ivyleager said:
Alice,
I see you're not a cat person?
My current Springer Spaniel won't swim in the pool. She's will, however, swim to Virginia in the lake. I'm suspecting that it has something to do with visual-depth perception. She leaves everything alone, except when hot after a big run in the woods. Then she will go to the steps and lay down in the water. Dirt, debris and all!
I tried reading "Marly and Me", but made it through 3 chapters. Can't bring myself to see the movie.
Many "water dogs" won't swim in a pool unless they are introduced properly.
Oh, I'm a cat person for sure. I adore cats. DH tolerated DD and my cats over the years. He was kind to them and loved and cared for them but would have rather not had them. I had no idea he didn't really like cats all that much until years after we lost our last two. But it is hard to have them out here unless they are inside only, which is hard to do with GIANT doggie door to the fenced courtyard (to keep dogs out of front fenced yard and snakes dusk to dawn) and industrial vinyl flaps, on back door, all day except for during the hottest or coldest part of day or when they all decide to nap inside during day. (Door always closed when we aren't here and at dusk, all night, to protect them from snake bites, dusk to dawn.)
Our upstairs is heat/cooled separte from downstairs, with a door at top of stairs and gate at bottom. We had a friend living with us, for a year, three years ago. His 19 yr old cat stayed inside all the time. And visiting cats are allowed as long as they stay upstairs and always inside. The hard and fast rule is two doors between the downstairs and the area the cats are in.
Neighbors, who don't keep cats, small dogs, and other smaller pets in, all the time lose cats to Bobcats (Lynx rufus), Coyotes, Fox, Raccoons and snakes and even Hawks, even during the day. We have an occasional Hawk fly in to our bird feeding area, even though all feeders are sheltered by overhanging trees.
Right where my house is we have three houses surrounding a small wooded open area, our "front forty", that has only a drive separating it from the protected habitat woodlands, adjoing the protected State Park. One neighbor, H and W, have early morning coffee, on their front porch, and see Bobcats and Coyotes all the time, while they are sipping coffee, in the a.m. Even though they only let their cats out during daytime hours they lost two cats over past couple of years and one about three years ago. After the last one, last summer, their oldest, their remaining cats are indoors all the time now. We have spotted fox on occasion but usually in the field, up the road, that is a "Gentleman's" Longhorn "Ranch". Before we moved here in 86, and the area was far less populated, there were reports of a puma spotted on several different occasions; probably, an escaped "pet". Years ago there were sightings of a large tan cat in a Fort Worth park. It turned out to be a Fawn English Mastiff, as I remember.
Other neighbor had four cats until past two years, all brought in at night. They lost one two summers ago, and one last summer, during the day, coyote. The one lost last year had survived an attack, somehow, the previous year, with a broken leg and hip. Their dog Chaco, pit mix, our foster child, used to stay home a lot more, and helped protect the cats during the day when they were out. Past year, since all our new doggies came, she is spending more and more time over here so the cats don't have quite as much daytime protection as before. I'm caring for their animals this weekend. I told them I was not going to let the cats out during the day.
We have several distinct coyote packs out here, as evidenced by their night time, yips, yaps and howls, near and far, and all around the protected habitats. It's not too unusual to see one, or two, during the day. Many neighbors have had mother Bobcats, make dens, around (under) their house structures, to have and protect their litters. All of our wild critters, out here, are well fed, and therefore larger and stronger than they would be in harsher environments. We never leave only one dog alone in a fenced yard; two or more. Until our newest additions of two Labradoodles and two Blue Heelers, for 24 years our smallest dogs were female Rotties.
That way they stand a better chance against a Bobcat or a Coyote pack. But we've never had any, that we know of come into our fenced areas. I see them right outside our front fenced yard, cutting through the wooded area from one neighbor's yard (cat people) to other neighbors yard (cat people) both of those yards unfenced.
In addition, I feed hundreds of birds off my deck, off my dining/kitchen area. The only way I could protect cats and birds would be to keep cats caged during day and only loose at night, only in the house and by caging the large courtyard. I don't think that would be fair to the cats. We moved out here with two cats, in their prime. We lost both about a year after we moved here. They didn't come home for night time feeding. Next morning I found one, dead, on outside of fence. Looked like from snakebite. The other never came back.
So I enjoy others' cats when I get a chance. Besides that English Mastiffs are very much like Big Cats, one of the most cat like canines I've ever been around, but you can have them in the house and uncagged, with very little danger to other animals and humans.
gg=alice
? Kind of like that hot pepper nail polish-like stuff that you can use to try and break a nail-biting habit? Just a wild idea, I have no idea if something like that could work
