Funny animal guild

So we toss some chicken feed to the chickens in the morning.  Chickens eat it, but also the wild birds come.  The cat finds her hiding spot.  It scares away many birds and so less hen scratch is wasted.  The chickens are unafraid of the cat, the cat is afraid of them.  When the chickens are full, the wild birds come, and the cat catches one occasionally., usually doves  This is more impressive than normal because when we got the cat it already had the front claws de-clawed.  The cat eats a little of the dove and then the chickens come and steal the dove from the cat and eat it.

Once the cat ran away from the chickens, got in the house with a dove in its mouth. Them my wife yelled at the cat, the cat dropped the dove, the dove started flying around in the house, eventually shewed out with a toy light saber.  Should have got that on camera.  Today, instead the cat more or less gave the dove straight to the hens as soon as she killed it.

This is wonderful.... I wish I could teach my cat that trick, she eats the heads off and leaves the rest at the door for us 'shut-ins' - yuck!

Cute!

I used to have a dog (named Kitty) who had a habit of no matter where we lived, would make deals with the alley cats or outdoor cats.  Kitty would keep the other dogs away from them, and they would bring her food to eat.  It was like a little mafia ring.

She'd started making these deals since she was a pup.
Also, it was kinda funny when I was hiking cross country, she'd made that deal with my partner's cat who came with us.  Every night the cat would bring her a little something.  And when we found ourselves in a gold mining camp, with lots of dogs, all the dogs avoided Kitty AND the cat.  And Kitty was only about 10 lbs compared to their 50-100 lbs.  Even the cat was bigger than she was.

But then, she was a mean little thing to other dogs.  The only creatures she was ever nice to were cats and old people.

my doves are peaceful wonderfully sounding creatures. domestic cats sound like ruthless wasteful morons if u ask me.

Declawed cat? Oh my God, I didn't know such things are going on. Why on earth?

BTW, I understand it means ripped out, not just clipped, right?

I have no idea about the process, but I'm pretty sure declawing is more than clipping, because they don't grow back.  I'm not defending the process and would never have it done, I'm just saying the cat was that way when we it adopted us.

i like this thread..my male cat is a great hunter, he eats everything he kills, however, mama cat doesn't really eat what she kills, she gives it to us or her son..or whatever scavangers are aroung, she is smaller so she catches smaller prey than big boy does..he can take down a full size rabbit...and eats all but the feet and some fur

Slightly off topic, but here is a list of things I have seen my omnivorous dogs eat or try to eat:
Dandelion flowers, little white daisy-like flowers that grow in the lawn here, pansies, grass -- any kind they see, I think, poison oak buds (I discourage this) rhododendron stems (I discourage this), fern fiddleheads, blackberries, salal berries, carrots, apples, lettuce,  deer shit, mud -- the boy eats a lot of mud.
I offered them doug fir buds, but they declined. 
Disclaimer: I do feed them the best mass produced dog food I can currently afford to, so especially the mud makes me think there is some mineral missing in it. They are puppy mill survivors, were adults when rescued. I think that has left them open to ANY food possibilities.

My youngest cat is one who was surviving off of bugs she could catch, before her eyes were even fully focusing.  Her mother had disappeared, probably died, too soon.

Anyways, point is that she's never lost the bug catching desire.  She'll eat any bug she can catch, and she's quick at catching them too.  Flies, grasshoppers, moths, whatever.  Unfortunately for her she's an inside cat with access to a cage outside.  This does limit her usage in a permaculture guild.  But it keeps our house free from straying flies, hornets, and ants.

However, when I've planted my broccoli and cauliflower in a container on the porch near the cage, she did pretty well at keeping that one pest from those plants.  If it flew into the cage, it was a gonner.

As I design and implement my yard garden, I intend to extend the cage into a low run that'll meander around parts of the yard.  This will allow her to catch all sorts of insects around the garden, while still keeping her safe.

gani et se wrote:
Slightly off topic, but here is a list of things I have seen my omnivorous dogs eat or try to eat:
Dandelion flowers, little white daisy-like flowers that grow in the lawn here, pansies, grass -- any kind they see, I think, poison oak buds (I discourage this) rhododendron stems (I discourage this), fern fiddleheads, blackberries, salal berries, carrots, apples, lettuce,  deer shit, mud -- the boy eats a lot of mud.
I offered them doug fir buds, but they declined. 
Disclaimer: I do feed them the best mass produced dog food I can currently afford to, so especially the mud makes me think there is some mineral missing in it. They are puppy mill survivors, were adults when rescued. I think that has left them open to ANY food possibilities.

if your dog is eating mud my guess is B12. I give my dog nutritional yeast and he really loves it. a teaspoon thrown over his (boring same ole) food each day and it often entices him to eat it quicker. nutritional yeast is incredibly nutritious! i like it too.

Hey boddah,
Thanks for the suggestion. I'd forgotten B.Y. good for dogs. Seems to be reducing his focus on the mud.
Gani

SergioSantoro wrote:
Declawed cat? Oh my God, I didn't know such things are going on. Why on earth?

BTW, I understand it means ripped out, not just clipped, right?

It is the surgical amputation of all front digits at the first joint. I would never do it to one of my kitties but I guess I can kinda sorta understand it for strictly indoor cats in houses with expensive furniture. Outside they may still score the occasional bird (especially something dumb as a dove), but it leaves them defenseless against just about every other critter.