I was going to get a new cat and was looking for a large one. The largest I found was the Maine Coon Cat. Is that the largest?
A .22 loaded with shorts or rat shot is a lot more useful than a cat, and easier to clean than a litter box.
I'll stick with dogs.
Another Public Skool success story.
I was a steadfast dog man and couldn't stand cats until last summer when a friend and his wife who fell on hard times moved in with their two Siamese cats. They are absolutely the most charming creatures, cute, loving, friendly, gregarious and talkative. One is actually more like a dog than a cat. He gets excited to see me when I come home from work and gives me an exhuberant vocal greeting and follows me throughout the house for a while. The other loves to give leg rubs to show his affection and gives little sweet meows to signal he's glad to see you and even plays fetch with a small ball. He loves when I invent new games for him to play and becomes addicted to whatever new little game I invent for him. That one is scary smart. I always say he's a human in a cat suit.
Anyway, in short. I'm converted. I love these cats. And what's even more strange, I'm no longer allergic which was one of my biggest fears about having my friends move in with their cats.
I'd always heard that cats are mousers, dogs (specifically terriers) are ratters. Glad the cat worked out for him , anyway.
He must be a "gentleman" farmer if he didn't already know about cats.
I love my girls. And when they were outdoor kitties, I never had to worry about an excess of birds, mice, moles, frogs or lizards. :) My girls were good at catching stuff. Now they're fat indoor kitties and they wish they could still hunt. :(
Rose was not hospitable. The minute Mother returned from the vet and entered the pasture, the dog roared down the pasture hill to drive off this mangy intruder.It was one of Rose's rare mistakes. Mother was not like the other animals Rose had encountered and dominated. The cat sat perfectly still until the charging border collie was about 4 inches away, and then she calmly turned and raked the dog's nose with one sharp swipe of her paw. Rose is not one to make the same mistake twice. From that point on, even when Mother was right in front of her, Rose pretended not to notice her.
That's a cat that's been around dogs before and knows how to handle them.
-b-
There are other more one-on-one solutions than cats...
We could not get rid of the mice. Traps, poison, we just kept seeing things chewed up and such. They were apparently in the little attic area only accessible from a little square door.
We thought it would be a good idea to let one of the cats in there to look around. So we lifted our black and white tuxedo cat up there, and...he turned around to jump back out. Wasn't interested in this game at all.
So, we got our other cat, the Yellow one (Part of a race of Super Cats, which all yellow ones are)
and we stuck him up there.
His ears immediately went full forward at the far end of the shed. I left him there and climbed down the ladder, and saw mice running through the grass away from the shed...:)
The thing that I love about cats is that they are really only a fraction of an inch away, at any time, of being really wild animals. You can see it in their eyes when they have caught some living thing.
Oh my gosh, I read one of the attached links to the original article and laughed until I cried!
http://www.slate.com/id/2108762/
You'll see a picture of my Maine Coon on this link. He was a stray.
http://www.freeonlineshippingquotes.com/cat.htm
Jo Jo the Dog-Faced Boy
At the turn of the 19th century, it was PT Barnum whose circus display was truly the greatest show on earth. It was an era where people were curious, and looking for entertainment. Years before television captured the attention of everyone and eliminated their imagination; the circus had something that appealed to everyone. Feats of magic and acrobats impressed a culture that hadn't seen it all. Old-fashioned rides, the first incarnations of the rollercoaster thrilled the culture that wasn't used to driving high speed commutes everyday. And the circus sideshow appealed to the curious, and the freaks that worked there made them scream and faint. There was an innocence to this period that has since been lost. The circus side show, the freak show is a symbol of those times of curiosity and desire for more. Sadly it is a symbol that has faded to nothing.
Ezra
&
Chloe
Pinging you.
jm