' noses - albeit
the cats' noses are behind a closed window. Keeps the cats
amused for hours.

Cheers, helen s

--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam-- to get
correct one remove fame & fortune
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--Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel
is switched off--

Jon Senior said:

However, their territorial attitude can also be their
downfall. They tend to keep going back to the same place.
Our cat once brought the same robin home three times (We
watched as it gradually lost tailfeathers!). We managed
to revive it twice (Shoebox, tissue paper, bird seed!)
but the third time she'd managed to kill it. Testament to
the cat's ability to keep the thing alive, but she must
have been going back where she'd caught it and just
opening her mouth.

No - she probably jumped on top of it.

Quoted message said:

Ah well. Survival of the fittest an' all!

Not so sure that applies here. If you stopped feeding your
cat, and we reintroduced wolves, then it might be a level
playing field.

AC

"Jon Senior" <jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOTco_DOT_uk> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Dr Curious [email hidden] opined the following...

Quoted message said:

Robins can be particularly bold birds and will appraoch
quite close when you dig over the garden so as to catch
any worms. More especially if you're on "their
territory". You'd imagine they'd be vulnerable to

cats

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

being ground feeders but when we kept a cat the only
kills were

sparrows

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

and the odd starling. But thankfully never any
"friendly" robins. All brought to the back door for our
inspection.

However, their territorial attitude can also be their
downfall. They tend to keep going back to the same place.
Our cat once brought the same robin home three times (We
watched as it gradually lost tailfeathers!). We managed
to revive it twice (Shoebox, tissue paper, bird seed!)
but the third time she'd managed to kill it. Testament to
the cat's ability to keep the thing alive, but she must
have been going back where she'd caught it and just
opening her mouth.

That's certainly a deadly combination as the cat will be
fixated too. At least once it finds a robin. Ours was maybe
just getting on a bit at 15ish. But since she died last
year there have been noticeably more birds in the garden, a
whole family of robins, blue [censored] etc. There have always
been nestboxes and feeders but the birds weren't so
noticeable. Its a problem choosing between the two because
cats can be real characters and otherwise do make good
pets. IIRR according to one source (The Pan Book of Cats?)
if a cat is raised by a non birding mother it won't hunt
birds itself either. This so called "instinct" apparently
needs to be taught.

Curious

Quoted message said:

Ah well. Survival of the fittest an' all!

Jon

Quoted message said:

The GF's parents have a blackbird that regularly pops into
the kitchen for some cheese. Wensleydale is a favourite
apparently.

Many years ago, back in the days of the pre-industrial
revolution, when I were a young lass, at home we had a
thrush that recognised when the back door was opened it was
a cue for it to hop down and be fed raisins and sultanas. It
never actually came in, but hopped around just outside. It
would take food from my mum - only inches from her hand.

Cheers, helen s

--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam-- to get
correct one remove fame & fortune
h*$el*$$e*nd**$o$ts**i*$*$m*m$o*n*s@$*a$o*l.c**$om$

--Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel
is switched off--

Dr Curious [email hidden] opined the following...

Quoted message said:

That's certainly a deadly combination as the cat will be
fixated too. At least once it finds a robin. Ours was
maybe just getting on a bit at 15ish. But since she died
last year there have been noticeably more birds in the
garden, a whole family of robins, blue [censored] etc. There
have always been nestboxes and feeders but the birds
weren't so noticeable. Its a problem choosing between the
two because cats can be real characters and otherwise do
make good pets. IIRR according to one source (The Pan Book
of Cats?) if a cat is raised by a non birding mother it
won't hunt birds itself either. This so called "instinct"
apparently needs to be taught.

Our cat was taught by its mother. The particular inventive
owners built a "run" in the garden with a connection to the
catflap for the house and another one which only opened for
the mother (Collar-mounted magnet). The mother consequently
brought small animals home and taught her kittens to hunt.
When she reached hunting age, our cat was responsible for
regular decimation of the local wildlife (Or those too
stupid to get away!). Her crowning achievements include
taking a sparrow out of the air from a standing jump. The
live moorhen that she not only caught, but brought through
the catflap. And the time when she spent 2 minutes half in,
half out of the catflap before shooting out. She returned
about 10 seconds later with a shrew.

She's calmed down a bit in her old age (About 16 now IIRC)
but is still a better hunter than the adopted thing which
we've acquired. His speciality is bringing in animals that
other cats have caught. And his crowning achievement was the
flat pigeon with tyre marks on its back. He was really proud
of himself aswell!

Jon

"Jon Senior" <jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOTco_DOT_uk> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Dr Curious [email hidden] opined the following...

Quoted message said:

That's certainly a deadly combination as the cat will be
fixated too. At least once it finds a robin. Ours was
maybe just getting on a bit at 15ish. But since she died
last year there have been noticeably more

birds

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

in the garden, a whole family of robins, blue [censored] etc.
There have

always

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

been nestboxes and feeders but the birds weren't so
noticeable. Its a

problem

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

choosing between the two because cats can be real
characters and

otherwise

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

do make good pets. IIRR according to one source (The Pan
Book of Cats?)

if

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

a cat is raised by a non birding mother it won't hunt
birds itself

either.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

This so called "instinct" apparently needs to be taught.

Our cat was taught by its mother. The particular inventive
owners built a "run" in the garden with a connection to
the catflap for the house and another one which only
opened for the mother (Collar-mounted magnet). The mother
consequently brought small animals home and taught her
kittens to hunt. When she reached hunting age, our cat was
responsible for regular decimation of the local wildlife
(Or those too stupid to get away!). Her crowning
achievements include taking a sparrow out of the air from
a standing jump. The live moorhen that she not only
caught, but brought through the catflap. And the time when
she spent 2 minutes half in, half out of the catflap
before shooting out. She returned about 10 seconds later
with a shrew.

She's calmed down a bit in her old age (About 16 now IIRC)
but is still a better hunter than the adopted thing which
we've acquired. His speciality is bringing in animals that
other cats have caught. And his crowning achievement was
the flat pigeon with tyre marks on its back. He was really
proud of himself aswell!

Jon

Both real characters by the sound of things, and a
nice story.

Cheers.

Curious

That is very cheeky. My cats left a mouse where I could stand on it (in bare feet) the other day - that resulted in lots of girly squeeking and demands that OH dealt with it.

RE. Thrush. A friend of mine adopted an injured thrush years ago and it lived happily with them for a long while just flying around the house and occaisionally going outside. On one occaision he got his foot caught in the toaster (dont ask) and had to go to the vet. A few days later she was getting petrol when a (rather naive collegue) yelled across the forecourt "hiya - how's your thrush?"!!

Dr Curious [email hidden] opined the following...

Quoted message said:

"Jon Senior" <jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOTco_DOT_uk> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Dr Curious [email hidden] opined the
following...

Quoted message said:

That's certainly a deadly combination as the cat will
be fixated too. At least once it finds a robin. Ours
was maybe just getting on a bit at 15ish. But since
she died last year there have been noticeably more

birds

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

in the garden, a whole family of robins, blue [censored]
etc. There have

always

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

been nestboxes and feeders but the birds weren't so
noticeable. Its a

problem

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

choosing between the two because cats can be real
characters and

otherwise

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

do make good pets. IIRR according to one source (The
Pan Book of Cats?)

if

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

a cat is raised by a non birding mother it won't hunt
birds itself

either.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

This so called "instinct" apparently needs to be
taught.

Our cat was taught by its mother. The particular
inventive owners built a "run" in the garden with a
connection to the catflap for the house and another one
which only opened for the mother (Collar-mounted
magnet). The mother consequently brought small animals
home and taught her kittens to hunt. When she reached
hunting age, our cat was responsible for regular
decimation of the local wildlife (Or those too stupid to
get away!). Her crowning achievements include taking a
sparrow out of the air from a standing jump. The live
moorhen that she not only caught, but brought through
the catflap. And the time when she spent 2 minutes half
in, half out of the catflap before shooting out. She
returned about 10 seconds later with a shrew.

She's calmed down a bit in her old age (About 16 now
IIRC) but is still a better hunter than the adopted
thing which we've acquired. His speciality is bringing
in animals that other cats have caught. And his crowning
achievement was the flat pigeon with tyre marks on its
back. He was really proud of himself aswell!

Jon

Both real characters by the sound of things, and a
nice story.

Great cats. Sadly they live with my parents which is 350
miles south of
me. And a second floor flat opening onto an A road is no
place for a cat. One day I'll get back out into the
countryside and own my own small, cute predator.

The latter of the two is a real hopeless case. We adopted
him (Or was it the other way around) because he was the only
cat that Suki (The original) would tolerate in the garden.
He's terrified of nearly everything, and once went rigid in
my friend's arms, ears folded back and a fixed stare into
the middle distance. He is fat, and can't corner so his back
legs tend to swing out when he tries to run around the
house! Our neighbour at the time suggested that we call him
Rover and the name stuck. It just adds to the image really.
Oh yeah, when you pick him (He prefers to be held upside-
down!) he purrs so much that he salivates and has to swallow
continuously to prevent himself from dribbling (He
frequently forgets and just dribbles onto your lap). All in
he is the most sorry excuse for a cat I've ever seen and
compared to Suki who looks like the one of the Egyptian cat
statues, he barely even counts as feline.

<Sniff> I miss them now. I want a cat!

Jon

On 24 Jun 2004 23:07:47 GMT, Mark Thompson
<[email hidden]> wrote (more or less):

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I'd still like to see wolves reintroduced here. We have
any number of charities dedicated to persuading other
people to live with tigers, elephants and rhinos - so it
only seems fair.

Some idiot farmer reintroduced boars around -I think-
Ashford in Kent by virtue of not keeping his fences up to
scratch. They've now spread all over the country.

I've always thought some looney should do it deliberately
with wolves. Apart from the odd child that goes missing it
would be rather fun - would certainly make it a lot more
exciting for the local hunt and maybe give the foxes a bit
of a break.

There's a fair amount of discussion about doing precisely
that in Scotland.

--
Cheers, Euan Gawnsoft: gawnsoft.co.srgawnsoft.co.srOpen ↗
Symbian/Epoc wiki: html.dnsalias.nethtml.dnsalias.netOpen ↗ Smalltalk
links (harvested from comp.lang.smalltalk)
html.dnsalias.netsmalltalkOpen ↗

anonymous coward <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Not so sure that applies here. If you stopped feeding your
cat, and we reintroduced wolves, then it might be a level
playing field.

Eventually, when the cat population had thinned somewhat.
Because of domestication there's currently too much
competition within each cat's territory for them to be able
to live just by hunting.

--
Dave...

Jon Senior <jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOTco_DOT_uk> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Our cat was taught by its mother. The particular inventive
owners built a "run" in the garden with a connection to
the catflap for the house and another one which only
opened for the mother (Collar-mounted magnet). The mother
consequently brought small animals home and taught her
kittens to hunt. When she reached hunting age, our cat was
responsible for regular decimation of the local wildlife
(Or those too stupid to get away!). Her crowning
achievements include taking a sparrow out of the air from
a standing jump. The live moorhen that she not only
caught, but brought through the catflap. And the time when
she spent 2 minutes half in, half out of the catflap
before shooting out. She returned about 10 seconds later
with a shrew.

The late Muffin (totally black and very sleek) once took a
racing pigeon that alighted for a moment on top of a 6 foot
fence. We were able to return it, albeit with a slightly
punctured lung, to its owner as it had its telephone number
printed on the underside of its wing. Muffin was absolutely
deadly in the air, and if you threw a cat toy in his general
direction he would leap prodigiously and fist it away like a
goalkeeper. He was also an accomplished thief, once removing
the filling from a Victoria sponge cake without disturbing
the top layer. He also stole and devoured a large piece of
frozen cod, only being detected when the shredded but
completely clean wrapper was found under the sofa several
days later.

We're currently plagued by squirrels and although Felix
chases them spiritedly they're not too concerned about him.
When we briefly had Melissa the Maine Coon, however, no
squirrel would come near the garden.

--
Dave...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I've always thought some looney should do it deliberately
with wolves. Apart from the odd child that goes missing it
would be rather fun - would certainly make it a lot more
exciting for the local hunt and maybe give the foxes a bit
of a break.

There's a fair amount of discussion about doing precisely
that in Scotland.

A genius idea. Once the wolves follow the example of foxes
and move into the city it'll solve the problem of youths
congregating on street corners etc at night.

Quoted message said:

I had a cat who would quite happily lie across my
shoulders, but I somehow resisted the temptation to take
him out riding with me.

Took the rat out for a ride once. It spent the whole time
sitting on the handlebars leaning as far forward into the
wind as possible.

On 25/6/04 3:35 pm, in article
[email hidden], "Simon Brooke"

Quoted message said:

There are no documented cases of uninjured wolves
attacking people, either in North America or in Europe, in
the past hundred years. There's a lot of misinformation,
prejudice and myth, certainly.

There is a documented case of wolves stealing the hunters'
lunch though.

Norway had a very controversial cull a few years ago and
whilst the hunters were hunting the wolves broke into their
camp and ate their lunch.

..d

"Dr Curious" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"BrianW" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:2k11pkF14uacdU1@uni-
berlin.de...

Quoted message said:

BTW What on earth has this to do with cycling? Except in
the sense that cycling is green. OK I know you said it
was OT. Tried rec.birds - or

even

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

alt.pets.cats?

Brian

As you're posting in Outlook Express if you go to the
Outlook Express Main Window

on the Tools Menu Choose Message Rules Choose News Choose
New Rule Choose "Where the subject line contains specific
words" double click on the blue underlined "contains
specific words" in the bottom panel enter "OT" in top
panel of the box which then appears tick to delete it
click ADD, OK and OK again And I won't add - "what could
be simpler ?"

and you never ever need be troubled by flagged OT messages
ever again

Curious

Oh dear. Some people have no sense of humour.

Brian