To build a catio to keep fledglings safe from the fucking cat

[Qantaqa]

As shooting the cat is not an option.

There are double digit cats living here. Some pets, some feral, some halfway in between. It has always been this way for years. Generally speaking once they semi domesticated and fed regularly they mostly stop hunting bar the odd couple which have it out for the rodent population and leave dead bodies around the yard. We've never had ones that go for birds. Squirrels oddly enough but not birds.

However we have a cat here he's about 2 years and has been here 12 months or so. He's not quite friendly enough to shut in the house for bird season. He's an absolute bird killing machine. He's not even eating them he's just killing them and leaving them around. Sometimes he's not even killing them just crippling them. Its been gutting and I've been trying different things to keep the birds sage. The final straw is he's wiped out 4 magpies over the last week. They obviously still learning to fly but were too big for the nest so were living behind the shed. I thought I'd get them through by building a barricade of sticks and thorn bushes by the shed so they'd got safety to get to as he couldn't get in there but one by one they been got with the final one being taken tonight.

I'm unreasonably upset about it so ive told dad we need do something and he obviously thinks I've lost the plot but is willing to humour me to some extent but thinks me building an outdoor catio to keep the cat in is a tad OTT.

So is it?

Oh I’m sorry - it’s so upsetting, isn’t it? I think I’m actually still not over the time I found my Boy Cat just sitting next to a pretty hairless baby bird and sort of disinterestedly poking it. Or the time he brought a young jay into the house that was flapping and bleeding everywhere and screaming like nothing else. He did get less bloodthirsty about birds as he got older but that’s small comfort, I know.

How realistic is it that you can build a catio?

All cats should be kept indoors/in a catio imo. They kill millions of song birds every year in the UK alone, not to mention shitting everywhere. I have feathers on the lawn atm which I'm hoping was the sparrowhawk making a kill. If I see a cat in the garden I will have absolutely no qualms at all about setting my dogs on the fucker. If you don't want your cat shot/run over/poisoned then I suggest you take some responsibility for it and keep it in. Pretty sure most cat owners would be hysterical if my terrier came onto their garden and had a shit and killed their cat.

Absolutely backing @CalistoNoSolo on this

I hate the trespassing bastards

All cat owners should catproof their garden. Don’t inflict your animals on everyone else; they’re nothing but a nuisance.

@NoSquirrels building him a Catio is easy. Thre issue is his brother (at least I'm assuming it's his brother as they turned up together and they look alike) is feral as fuck and you can't get near him. There is hardly any chance of me getting his bro in a catio any time soon and they very bonded so I worry about how he'll be separated as they play and sleep together all the time. He is the braver one so I think it will set back taming the other one too. We've done as much as we can to help the birds the rest of the year with moving / cat proofing the various feeders and water features the birds use. Weve planted plants around the trees to make it harder for him to get up in the trees/ bushes and it was working well its just his success rate is through the roof atm whilst the birds all so vulnerable!

@CalistoNoSolo @ApplesInTheSunshine @FrustratedAndFuming I mean having a feral (or semi feral) colony of cats in the house isn't an option and catproofing acres of land and forest when they arent going in anyone else's gardens won't stop them murdering the various animals that live in that land so that's not a solution to this.

Then you need to do the responsible thing and trap and neuter, then rehome (though personally i'd be trapping and euthanasing). Allowing a colony of feral cats to breed, multiply and kill every small furry/feathery on an ever increasing radius of land@ is the height of environmental irresponsibility.

Build the catio. Protect the birds.