i completely understand you're compassion for the bird but really a cat is still a wild animal and is doing what comes naturallly. forcing your cats mouth open could cause serious injury so don't do it. it's unpleasant to watch a cat kill but its nature

No, I'm really not.
No, I'm not that keen on them either. I prefer wild animals.

They kill things and crap as well. Although I admit you probably don't get that many in the suburbs.

Pick the cat up holding it with its legs dangling, then blow several times on the back of its head, works every time.

I hope you don't take offence at this, but people like you are what makes me scared of letting my cat out at night.

I can't understand how people can hate an animal for doing what comes natural to them.

I really don't like dogs, I hate a lot of what they do, but I wouldn't wish harm on them like you do with cats.

Neutering them works wonders though

If you live near me, that could only be a good thing.

Where did I say that? I think it's a great idea that they have in Australia but it will never be put into practice here because of our gun laws.

I know you don't like what I am saying, and I don't mean to upset you or provoke you but I prefer to have my nice, well kept, well stocked garden just as it is, and be safe for my children to play in. My neighbours who are cat-owners don't care about the damage their cats cause, they won't clean up their mess and they won't replace the plants that are destroyed. This is why I get so mad. Their cats are costing me time and money and they don't give a toss. I may feel better about cats if their owners were more responsible. The ones in my street, I mean, not you.

I guess it's because you can't prove it is their cat which is doing it. If someone came knocking on my door demanding I give them money for some plants my cat supposedly destroyed I'd tell them where to go.

I can understand what you are saying, but it's just one of those things you have to live with. I don't like it when bird's sh*t all over my washing and car, I don't like it when I step in dog crap, I don't it when flies come into my house etc etc.

They are just animals, they don't do it to annoy you.

I know, and you're quite right. I hate dogs and irresponsible dog owners too!

But I know which cat it is sometimes as I am often armed with my camera trying to catch the wren that is nesting in the wall or the blackbirds feeding their babies or the frogs in one of my ponds or the buzzards flying overhead. I frequently catch one of the cats 'in action' so I have photographic proof. Still the owners don't care.

I can understand your frustration, but what do you want them to do though? The owners that is.

Firstly, I'd like them to acknowledge my irritation. Secondly, I'd like those owners whose cats have destroyed my property to offer to replace it or pay for me to replace it myself.

These neighbours are very quick to complain if one of my daughters is making too much noise, or when doing chalk drawings on the pavement, happens to draw a little bit further than the path outside our house and go on to the path outside their house. It's frigging chalk! It washes away with water!

Hmm ... maybe it's not just the fact that they're cat owners, maybe it's because they're all just basically ***** that they get on my wick.

Your neighbours sound like tw*ts to be fair.

I've never had any complaints off the neighbours about my cat, we do have a lot of cats in our neighbourhood anyway though. The ones that come in our garden don't cause any hassle really, they try to catch our goldfish, but has so far failed

My own cat seems to have given up by now. He's pretty crap at hunting actually, he's only ever managed to catch about 1 mouse that I know of and that was probably diseased anyway because he didn't seem keen on eating it.

I suppose you just have to put up with it, short of killing the cats (which I do not advise!) there is nothing much you can do.

I've trained my cat to shit in as many gardens as possible.

Pfft! I was going to put your name down on that kiss arsey thread but I won't now!

My cats aren't allowed out - not my fault if the stupid bird flew down the chimney!

Yeah, so does cat shit.

Could I just add, for those that think cats are cruel, killing machines that like nothing better than to destroy the local wildlife, this is absolutely not the case ~ even though it appears to us mere humans that this is what cats do!

Cats have evolved as small solitary predators ~ they have to learn predatory skills at a very young age because if they don't, they'll die. They have no pack or "family" to feed them & have to rely solely on their own efforts to find enough food to survive. This evolutionary process has been going on for hundreds of thousands of years so the innate predatory behaviour is completely ingrained & cats are biologically hard-wired to practice their predatory skills ~ they have no choice in this & can't help themselves.

Only a few thousand years ago along come human beings the process of domestication starts (& is still ongoing with cats). Nowadays our pet cats have all they want to eat from tins, sachets, packets etc. There is no reason for them to kill so much as a moth BUT they still do, because the hard-wired predatory behaviours are still deeply ingrained & automatic ~ they can't help themselves.

Research on feral cats showed that you can present the cats with highly palatable & nutritious plates of salmon & the cats will happily tuck in. The researchers then let a load of rats loose into the cats' area & the vast majority of these cats stopped eating, killed a rat, & then went back to the salmon! The neurological processes that control predatory behaviour & consummatory behaviour are separate. Cats will still kill even when they are not hungry. This is because in the past they did not know when their next meal would be so had to keep killing "just in case".

You can see exactly the same behaviour in other large solitary members of the feline family, such as leopards. The BBC footage from Big Cat Family showe a leopard hiding in the undergrowth at a river crossing waiting for wildebeest to cross. Bearing in mind the huge danger that a wildebeest poses to a leopard (one well-aimed kick would easily kill a leopard) and that a wildebeest provides several days food for a leopard & its cubs, you would expect the leopard to makes its kill & feel lucky that it has a large carcass to take back to the cubs, without getting injured or killed. What the leopard actually does in this film is to pull down a wildebeest & kill it. In the meantime the rest of the herd continue crossing the river & the leopard only goes back for another wildebeest!!

Again, it shows just how ingrained predatory behaviour is in solitary-hunting felines ~ they are so highly motivated by the sight of prey that they can't help but react to it.

So the next time anyone thinks that cats are "cruel" or "enjoy" killing or do it "just for fun", remember, they can't help themselves ~ it is hundreds of thousands of years of evolution that has shaped this behaviour & a few decades of being fed by humans ain't gonna change it!!

Course it does.

It also stinks to high heaven and is full of germs.

Like chalk.

Oh, no ............ perhaps not.

I know all that. Still doesn't stop me detesting them and their owners though.

Like your daughter then?

I think this is getting a bit personal and heated- cold bucket of water anyone?

I dont think that you'll do any damage i have to regularly removed some dead or alive animal from my cat Bean's mouth otherwise i come down stairs to blood and feathers- its happened!