Keep your pets at home

Ruffed grouse are killed in winter by cats sneaking around houses.

The cat tracks came creeping around my back steps. Mourning doves often roost on my deck at night, and 30 feet away was a pile of bloody feathers in pristine snow where a stray had feline had killed a dove during the night.

Wild running cats and dogs spell trouble for winter wildlife, and the animals do what often comes natural to them. It’s in the nature of cats, and some dogs, to kill anything they can catch. A similar thing happened one day last week.

The day was brilliant with strong sunlight reflecting off the snow, and when I went out for the paper, cottontail rabbit tracks were everywhere in front of and behind the house.

A brief walk turns up a winter casualty.

The rabbits had been active. I donned some boots, and forgot about my shotgun and blaze orange, and just went for a short walk.

It was to see how many bunnies were living near the house and in nearby brush piles. One rabbit can make plenty of tracks at night, and I knew there were at least two bunnies nearby. I've seen them outside after dark as they scamper around looking for food.

It appeared there were four cottontails. Two were the adults I'd seen on many occasions, and the other two made smaller tracks. Perhaps the smaller two were from the most recent litter.

They weaved in and out of nearby brush piles left from the last timber cutting, wandered through downed tree-tops, and there were many tracks where we feed deer. They've nibbled a bit on the old dead clover, and there were two deer tracks as well. One was an adult, most likely an adult doe, and the other was a fawn.

We often see cottontail rabbits where sunflower seeds are knocked from the feeder. The bunnies don't mind sniffing through the seeds for some that are still intact.

My short little walk wasn't much over 150 yards, and in one spot was the unmistakable sign of the death of a young rabbit. The animal had made a serious mistake by moving into the open and away from nearby brush and heavy ground cover, and nature’s story was painted on the white snow.

A few drops of blood on the snow spelled the demise of a cottontail.

An owl had swooped down from the sky during the night, gliding in on hushed wings, and a few spots of blood on the snow showed where the bird had run his talons through the cottontail. There were faint signs of wing-tip  feathers dusting the snow as the bird grabbed the young bunny and flew away with his nightly dinner.

Avian predators are a major concern for wildlife. We often see hawks  take songbirds and ruffed grouse during the day, and if they hit a grouse, nothing is left behind but a pile of russet feathers drifting on the breeze.

We've had cottontails around as long as we've lived here. They stay in the shrubs, venture out after dark to feed, and we see signs of their presence as they chew on ornamental bushes and shrubs.

Cats are silent predators, and they prey heavily on songbirds and grouse when the snow is deep. There's no telling where these cats come from, but if we see a strange car or truck, we will probably find cat tracks later.

People who no longer want these critters turn them loose in someone else's neighborhood, and then we must deal with the problem. Today, there was one lone dog track behind my house, and one pooch often meets a sad fate when it encounters one or two hungry coyotes.

These large predators will kill every dog or cat they catch. Cats occasionally escape by climbing a tree, but coyotes are brazen animals. They've been known to pluck a small cat or dog off the back porch.

Rather than take unwanted cats to the Humane Society and let them deal with the problem, people dump them. They feel sorry for the cat, and often these animals slowly die of starvation or provide a nourishing snack for a drifting coyote.

Cats are born killers, and I don’t want or need discarded felines.

A cat is a killing machine, and often kill for the sake of killing. People should keep pet cats and dogs inside at night where they belong or in a kennel. Too often they lack the guts to accept this responsibility, or are unwilling to take them to the pound. Those of us who live beyond city lights do not deserve these canine or feline discards on our property.

Unwanted cats are destructive during winter months. I frighten them away, but many people either set live traps or kill the cats on sight. Cats may be pets, but they belong indoors or under human control at all times.

Those left to roam at night often disappear. Although I don't agree with the Three S's doctrine (shoot, shovel and shut up), I can easily understand why some landowners treat every free-roaming cat with suspicion and a quick death.

Those that appear to be hunting game or song birds are summarily dispatched. This can be cause for a citation, a fine and perhaps a jail sentence, but no one I know wants free-roaming cats in their neighborhood.

Free-roaming dogs often attack deer in deep snow, and many think that turning Fido out for the night is the right thing to do. Two, three or four dogs, turned out by their masters at night, form a pack, and will chase and kill deer.

The place for pet cats and dogs is inside the house or locked in a kennel where they belong at all times unless they are hunting dogs. They need to be under human control even when outside. Free-roaming animals are pests, and it's up to pet owners to control their animals at all times or others may do the job for them.

Sad words but many people don’t pay attention to their critters. All too often someone else chooses to solve the problem for them. It may not be right or legal, but there it is.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors