Posted on 04/04/2008 1:14:48 AM PDT by rollo tomasi
Woke around 1:30 AM hearing strange noise in the kitchen. My daughter's Persian cat had what looked like a possum or rat cornered. Needless to say I was startled a bit.
When I turned on the light I noticed blood then the long tail animal escaping behind the baseboard.
If any animal expert or lover would chime in I would be appreciative.
1) The Persian has her front claws out (Indoor cat) and upon inspection did not notice any blood or bite marks on the body. Could the cat have used the back claws? If the cat did bite the thing would there not be blood around the mouth?
2) 'Belle' the cat has her rabies shots up to date. If the long tail possum or rat had rabies what are the chances 'Belle' could contract the disease?
3) Anyone have any tips on catching possums or rats? I can see the tail hanging out of the baseboard. Seeing it's not even the crack of dawn yet, help would be futile from "expert" rat/possum catchers.
By the way judging from the short glimpse it looked like a possum. Had that triangular feature but then again the thing was screaming.
Thank you in advance.
The poison is delayed-action, so the critters do not associate the food source with the poison. It takes about three days.
It works by thinning the blood and dehydrating the animal. So when it is in sufficient quantity to cause the animal noticeable symptoms, the animal will seek a water source — ideally, if you have done it right, outside.
Consider using a bait trap so your kitty doesn’t experiment with the poison.
Biting a poisoned animal probably will not harm your cat: the poison needs to accumulate in the animal before it works effectively. That said, best to keep your cat away from the varmints, for a different reason: your cat is less able to defend itself because of its clipped claws. Cornered rats and cornered possums can harm your cat, and who needs a vet bill anyrate ay?
When I accidentally trap a possum, I release it.....they eat the cockroaches and are docile. I would NEVER EVER poison any animal...it’s immoral, cruel and unnecessary. I use humane traps and will re-release somewhere else.
Somewhere in my files I’ve got really cool pictures of a possum that was in our garage. It was gray and white and fair sized. We just left it alone and it sauntered on out after awhile. The cats aren’t interested in doing much other than sniffing them. However, squirrels, rabbits and most birds give our yard a wide berth. They even hunt snakes. And I do mean hunt.
On the other hand, my husband has a hysterical story about his uncle, a .22, a large rat and his aunt mopping up blood. His uncle was quite a character!
> When I accidentally trap a possum, I release it.....they eat the cockroaches and are docile.
Their Australian cousins eat plants and birds and are quite ferocious. I would not want to pick one up — they are very cute — but they have razor sharp claws and teeth to match.
In OZ they are an endangered species. They were imported to NZ and because they have no natural predator they multiplied without control. Now there are more possums in NZ than there are Chinese in China. Not funny!
> I would NEVER EVER poison any animal...it’s immoral, cruel and unnecessary.
I’d say “that depends”, Fawn. When you are dealing with a mass infestation — like rats, possums, rabbits, or feral cats — when you need to kill dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions or billions of them stone dead, poison or disease is the only way to do it. There is no other way.
> I use humane traps and will re-release somewhere else.
This is fine if by doing so you are not introducing a pest or perpetuating a varmint problem. So if, for instance, I accidentally trap my neighbor’s cat, It would be OK for me to re-release it say at the City Pound — and I probably would, there is no need for it to be killed: at least not on the first offense.
If, on the other hand, I trap a feral cat or a possum or a rabbit, there is no way in Texas I will re-release it anywhere: it is a pest, a varmint and a problem. A humane death is the only solution in that case. Now, as it is a one-off, poison would not be a practical (or humane) way to bump the animal off: obviously shooting it or using a lethal trap would be a better choice.
It is all situational, requiring commonsense.
First, I would never relocate a cat.... second, poisnoning is just TOO cruel. IS that how you want to go? Inhumane! It’s against the law here to poison cats...not sure about anything else. Does your country push Spay/neuter? We are trying real hard here.
> First, I would never relocate a cat.... second, poisnoning is just TOO cruel. IS that how you want to go? Inhumane!
How would you suggest getting rid of billions of unwanted alien pests? Poison or disease is really the only way it can be done on the scale necessary. So the trick is to select a poison or disease that works 100% of the time and is relatively fast-acting. That is about as humane as it gets.
Hence the use of cyanide and 1080. Cyanide as you know works very fast. 1080 is also relatively humane.
The diseases are more problematic (they can mutate, and the animals can build immunities to them) but have more scope for massive killings.
> Does your country push Spay/neuter? We are trying real hard here.
If you are dealing with ones-and-twos, then of course spaying and neutering are preferred methods for all pets, and our RSPCA actively promotes that.
It would be physically impossible to do that with the feral animal populations: there are just too many of them, they are too well dug in, and the terrain they have dug into would be impossible to cover. Even if you could spay or neuter one animal per second, when you are dealing with fast gestation periods and numbers in the many millions or billions, you can see that spaying and neutering becomes impractical and impossible.
It would be nice if that could work, but it can’t.
(We are doing away with dangerous dog breeds thru compulsory neutering and import bans. A couple generations will fix that problem. That is a problem that is manageable.)
Verse 1:
My children are hungry, my dog ain't gota bone.
Ain't got no job, and I'm just travelin on.
Its an hour after sundown, what to my delight,
why there's five pound of possum in my headlights tonite!
Chorus:
Oh theres five pound of possum in my headlites tonite.
If I could run him over, everything would be all right.
Oh we'll make some possum gravy, oh whata wonderful sight.
cause ther's five pound of possum in my headlights
tonite.
Verse 2:
Ain't gonna be no baked chicken or no cooked ham.
just a little closer and I'll have him in my hand.
I think I'll turn my headlites up on bright.
cause there's five pound of possum in my headlite tonite.
The main problem I had was disposal. I buried one or two of the ugly things then got to thinking why not just put him on the hood of the 4X4 and take a short drive? It was usually late at night when I shot them anyway. So up on the hood went the possum and down the road I went and hit the brakes watching the possum becoming another roadkill statistic. LOL
> So up on the hood went the possum and down the road I went and hit the brakes watching the possum becoming another roadkill statistic. LOL
(big grin!) LOL! American Ingenuity at its finest!
To prove to the oppossum that it can be done.
> Like on my deck.
You are right about Raccoons. I grew up in Canada and we used to have a family of raccoons — several generations for many years — visit us on our deck and beg for food. They are very cute but, as you say, more than capable of doing severe damage to cats and dogs.
I had a huge cat named Charlie: he was massive and a compulsive hunter and fighter. He used to routinely come home covered in skunk, or with dead wildlife (including baby raccoons and poodles), and several times came home with his ears ripped open, or missing a tail, or minus an eye, or with his guts hanging out in trailing loops.
He was forever being bathed in tomato juice or with half of his fur shaved off and lines of stitches holding him together. He eventually went senile and started doing his toiled wherever he felt like — usually inside and seldom in his litter box — so we bumped him off at 14 yrs of age. By that time, he was held together mostly by scar tissue — crazy cat!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.