Until I read this statement, I had no idea what it felt like to laugh so hard as to nearly expell a LIFESAVER candy (Wint-O-Green!) out of my nose!
Many thanks. I now feel complete.
A guy I worked with told about the time his family was sitting at the kitchen table for dinner and the cat came in the pet door and trotted over to it’s dish to eat.
It brought in a friend that followed it in the door.
The new friend had black fur.
With a puffy tail and a white stripe.
The family sat motionless as to not startle their new guest, when it was done eating it went back out the door like it lived there. The pet door was promptly sealed shut.
Back in my college days, I shared an apartment with three guys (I shared a room with my SO and two other guys had their own rooms). One of those guys had a habit of leaving the front door open when he came home, which wasn’t the best idea because we were on the ground floor and the neighborhood wasn’t the best. One night, I came home with my SO. He had to use the bathroom, so he goes in there and closes the door. All of a sudden I hear this shrieking, and I run over and fling the door open. At that moment, a HUGE hairy black thing is crawling out of the bathtub from behind the shower curtain. I swear, I thought it was a ten-pound rat or spider or something.
Then I recognize it as a cat. Specifically, a black alley cat that had taken a liking to us because our apt. door was often left open. I guess he crawled into the tub to get a drink or have a nice nap and was surprised by us coming home. He probably shaved a few years off my SO’s life!
The funniest thing about that cat was, when it got in it would always head straight for the bedroom of the guy who hated cats the most. Heheh.
levdrakon, have you ever heard of a screen door? They’re all the rage now.
I’ve definitely thought about it. But flying bugs really aren’t a problem here, and the screen door would have to open outwards, which for various reasons, would be kind of a nuisance. “A bigger nuisance than pigeons waltzing in,” you’re thinking? Good point. But no, I’m just not into having a screen door put in. Besides, if I did put in a screen door and left my door open, the pigeons could see in and they’d all hang out right outside the door, which is what I’m trying to break them of. “Stay away from the front door, there’s nothing here for you.”
I do have a screen door in the side kitchen door, so I may just have to get used to using that more than the front door, at least until I break the birds of their cat food habit.
You do paint vivid images - I can just see the gang of pigeons hanging around the screen door, checking their watches; “When the heck is this thing going to open so we can get in and get the good stuff?”
Instead of a live owl, buy an owl statue. Or even a large photo of one. Pigeons have the IQ of celery, so it really doesn’t matter if it’s live or not, it will still scare them away. Possums too, maybe. The cat will ignore it.
OK, see, I think skunks are totally cool. I’d love to have a skunk. Even better, I’d love to have a skunk I could train to kick cat & pigeon ass.
Here’s your pre-emptive can of tomato juice…
Nah, my skunk would be well trained. Only kick cat & pigeon ass, padawan skunk apprentice!
Fucking hysterical
Yeah, cute but Pigeons in reality are brilliant…very useful in WW2 ever hear of homing pigeons? They can see a hundred miles away…google it
Yeah, but that pigeon is probably, I don’t know, effing dead!! Look at the date of the post previous to yours.
Beware of zombie pigeons, btw.
No offense to the OP but I find this comical. If you were on tv, you could carry on about homing pigeons, until a missile piloted by that very pigeon comes through your window.
What is the lifespan of a California rock dove?
Then you’d see tell-tale traces of pigeon in the cat’s stool.
Whelp. Quoted after 13 years, that’s a record for me.
The reason birds like dry pet food is it’s mainly flavored grain… When we had outside dogs …we couldn’t get rid of them…, They’d try to chase the dogs away from there bowls
Occasionally it would work but we had a great dane/g retreiver mix who hated anything with wings including planes and hey had a running battle for over a decade…mostly the birds but every so often he’d catch one and eat it all over the yard …then it would look like a scene from he birds…
I don’t know if you can call them smart. Some of them may actually join a message board just to resurrect a thirteen year old thread.
That said, welcome to the Straight Dope. Stick around. It’s fun.
Mrs. Plant (v.3.0) quit feeding zombies-er, pigeons, because hawks would take them right in front of the picture window.