OT Why NOT to have a doggy door in your home!

call animal control or just the pd. Don't use the 911 number though. Close off the room it is in if you can to at least confine it. They seem to like to play dead when a dog gets them. Ginger pup has committed 'birder' (murder of birds) several times lately. Last one was dumped on the back door step. Lea downed a bunny once. She barked until I came to see it. I thought it was dead but it was just playing dead. It was an escaped domestic bunny and animal control hauled it away. Ca. pooches seem to be less likely to bring their 'almost' kills in the house, thank goodness. Good luck. At least it isn't a live snake! Taria

Leslie & The Furbabies > I sit here shaking, hoping my almost ex calls back soon. You see, I was

We have a doggie door too.

At least it's still alive, I found Rhoda guarding half a rabbit on the bedroom floor. SO was across the hall reading and hadn't heard a thing. Worst part was that Rhoda had eaten the front half while in the middle of the bed. Yes, the goo had soaked through to the mattress pad. It was a mess.

Fortunately it all came out in the wash. There is a layer of plastic on the bottom of the mattress pad.

I hope that you got the rabbit, my helpful SO suggested that you let the dogs into the room! Ugh!

Bonnie, in Middletown, VA

Our big Sweet Pea kitty used to bring in 'playing dead' bats. We had to open the doors and invite them to fly 'that-away' out. Polly

I am out in the county- we don't have animal control folks. The almost ex shut the bedroom door and chased the rabbit out from under the bed , cornered it and snatched it up with barbecue tongs- of all things! He released it in the front yard and it scampered off. What a thrilling end to a long boring day.....

Leslie & The Idiot Furbabies in MO.

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. wrote:

I know just exactly how you feel! In Lizard Land we had a doggy door that the dog & cats used. The dog never brought anything in other than dead leaves. Reno (Black Cat) was another story!! She brought friends home to have a sleep over without asking our permission and they were ALWAYS alive when we found them!!! The only time we found something dead it was always a gecko and that's not really upsetting. So we have had cactus wrens and even mourning doves flying around inside the hour. I had to chase the bird into a bedroom, close the door, open the window & remove the screen and then leave the bird trapped in the room with the window wide open and the A/C running full tilt. You see it was always in the middle of the summer that she brought in birds! HOW this cat managed to drag herself and a very large, full grown dove through that little doggy door is anyone's guess!!! We didn't usually find the mice she would bring in until the evening. That's when they would come out of hiding and run into the kitchen because that's where the food smells were. DH was responsible for catching them and setting them free. The bunny was another story! It was a wee little baby and who knows WHEN Reno brought the poor little thing into the house. I had a sprained ankle so couldn't get around too well or too quickly. I was sitting in the family room watching the telly and thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. When I turned my head, nothing was there. About the third time this happened, I knew the critter was scampering back behind a large square ottoman that sat in the corner of the room. Instead of actually turning my head, I held my head a bit to the side and when saw movement, all I had to do was move my eyes. Sure enough, I could see this weensy little bunny peeking out from behind the ottoman. I knew I could never catch it so I stuff pillows, etc. around the ottoman to keep the bunny trapped there until DH would get home and catch it. Thankfully, he was home within about 30 mins.! During that time I called our Vet. and he led me to the local Bunny Lacy. She said once it was trapped to just make sure it had water and a bit of carrot until we could set it free the next evening. We had to make sure that we set it free in some spot where other rabbits were known to frequent as this meant there was enough food and water available. this little guy was no bigger than an 8 week old kitten and sooooo cute. We kept it in one of the kitty carrying cages overnight and then made the trip to the local bunny hangout at dusk the next day. Leslie, I do hope you get your bunny caught and released before it chews up any cords, etc.!! I hear that's the worst thing that can happen -- well, besides having bunny poo all over the house 8-/ CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Awwwww! They brought home dinner!

Cindy

LOL, Ginger, LOL. Thank you so much. Your kitty certainly wins. A full-grown gopher? In Dad's breakfast plate? I love it. Polly

The most memorable thing I recall, growing up our cat would go out hunting. He would sit by the back door and cry to come in. He learned to put his "gift" around the corner so we couldn't see it when we opened the door. Whoosh! he would grab it up and come dashing into the house. It was usually not too big a deal- mice or a hapless bird, until the morning he proudly brought in a full-grown gopher, jumped up and plopped it on my father's breakfast plate.

Yeppers, picture 5 children at the table trying to get ready for school. Imagine the shrieks from same kids and mother..... "priceless" as they say ;))

G> I am out in the county- we don't have animal control folks. The almost ex

My precious Tuppy brought me a couple of "reds" (for which read red bellied black snakes!) when we lived in Sydney. They were - of course - alive and wriggling, only smallish (about two to three feet), but where there are little snakes there are big momma and poppa snakes! She used to pop in the cat door and drop them on the kitchen floor and cry out for me to come see. Generous little girl!

Big old Maroo would often bring prey home, but only for me to admire. He wasn't gonna hand them over to anyone. He would sit on the front door mat to feast (I went through a lot of door mats in Sydney!! lol), and one day I actually saw him take one big crunch and a tiny head fell out one side of his mouth and the tail out the other side. He then sat there watching me and literally crunched his way through a field mouse. Revolting beast! He could be sweet sometimes, but that brought home to me that a cat is a cat, and a cat can revert to wild animal behaviour whenever and wherever!

'Roo also brought me a mouse one night and dropped it on the bed. Now, for those not familiar, summer in Sydney is HOT, so I had only a sheet on the bed. Mouse moved, cat (all

20lbs of him!) pounced, I screamed in agony as half a dozen pitchfork-sized claws pierced me. The cat-and-mouse game continued for some time around the house as I administered first aid to my cuts and staunched to considerable blood flow.

Another time he dropped a dead mouse on the floor right next to the bed. In the morning I got up very early for a 5am start and it was still dark. You haven't experienced true horror until you feel that squishy feeling between your toes, realise what it is you stood on, and then have to hop all the way to the bathroom to avoid leaving bloody footprints on the carpet!

My neighbour's cat - Henry Z - brought home a six foot tiger snake (if you aren't from OZ, this is not the sort of thing you want anywhere near you!) and dropped it right behind her on the kitchen floor. It was alive, and A just screamed for DH and jumped up on the kitchen sink. DH arrived and screamed and jumped up beside her! (Should explain, they were from UK and never adjusted to having these sort of things all around when they lived in the Blue Mtns, NSW) Henry continued to play with his new toy on the floor. Finally they managed to call through the window to a neighbour to come deal with the unwelcome intruder.

A made DH nail the cat door shut after that, and Henry was confined to the laundry at night!

I think anyone with a cat/dog door could tell a story or two about unwelcome "visitors". But not having a pet door doesn't guarantee that the UVs won't get in anyway. I had a friend find a full grown possum in her kitchen one night, calmly devouring a pack of choc biscuits. The possum had got in through the exhaust fan over the stove.

Awww...you know they say that a cat will bring you dead prey as a "gift." When they bring you prey that's still alive, they are teaching you to hunt, like their mama taught them. Sounds like you got a pretty good lesson. Did you learn anything??

Sherry

Leslie, I'm surprised at you - nay horrified >g<

Having known me for so long and you are afraid of a rabbit? I can't believe it! Poor little thing, think how he must have felt. He must have been terrified.

The easiest way to 'herd' a rabbit is with a long-handled soft broom. My young little girl and boy, who have running around on the bunny palace floor privileges, sometimes feel that scrabbling in the most inaccessible corner is just the thing for the day. You just have to herd them into a corner with the broom head behind them. (My little girl does attack the broom, but she and the broom get over it). . In message , Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. writes

While I was still living in Virginia, I had a flying squirrel move in uninvited. The apartment complex managers couldn't care less (!), the local "living museum" were out of little traps, and I was freaked out (it was eating my chocolate!!!).

In the end a friend helped me out. Now, she is the shorted, skinniest lady I know, but a strong character. She coaxed it out from where it was hiding in the kitchen (using leftover lasagne), we chased it into the smallest bathroom, and my friend locked herself in there with the fs and a box. She got it, but she said afterwards it was like catching flying soap.

The next day I let it out up at the Yorktown Battlefields, but the right kind of trees (see, I took instructions from the living museum). Another friend's kids wanted it for the backyard, but less than 5 miles move, and they may come back, so I wasn't doing that.

Although I am sure your rabbit has no intention of coming back.

I like the sound of your size BBQ tongs, though.

Hanne > I am out in the county- we don't have animal control folks. The almost ex

snipped

Cheryl, I think you forgot to mention that these snakes are highly venomous :-)

My wuss cat (wuss as in puss, definitely not scaredy) used to love bringing me gifts of dead birds or mice while I was hanging out the washing. We were leaving home one Christmas morning to spend the day at my sisters, I'd just got the kids (2months, 3yrs and 13yrs) in the car, made sure we had all the food and presents and was getting in the car myself. DH - who had gone to check the iron was off and the doors were locked - started shouting "get me a glove!" I went back inside to find him with his foot pressed up against the bookcase. The cat had shot inside as I went out and brought a baby brown snake with her. It was only as long as my finger but they are highly venomous on hatching and are the species responsible for most snake bite deaths in Aust. He managed to trap it against the bookcase, but didn't dare move. He caught and despatched it very quickly, and we did a search to make sure there was only one. We were very thankful that he had spotted it when the cat dropped it, can you imaging putting the baby on the floor with a poisonous snake on the loose?

chris :-)

LOL!!! Thanks so much for posting this (and for everyone else's stories too). I needed a laugh to start my morning!!

It could have been worse, it could have been a skunk.

My friend Brian works for the small town where I live. A couple months ago, a skunk was caught in a live trap and Brian was told to take the trap, with a tarp covering it, out into the country and let the skunk loose. The trap was in the back of a covered pickup.

When Brian got out in the country, he grabbed the trap to pull it out and it came apart. The skunk was now loose in the back of the pickup.

Brian stood to the side, but the skunk was too scared to come to the open tailgate.

Brian GRABBED A STICK and before the guy who rode out there with him could holler, Brian POKED THE SKUNK.

Andy took off running, but Brian wasn't fast enough. It was really bad.

The skunk finally jumped off the back of the truck. And the guys came back to town. Andy smelled almost as bad as Brian by the time they got back. People came from all over town to smell the truck and tease Brian.

So, Leslie, if a skunk runs under the daybed, don't poke him with a stick.

Oh. My...... I've finally gotten my breath from laughing at your stories, especially the one about the cat-and-mouse game in the bed in Sydney... Oh, I'm so glad my kitties (save one) are completely indoor.

*snerk*

One of many reasons we have indoor cats.

I have never had a place with a doggy door, but I had a place out in easern Colorado with a dryer vent. I didn't have a dryer, so I had hot and cold running mice. We stretched some tape tape across it, by gosh I didn't know sounds that big could come out of one little mouse! You would have thought a bansidh was being tortured in the laundry closet!

I put up with it until one of those wierd lizards got in. One of the ones that looks like a little bipedal dinosaur? They are sort of blue and green and have a funny ruff and run like a bat? Maintainance was called, I was lectured on how some people catch the things and keep them as pets, the dryer vent was stuffed with steel wool. Next morning I had a wad of steel wool on the floor and lord knows what in the house. I put up with mice, and tarantulas, and centipedes big enought to eat airdales. Mini dinosaurs were the last straw. We moved back to the land of ice and snow and WATER, where my sinuses liked it better anyway.

NightMist

Good lesson. I'm filing that in my important facts file.