Author Topic: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?  (Read 2498 times)

Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« on: 02 September, 2019, 09:14:50 pm »
Lovely partner just moved in to gaff with almost-as-lovely cat.
Gaff in rural location but fronts on to busy road.
Cat incarcerated till we get up courage to let her out to roam: there are loads of fields and paddocks to  choose from, but fear is she'll go from pretty puss to flatty puss in time.
What suggestions from the hive mind re deterrent products to dissuade kitty from calamity?

Re: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« Reply #1 on: 02 September, 2019, 09:19:46 pm »
Consider the innocent birds & animals this cat will kill.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« Reply #2 on: 02 September, 2019, 10:46:35 pm »
Depends if this cat has had access to the outdoors before and if he/she will go stir crazy if not allowed out again.
It doesn't sound like an ideal location..... but then we deliberately bought both our previous & current properties on the proviso they would be fairly cat friendly.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.


Kim

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Re: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« Reply #4 on: 02 September, 2019, 11:18:10 pm »
Dragging things back on topic, motor vehicles must be responsible for a decent proportion of bird deaths, along with all the other animals they kill and injure.

IME how much a cat cares about the outdoors will depend very much on the character of the individual cat.  If they've got enough space and stimulation, they may be perfectly happy kept indoors.  If they do want to roam, I doubt there's much you can realistically do to shape their territory, as that's mostly determined by the local cat politics.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« Reply #5 on: 03 September, 2019, 12:16:42 am »
When we had cats, a 120 foot garden backing onto fields and a road at the front, 100% of the cats went to the front and caused vet bills or horrendous grief.
It is simpler than it looks.

ian

Re: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« Reply #6 on: 03 September, 2019, 09:33:17 am »
Busy roads and cats aren't a good mix, we chose our place on the basis there are no busy, fast roads nearby and have actively discouraged them from going out the front where the road is. Some cats are more savvy about traffic than others but cars are the number one killer of felines (and just about every other form of wildlife, including cyclists).

Cats that have never been outside generally don't seem to mind, though you need to keep them occupied for the twelve minutes a day that they are awake. Once they've been outside, keeping them in is a challenge. Sometimes they can be persuaded to stay away from the roads, ours rarely venture outside of the back garden and that of our neighbour. You have to watch them, once cats have a path, they generally stick to it. Boy cats, of course, will wander further.

The cats decimating local wildlife (in Britain) makes little sense to be honest, it just limits the population and opens up opportunities. Birds don't have substantial natural predation. The same is true of cars to be honest, though it's horrible to see dead foxes and badgers, it's doing much the same (and foxes and badgers have no predators other than people).

Kim

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Re: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« Reply #7 on: 03 September, 2019, 12:05:08 pm »
*wonders what the natural predator of cars would be*

Re: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« Reply #8 on: 03 September, 2019, 12:18:01 pm »
“There is no point in using the word 'impossible' to describe something that has clearly happened.”
― Douglas Adams

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« Reply #9 on: 03 September, 2019, 12:55:59 pm »
The same is true of cars to be honest, though it's horrible to see dead foxes and badgers, it's doing much the same (and foxes and badgers have no predators other than people).

See also deer... 750 quid of repairs both times...  :sick:

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« Reply #10 on: 03 September, 2019, 03:37:30 pm »
When we had cats, a 120 foot garden backing onto fields and a road at the front, 100% of the cats went to the front and caused vet bills or horrendous grief.
Oh noes, have you lost all your kitties?
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« Reply #11 on: 03 September, 2019, 03:59:45 pm »
This was in a previous house, where two were killed and two injured, one very seriously. :(

Where we are now, the two are house cats, if we were away from busy roads we’d let them out. We stopped letting them out when my daughter came home to see a queue of traffic on our road, and Alfie sunning himself on the warm tarmac.

We still have The Terminator and The Sumo Wrestler  :thumbsup:
It is simpler than it looks.

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
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Re: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« Reply #12 on: 03 September, 2019, 04:39:32 pm »
We still have The Terminator and The Sumo Wrestler  :thumbsup:

Phew :)
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Savng feline for making A-road bee-line?
« Reply #13 on: 03 September, 2019, 09:57:08 pm »
Here is The Terminator  ;D
It is simpler than it looks.