[bert]

For the record, chasing away the neighbor’s stray cats is the first order of business and perhaps the original reason for the pellet gun.

By the way, my problem is skunks. They root up the yard as bad as wild hogs

[FredZarguna]

Our cat will kill anything roughly three times his size or less. We had huge problems with field mice before we rescued him as a kitten (abandoned in our neighbors' garage.). One night two summers ago I saw him tree a raccoon. Several nights later the kids left the back door open and I found him, the raccoon, and another cat I'd never seen before swirling around in a screaming furball in the kitchen. The raccoon was hell to chase out of the house, but I'm glad it wasn't a skunk: just as bad as coons for rabies and of course the smell.

Needless to say, all the strays and outdoor cats in the neighborhood come over here looking for fights. I keep enemy cats away with a paintball gun; they learn pretty quickly.

He's in his glory now, in the first month of spring. Moles, voles, shrews, mice, grey squirrels, red squirrels, birds, and his favorite: rabbits. Squirrels are rats with bushy tails. Why they're protected I don't understand. Compared to how our cat deals with 'em, this old guy is doing them a favor.