The Raccon flower - coming to a windowbox near you soon :)

Yeah, I agree, Racoons are Cute. I spend mucho feeding them, along with the cats.

But, this early am, Racoons killed five kitties born April 4. 23 days old. They were starting to move about and 'discover' the porch.

They left the black one's head and body parts all over the porch. The water bowl filled with blood and gore. The other four, out of sight, thankfully.

Ants having a field day. And flies.

First time I've seen a whole litter wiped out. Usually as time goes on, 1 or two of the litter goes 'missing'.

I Love the kitties and I'm...

Mom, meowing at me, as I put the food out, for 5 less.

I have video of them.

A Black cat is unusual. Hoped for its survival. It all Started with Sootie. Father/Grand/GreatGrand etc. of most around here. The One and Only Black Cat around here. He has been gone about a year and I'd been hoping for a Black to come along...

Yeah, Racoons are fine and they usually had a good 'working' relationship with The Cats and Kitties.

They were getting their fair share of gruel.

Spring is good and should be plenty of other food for them.

But...

'It' Sucks.

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May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

Yeah, I agree, Racoons are Cute. I spend mucho feeding them, along with the cats.

But, this early am, Racoons killed five kitties born April 4. 23 days old. They were starting to move about and 'discover' the porch.

They left the black one's head and body parts all over the porch. The water bowl filled with blood and gore. The other four, out of sight, thankfully.

Ants having a field day. And flies.

First time I've seen a whole litter wiped out. Usually as time goes on, 1 or two of the litter goes 'missing'.

I Love the kitties and I'm...

Mom, meowing at me, as I put the food out, for 5 less.

I have video of them.

A Black cat is unusual. Hoped for its survival. It all Started with Sootie. Father/Grand/GreatGrand etc. of most around here. The One and Only Black Cat around here. He has been gone about a year and I'd been hoping for a Black to come along...

Yeah, Racoons are fine and they usually had a good 'working' relationship with The Cats and Kitties.

They were getting their fair share of gruel.

Spring is good and should be plenty of other food for them.

But...

'It' Sucks.

:( I'm so so sorry. That does suck, for you, the mum and the kittens! :( Made me go all soggy-eyed. :( So sad. I know nature can be very cruel at times, certainly when hunger has anything to do with it, but in this instance it doesn't sound justifiable in any way. We lost a litter of kittens once in Zambia, and it was originally put down to wild animals. Turned out that it was an attack dog that had been kept hungry to make it meaner and a "better" guard dog. Is it possible it may not have been raccoons in this instance, or do they sometimes get more aggressive in the spring what with competing for mates? (I'm sorry if those are stupid questions - it's just I don't know much about their habits) dreadfully sorry though, Dull.

Yeah, I agree, Racoons are Cute. I spend mucho feeding them, along with the cats.

But, this early am, Racoons killed five kitties born April 4. 23 days old. They were starting to move about and 'discover' the porch.

They left the black one's head and body parts all over the porch. The water bowl filled with blood and gore. The other four, out of sight, thankfully.

Ants having a field day. And flies.

First time I've seen a whole litter wiped out. Usually as time goes on, 1 or two of the litter goes 'missing'.

I Love the kitties and I'm...

Mom, meowing at me, as I put the food out, for 5 less.

I have video of them.

A Black cat is unusual. Hoped for its survival. It all Started with Sootie. Father/Grand/GreatGrand etc. of most around here. The One and Only Black Cat around here. He has been gone about a year and I'd been hoping for a Black to come along...

Yeah, Racoons are fine and they usually had a good 'working' relationship with The Cats and Kitties.

They were getting their fair share of gruel.

Spring is good and should be plenty of other food for them.

But...

'It' Sucks.

This would probably kill me inside if this happened to me.

This is why all cats should be spayed or neutered. Cats in
feral colonies should be trapped, neutered, vaccinated,
and released.

There is a feral colony near my house. Kittens often go
missing. I've always assumed it was due to predation or
illness.

I'm very sorry for your experience.

---

~Sue~

I am so sorry to hear of the loss of those kittens to a family of raccoons. Our outdoor cat, Spawnie, co-exists reasonably well with the raccoons I feed, but Spawnie is full grown, fast and capable of threatening behavior when he feels it is necessary. Kittens would have none of those advantages. Dull, I am so sorry that those kittens were lost and I am so sorry for the pain that raccoons caused you.

This photo came from https://www.facebook.com/theanimalrescuesite.

"One of these things is not like the other."

---

~Sue~

Here is a clip of different species getting on with each other. I suspect they are both youngsters, and like kids they have not yet learnt that maybe they should not associate with each other.

Amazing Bird

---

.


A person who makes no mistakes, creates nothing.

---

rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Here is a clip of different species getting on with each other. I suspect they are both youngsters, and like kids they have not yet learnt that maybe they should not associate with each other.

Amazing Bird

That was cute!

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~Sue~

Here is a clip of different species getting on with each other. I suspect they are both youngsters, and like kids they have not yet learnt that maybe they should not associate with each other.

Amazing Bird

That was cute!

Thanks Luigi! Just adorable :-)

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Recieved a nice PM from one of The Ladies, asking if I was Okay. If she mentions who she is, here, no biggie to me. Although I'm sure most S e t i ladies would not want 'it' to be known Publicly, to have PMed me. She can even post all of what I said in the PM. I would have, except I deleted it.

I told her the kitties demise is my fault. If I did not provide a place for them to feed, the kitties or the mom, would not have been born, and therefore would have not died. Human interference always has consequences.

The Horror of their destruction is now the Horror of my Emotions.

She asked about the black cat. I've seen only one All Black Cat around here in 18 years. And when a baby kitty finally arrived...I've also seen only one Calico, although there my have been another.

Btw, if all were sterilized, eventually there would be none. Dat no good. Kittie Good. Human Bad.

fO shO fO evA

' '

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May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

That's good to hear Dull:)

---

rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Recieved a nice PM from one of The Ladies, asking if I was Okay. If she mentions who she is, here, no biggie to me. Although I'm sure most S e t i ladies would not want 'it' to be known Publicly, to have PMed me. She can even post all of what I said in the PM. I would have, except I deleted it.

I told her the kitties demise is my fault. If I did not provide a place for them to feed, the kitties or the mom, would not have been born, and therefore would have not died. Human interference always has consequences.

The Horror of their destruction is now the Horror of my Emotions.

She asked about the black cat. I've seen only one All Black Cat around here in 18 years. And when a baby kitty finally arrived...I've also seen only one Calico, although there my have been another.

Btw, if all were sterilized, eventually there would be none. Dat no good. Kittie Good. Human Bad.

fO shO fO evA

' '

Humans that care for animals can never be all bad Dull :) that's what I think anyway, and like you, I am very fond of cats too :) so I definitely wouldn't mind people knowing that I'd PMed you :) but I would never breach a confidence :)

Rocket Raccoon spotted on Ultimate Spiderman.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Btw, if all were sterilized, eventually there would be none. Dat no good. Kittie Good. Human Bad.

Believe me, there would still be ferals around if you started neutering
and spaying, thanks to the irresponsible owners who don't.
In my humble opinion, you're being selfish keeping them "intact" just so you
can have them around. Look at the problems they have living their
feral lives. Disease, predation, fights, injuries, etc., etc. They suffer.
That's the point of sterilization - to reduce the colony; to reduce the
number of suffering feral cats.

As you said, without human interference the kittens (probably) would not
have been born. But it's more humane to feed a hungry feral or stray
cat than not to. This interference is canceled out by the sterilization. Feed
them, but get them fixed. There are often places that will do that for you
at a discount if the cat is a feral TNR (Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Release).

Incidentally, the next time you find yourself with a litter of feral kittens,
scoop them up and get them to a rescue organization that will take proper
care of them.

I'm not trying to anger you or insult you. I'm just trying to educate.

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~Sue~

Eric and I tried to trap feral cats once. We got one, had him fixed, and released him. The second thing we caught in our humane live-trap was a skunk. Sorry Sue, but we quit trapping after that!

Feral cats are a much more complex issue than stray and/or abandoned ones. Recent studies have shown that most, if not all domesticated cats actually retain their wild ancestry (or free spirit if you like) pretty much intact, and without human contact (between birth and about eight to ten weeks of age) they will simply stay the way they were born more often than not. That doesn't mean they can't be tamed or "rehabilitated into the home" for lack of a better term, or at least coaxed into having some form of contact with us, but ultimately that will be their choice, not ours. It's far from easy but very rewarding when it does happen, but for some, they will remain utterly miserable until their first opportunity to escape presents itself, and then they'll be gone.

In the tragic case of the kittens Dull has told us about, at three weeks they would still have been very dependent on their mum to survive. I know I could not have rounded them up without her, and as a seasoned feral, born to be wild, she would have been well... really wild about ANY interfernce with her kittens... and very difficult to catch. Yes, they could have been hand-raised and found homes, but I can honestly say that I would have only been able to intervene in that way if they had been abandoned or had lost their mum.

In the UK, the view of our animal charities are that feral cats are very good at looking after themselves, and so they only intervene or trap them where they are injured or obviously unwell. Assuming they reach full health, they would be neutered and released if rehoming was deemed not to be a viable option for the cat concerned.

I definitely see the long-term benefits to the health of a feral population in what you are saying though Suzie, but I imagine the cost to an individual could prove prohibitive and very difficult to achieve without assistance. And calling in animal welfare officers to do so, putting the cats through the stress of being trapped and then caged, with no guarantee that they wouldn't be put down or released, could well feel like a betrayal of trust.

Really difficult :(

I got Grace from the Apple Valley CA animal shelter, though then She was only 9lbs of love, now She's more like 15lbs+ now, I wished I was as skinny, Grace loves Me a lot and will if She can sit on My leg/lap when I'm in a recliner, of course now until I replace the current recliner I can't do, repairs to My clothes washer and dryer come 1st.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Eric and I tried to trap feral cats once. We got one, had him fixed, and released him. The second thing we caught in our humane live-trap was a skunk. Sorry Sue, but we quit trapping after that!

Well that's the risk you take! LOL!

You'd want to learn how to deal with that situation before you went out
trapping. I hope your experience was not too traumatic.

;-)

---

~Sue~

Eric and I tried to trap feral cats once. We got one, had him fixed, and released him. The second thing we caught in our humane live-trap was a skunk. Sorry Sue, but we quit trapping after that!

Well that's the risk you take! LOL!

You'd want to learn how to deal with that situation before you went out
trapping. I hope your experience was not too traumatic.

;-)

He he he he... yes, I expect it wasn't as um... relaxed as this little one...