A couple of disadvantages of a "kitty door"!

[Shawn T. W.]

Got home about noon today and got the baffle/maze set up ... Had some gusty wind this afternoon, and flaps/doors stay shut!

The kitties have gotten use to it ... Tonight after dinner I was in the living room with Swartzy & Charlie Boy, when I heard the doors flap shut, then Blazer started to meow, and meow, and MEOW, don't recall him ever doing that before, so I got up to go see what the fuss was . . . He was laying on the dining room floor with a dead mouse!

I picked it up and tossed it out on the deck, he ran out, I went out and petted him, and told him it had to stay outside ... Then I came in, he sat by his mouse ... About 5 minutes later he comes in again, but is quiet ... I go out he has the mouse inside again!

I grab it by the tail, and he swats it out of my hand! I grabbed it again and didn't open the sliding glass door very far, and flung it out off the deck to the ground 10'+ below, then I called him into the kitchen, and gave him a piece of cheese ... He has now gone back outside ...

At least the mouse was dead!

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Caught a picture of most of Charlie Boy leaving ... The cement block will be placed in front of the opening when I'm gone, to not provide a hidy hole for other critters ...

 

[JasperFrank]

Yesterday I noticed the kitty doors were flapping in the breeze, it was only about a 20 mph wind out ... It has two flaps about 4"-5" apart with a magnetic strip on the bottom ...

View attachment 4296963

I built a temporary 2' wide and tall "wall" to shield it, which didn't do much!

Today I was in eating lunch and I heard the flaps open and close, they open into the back side of my kitchen cabinets which have a door in my dining room 5' from where I was sitting ...

View attachment 4296966

Blazer came in and dropped a live chipmunk on the floor, Charlie Boy came over to investigate ... As I got up, it ran to Blazer, like the cat was gonna protect it from the human???

I grabbed it in a towel and tossed it outside on the back deck, both cats went out to "play" with it, haven't brought it back in yet, I put the shield on it, so they can't come back in, I gotta go back to trucking for a few weeks, I don't want to leave it open and come home to a family of raccoons or opossums!

View attachment 4296965

Rats love these.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Rats love these.

My cats love rats!

See previous pictures ...

 

[JasperFrank]

My cats love rats!

See previous pictures ...

So its a win-win? LOL

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I've never seen the field rats that I have around in the house, they live in the fields around me ... Cats go out there to catch them ...

The kind of rats that I've heard like to live in houses, are Norway rats ... Mush bigger than theses I'm told.

I did have a problem with mice when I 1st bought the house, and the snakes that couldn't eat them all ... I got the four kittens a little over two years ago, by the time spring came, no more mice, and I evicted the snakes!

 

[BackRoad]

Interesting timing...last night I went to bed early. Had just fallen asleep and heard my wife yelling for me.

She had let the mouser cat in...not realizing it had Rocky the Flying Squirrel in it's mouth...turns out it was still alive.

He dropped it and comedy ensued with me chasing it around the house with a broom and dustpan (first thing I could grab), it's running and leaping into the air and trying to glide. Wife was running around shutting doors to keep it in the main part of the house, and the cat was trying to recatch his dinner!

Keystone cops for about 3 minutes...but I won and out it went.

I threw it into the yard...underhand toss from the dustpan, and he spread his wings and glided off into the dark!

They're kind of like the YouTube guys in the Red Bull flying suits. They don't flap, but start high and glide to lower elevations...like an elegant, controlled free fall.

What I can't figure out is how the cat caught it, with all the natural capability of a flying squirrel to avoid capture...

 

[RSKY]

Many years ago we had a cat. I installed a kitty door that had some kind of sensor on it that was triggered by the cat's collar and would unlock when the cat went into the garage. Worked great for a couple years then some raccoons discovered that if they followed the cat and pushed thru the door before it re-locked they could stuff themselves with cat food. They could always get out, just couldn't get in without the collar on. Suddenly our cat started pooping all over the garage and when I took her to the vet they asked about what wild animals she was around and when I explained about the coons they said cats could catch some bad diseases from them. She kept getting worse and I took her back and had her put down. She was very old. But I held her as she slowly went to sleep and passed.

RSKY

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I persuade the raccoons to go elsewhere from my feeding station with electric ... I get rid of everyone I can trap, they can carry Baylisascaris which is a infection which can cause blindness and coma in humans!
Symptoms of Raccoon Roundworm

Once they get use to a food source they will try to claim and defend it as "there's" ... That's how I lost one of my cats, huge battle on top of my feeding table!

They broke one of my feeders, and unplugged two of them too! The stainless bowls were under the feeder in rings, the green water bowl was up on the table ...

Both cat and raccoon hair on the ground, my Barney gave them a fight, but my guess is there were more than one of them?

A previous time I came home and they had pooped in the water! ???

And left a mess!

And are just nasty dirty critters that need to stay away from domestic animals and humans!

That's Barney the tiger laying in the pile of his black brothers, who was killed by the raccoons! My spoiled "barn cats!"

I also get rid of any armadillo I can, as they can carry Leprosy and Sarcocystis neurona, the single-celled protozoan parasite that causes the neurological disease equine protozoal, bad news for horses!

This ain't disney where all the wild animals are cute fuzzy friends!

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Got home today and opened up the house, all three kitties came in, and then Blazer went back out, I thought that was strange, as they know when I come home I open up a can of cat food for them ... Then Blazer came back in and dropped a dead vole! I said no rodents in the house, and tossed it out and over the deck railing, then got the can of cat food ...

Tonight I was waiting for all three to be in the house at once, so I could give them there dinner can of cat food, eventually after I had dinner, I sat down in the living room, Blazer had been by me, as he knows he gets a treat when I'm cooking, but then he left ... Charlie Boy and Swartzy are on the ottoman by me, and I hear the kitty door open, and a "meow" I get up, and Blazer trots in with something it his mouth, I reach down to grab it, and he lets go a tad early, and a cardinal flys out of his mouth, he swats it back down and grabs it again, I try to grab it again, and he lets go, and it flys into the door, Charlie Boy, swats it and it hits the floor, I grab it and take it outside and toss it into the air, it flys off ... Feathers everywhere in the house!

Blazer needs to stop this nonsense!

I then fed them there canned food, they are all sleeping on the ottoman now.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

If I'm only home for the night, and I have my semi-truck ... I sleep in it ... I keep quite a lot of food and water out in it, so I like to keep it a nice temperature anyways, plus I don't need to bring in my CPAP machine, and it takes me a few nights to get use to my bed inside, I actually sleep better in the truck until about the 4th night at home, which rarely happens ...

All that said to say, I opened the house door this morning, I had three happy boys! AND a dead bird to great me!

I picked it up while saying I'm my unhappy voice, "no birds in the house"! And threw it in the trashcan ... Then proceeded to clean up the feathers, seems strange that such a little birdie could have so many feathers! It seemed to be "fully clothed" when I picked it up! It looked like some kind of sparrow ...

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Now Charlie Boy just brought in a young, but thankfully dead mouse!

 

[ponytug]

@Shawn T. W. Please forgive me for laughing, but I'd have to pry the mice/snakes/birds from our cats' cold dead paws. You just seem to be really adored to get such offerings for the lord of the house. Your cat stories are wonderful.

We almost never find remains of anything, even out and about the ranch. I did find a woodpecker skull yesterday, and I wondered if it was just too thick a skull and too hard to eat.

It sounds like you have your truck really dialed in. That's great to hear.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I've been home quite a lot lately for an over nighter ..., got home for my regular scheduled time off Friday morning ... This morning was the first time that Swartzy brought me a "treat" a vole, dead ... I did the "I'm not happy to be" and said " no critters in the house!" And tossed it in the trash! He looked at me kinda sad/confused, so I picked him up and carried him to the living room, he loves to be carried! I sat down and gave him some attention, his little motor started to idle along content ... I'm hoping they are learning about keeping there catch outside! ??? Neither of the other two cats have brought anything in since I got home Friday.

I did see on my security camera last week where one of them came up on the back deck, and went to the maze/baffle, but when I'm gone I put a cement block in front of the door, then it proceeded to toss and play with whatever it had brought up ... When I got home there was a rats head on the deck ...

Friday I added a few cement blocks to the entry way, they don't need it that big, but I may be getting bigger doggies than them, so I made it bigger ... If I have the front door open, the wind would push the double flaps open, but not with the door shut ...

 

[Torvy]

Here's a shot of our setup for the barn cats.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

My guess is the shelf is 2' off the ground?

It should stop skunks and probably opossums, but not raccoons, unless they were old and fat!

 

[Torvy]

My guess is the shelf is 2' off the ground?

It should stop skunks and probably opossums, but not raccoons, unless they were old and fat!

3 feet. Wife did some research that gave us the optimal height. Easy leap for the cats. Apparently rare for raccoons to jump up. They prefer to climb up and jump across or down.

So far, no racoons in the barn.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

That's GOOD!

Once I figured out HOW the raccoons were accessing my feeding table, by climbing up! I then shortened the mostly horizontal jump distance for my cats. (I had it up to 55" and they were doing it!)

When I built the table, I didn't figure they could climb up the center, and go upside down the 16" to get to the edge and get up, but these racoons seem to be half monkey!

My cats easily jump up to the bench, then jump across to the table, I'm sure the could go straight from the ground, but it's easier to launch from the bench I guess ...

Since I wrapped the center pedestal with hardware cloth, hooked to the earth ground, and put up 4 strands of 11,500 volts hooked to a fence charger, no more problems with raccoons stealing food in my barn ...

One end of my barn is open, I closed it off with cattle panels and barb wire to keep coyotes and stray dogs out, there is 20' open, you can just barely see part of it ... And there are gaps under the edge in spots too, so the cattle panels give the kitties a chance to get out, or in if there is trouble out there ...