domestic animals

CAT POPULATION

/ janpriddyoregon / 5 Comments

I was reading an upbeat story about a species of dove native to a Pacific island that had become extinct in the wild since 1972 due to human activity and human-introduced species. Cats are often cited as the cause of the birds’ extinction, but the real damage to the birds’ survival had been domestic sheep that destroyed their habitat, explained a scientist with Mexico’s Institute of Ecology who is leading habitat restoration efforts on the island. The cats merely finished off an already decimated population. What is missing may be another cause, too often ignored: human-introduced rats.

“I hear you have an opening?” Leakey invited herself into our home a couple of weeks after Zora Neale Hurston Cougar Cat, “Zora,” died at age 19. It was January and we learned that Leakey with two other cats had been dumped the previous late summer. There had been sitings, but the cats were shy. My theory was that the cats had managed well enough, feasting on wild rodents until winter when the chipmunks were estivating. By the time she showed up at our door, Leakey was starving, weighing less than half what she should. She quickly put on weight with us, but never lost the habit of hunting. Leakey had a small meow and a loud purr and developed a love/hate relationship with our Saluki, Yeti. She was gentle and sweet-tempered but also had the longest and sharpest claws I have ever seen on a domestic cat. Rodents were her prey of choice and like Zora before her, she often ate her catch, but not the rats laid out for Gary to dispose of. [I did try to coax the other abandoned cats to join the family, but no. Only Leakey.]
Continue reading →