We had a tragedy in the family over the weekend. A close family member who has one indoor cat and one outdoor cat decided it would be ok to let her indoor, declawed cat outside. No big deal. The cat stayed pretty much close to the house most of the time and always came when called. Repeated warnings were given to the owner that she promptly ignored, listening instead to her all knowing husband who said, "she stays close to the house, no coyote will come that close to the house…"
Well, it was only an amount of time before the inevitable happened. Said family member went out to call the cat and she didn’t come. All knowing husband went out to look for her and found her collar, tufts of hair, and no carcass. The collar was 50 yards from the house.
{Shakes head and walks away!}
Idiot!
This brings up a question: What do normal clawed cats do when confronted with a coyote? Swat them and climb a tree? I feel terrible, because this cat was the most amicable, bumbly cat…
Do other people let their declawed cats outside in known coyote territory? This can’t be the only one?
Cats with claws are not much of a match for coyotes either actually.
It’s unfortunate that this happened. However, if you really want your cat to be safe, you gotta keep it inside. You never know what could happen out there.
The unfortunate part is this cat has been in the family for a long time…The one kid who is the most upset can’t get the violence out of her mind of how the cat must have perished. It really is very sad.
Sometimes we learn lessons the hard way. We finally made the rule of no cats outside EVER. That was after more than one loss of predominantly outside animals. No more. Contrary to what we originally thought, most animals will adjust to “prison life” and can be quite content to look out the window, monitoring their old world from afar.
Declawed cats shouldn’t go out at all - they can’t even defend themselves well from other cats, for Og’s sake!
Clawed cats in Coyote Territory are most likely gonna be lunch sooner or later. A very few seem to be smart enough to survive, but you’ll lose quite a lot finding those few. (I had a roommate who insisted on indoor/outdoor cats. I can’t say for sure that 'yotes got all of them, but she lost cats fairly regularly.)
To me it is yet another example of insane thinking: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. They knew coyotes were in the area. :rolleyes:
I let my declawed (not by me) cat out. She sits on the porch and suns herself. Yes, there are coyotes in the area - I hear them at night. But sitting in the yard with her are my five large dogs (2 dobes, alaskan malamute, standard poodle and english setter). I doubt the coyotes will come close. She only goes out for short periods when I’m home. My three other clawed cats also go out (two of them were hired on as barn cats, but decided the house cat life was more fun). I’ve lived on my farm for 4 years and haven’t lost a cat. Am I taking a risk? Yes. But I’m willing to accept that on behalf of my cats. Heck it would be safer for me if I never left my house. Not much of a life, though.
There was a letter to the editor in the paper this weekend about someone in Southeastern Pinellas County almost losing a cat to a coyote, this is a very urban area. The cat was at the sliding glass door asking to come in when the owner saw a coyote run up and grab it, he took off after it along with his dog and rescued the cat. He saw a second coyote with the first as they chased it off. Other neighbor’s cats probably weren’t so lucky judging by all the lost cat fliers posted in the neighborhood.
Don’t assume that just because you’re in an area that you wouldn’t think has coyotes, that you don’t have coyotes. We’re everywhere.*
[sub]*For the record, I don’t eat cats. I’m a nice coyote. Except to Roadrunners.[/sub]
My SIL in Arizona has some Very Bad Cats. They regularly threaten to smear the little bastids with bacon grease and toss 'em to the bobcats and coyotes.
You know those concrete-lined “V”-shaped trenches that encircle landscaped suburban hillsides, providing drainage? I was once speaking to a landscaper who said that those gutters must make absolutely ideal coyote freeways. He said he knew this because when they did their yearly cleanout, the workers found numberless cat bones and collars scattered to either side of the trenches. I’m guessing that some bones belong to small dogs, but still.
When I lived in AZ this was the case. People who lived there told us when we moved in that you could tell the newer neighborhoods but the amount of “Lost Cat” signs in it. And most if not all the yotes came from those drainage areas. They were perfect little highways.
When I was growing up in Southern Ontario we had cats that spent a lot of time outdoors. We backed on a natural ravine and conservation area. We spied occassional deer, but never coyotes, and never had a problem with the cats.
After I got my own home 40 miles away (and near a concrete spillway) we spotted our first coyote in the area. A couple of years later a new neighbour lost 2 cats in 3 weeks. The collars were found in a weedy area next to the spillway. I had never considered a connection before.
Yes, there are frequent “missing cat” posters posted.
Yes, its a symbiotic relationship, the more we build towns and cities and provide food like trash dumps, restaurant dumpsters, rats and rabbits in all the yards…It’s prime pick’ins. I don’t think I’d go so far as to say all cats should be indoor cats…but cats like to hunt and I’d love to let our guys out to hunt, but my wife would kill me if I let them out. They catch the occasional mouse who so carelessly stumbles upon our basement. I can leave open bird seed in the basement and nothing will touch it. If I were a mouse and saw two siamese cats waiting for me in a basement I wouldn’t go in either. It would be like humans going swimming while seeing two great whites circle their boat.
First of all, I don’t believe in declawing cats – mine all have intact (but neatly trimmed) claws.
We live in coyote territory. There are also bears, bobcats, foxes, wolves, mountain lions, and numerous other things that would eat a kitty. I have never seen one of those critters near us during the day, however, so my cats go out during the day and come back in before dusk.
It also makes a difference that we have dogs leaving “keep out” markers all around the property, and that there are adequate trees and hidey-holes to allow the cats to escape most canine predators.
When we were living in Carson City we were on the edge of the wild, so coyotes were a given. We had salukis which are a hound, and upwards of 60 pounds. Didn’t faze the coyotes a bit. I spent one evening sitting with a mini-14 on my lap and night glasses around my neck because there were three of them prowling around just outside the fenceline.
Then we got BFD, the anatolian, who were bred to guard against wolves. Never saw a coyote at less than seventy-five yards after that.
Let me rephrase the OP "If you have a cat don’t let them out !"
(working farm cats are an exception, of course!)
**
DesertDog**- I had a saluki once. Although hardly a fighting dog, I don’t think any coyote could catch one!
Stupid owners. :mad:
They catch the occasional mouse who so carelessly stumbles upon our basement. I can leave open bird seed in the basement and nothing will touch it. If I were a mouse and saw two siamese cats waiting for me in a basement I wouldn’t go in either. It would be like humans going swimming while seeing two great whites circle their boat.