Get your dog on a lead

Baz, is that the best you can come up with - no argument, no reasoning?

Connie, navigation links. The rest of us can see them how come you can't?

make a big kite attatch yourself to it and hopefully it will carry you away somewhere.

The wrong kind of people are allowed to have dogs - they don't train them or look after them properly. Many just see them as an extension of themselves and an accessory to show the world how "hard" they are.

Three guide dogs are attacked every month in this country:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1287570/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8534086.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10345934.stm

How do I contact you (the author) for permission to use an extract from the article above in a school textbook? I cannot use this comment board to make the application since I cannot give an address or email contact.

Nikki

Are you looking after your daughter's cat temporarily? If so, then what is the point of letting her get used to going out when she is going to be kept in?

You chose to let her out , knowing that she has a strong urge to hunt ( not all cats do ) so you are responsible for the death of the blackbirds.

Nikki, I am not sure what you mean about being disillusioned. I am not disillusioned about anything that I can think of!

You cannot comment on what I think about cats being given the freedom to roam because I have not expressed an opinion on that subject. You have no idea whether or not my cats have been free to go out!

I was commenting on your situation which is that you are caring for your daughter’s cat and she had made the decision to keep the cat in.
If it is now your cat then that is your decision to make but, why risk the cat running away, why soak the poor thing and why get it used to freedom if it is going to go back to being a house cat when your guardianship is over?

You are not operating on instinct when you hose the cat, you are an adult human being who weighed the situation up and made a decision. It isn’t instinct.

Justmyopinion: why should I be tolerant of a cat crapping in my flowerbeds? Would I be tolerant of my dog doing that, or my husband, or my daughter? No I would not. Why should it be so that you cannot train a cat? You can train a cat, you just need to think laterally. See my post about training cats not to go up hawthorn trees!

As every day goes by, I am growing more and more respectful of cats, they CAN be trained, I actually am beginning to RESPECT them !!

Cat lover : I fear you are very disillusioned, you are one of millions of "so-called" cat lovers, horse lovers, dog lovers, whatever lovers, who thinks that life is the most important thing ...it isn't, freedom is, freedom to choose whether to risk running across the road and getting squished, freedom to choose whether to climb up Nikki's hawthorn tree and get a soaking, but hey, won't I have fun in the process chasing that thrush. As much as I dislike daughter's cat pursuing my birds, I will totally agree that she is following her instincts. I am following my instincts too when I turn the hosepipe on her for chasing my birds. Believe me, she is now one happy cat. She is outside in our garden all day, the conservatory door is open, she can come in whenever she wants, my husband says he checks on her whilst I am out at work, and she has never left the garden, nor has she made any attempt to climb our hawthorn tree after the birds. Isn't this brilliant? Cat is safe in our garden, yet at the same time she is having a nice time in the fresh air, birds are reasonably safe at least, because cat won't go up hawthorn tree because she knows if she does she might get a cold wet hosepipe blasted up her nether regions. Cat is making no effort to go into next door's, because she knows the two GSDs in there will probably eat her alive. All in the garden is lovely ... why? Because I have taught Cat with the simple application of a cold jet of water that if she wants her freedom, it comes at a price. I would say that is one of a hellavua intelligent cat, because it would have taken several blasts of a hosepipe to teach my dog not to chase rabbits! What abuse for goodness sake, this is commonsense!

OK ...this is getting to be a very interesting debate. Sally : you have rightly summed me up as being a "dog lover" rather than a cat lover. However, I have grown remarkably fond of my daughter's cat, I can now understand the attraction of the cat. It is of course a totally selfish, rather than a symbiotic, relationship. The cat gives nothing really, and just takes. They are lone animals, they do not live in packs, as Rudyard Kipling said "I am the cat that walks by himself, and all places are the same to me". We humans are pack animals too, which is why we are so attracted by the wolf (dogs), we live in perfect harmony, it is a symbiotic relationship. However, being human, we are also quirky, and some of us love the fact that cats DO walk by themselves, they are users, there is nothing symbiotic about them ... although I have to say, Bengal Tiger Cats are probably more dog-like than your average moggy.

I really do not hate cats, I hate what they do. They kill for pleasure, like us humans. But I truly do understand now the love that cat owners can have for their cats.

"Keep your cats in your home, you deluded, FLEA-BAG loving hypocrite!"


Asia - who are you talking to on the last post? People who hate cats do not seem to me to be very polite or gracious!

Keep your cats in your home, you deluded, FLEA-BAG loving hypocrite!

Nikki.
If your daughters cat has to be tolerant of you hosing it and the dogs next door attacking it, then surely you should be tolerant of the mess it leaves on your flowerbeds.That is life, that is nature, that is where it wants to mess. If you were keeping that close an eye on your daughters cat it wouldn't have been able to mess on your flowerbeds. You did say "my garden for the past 23 years has been a cat-free sanctuary", which means it is only your daughters cat that is the problem. Which means there isn't any buried mess for you to stick your fingers into as it doesn't bury it.Why don't you train it?