Barn Cat?

[KiotiKowboy]

So animals for millions of years have lived without vaccines and because your poor you should NOT be aloud to own a pet,

Dinosaurs were not domesticated. If you want one of those you probably don't need to worry about spay/neuter/vaccine.

If you are poor, you shouldn't drive a Ferrari. If you are poor, you shouldn't spend your money on a Smartphone. If you are poor, you shouldn't spend your days in a casino. You can say life is not fair - fine. Smart decisions are not SELFISH decisions. Sometimes you have to tell little Johnny he can't have everything he wants .... until he gets an education and a career that facilitates a broader range of options.

 

[SPIKER]

... You can say life is not fair - fine. Smart decisions are not SELFISH decisions. Sometimes you have to tell little Johnny he can't have everything he wants ......

I never said Life was Fair. and I agree that Smart decisions are just that smart ones, in many cases as just a few people are pointing out owning a cat is cheap when you have it hunt and eat for it's self (working for your family to keep away mice that got into the little food the house has to feed the family.) Poor people's pets survive and thrive off their own skill and scraps most of the time. The are not the pampered ones most people have today they are working cats/dogs who do something on the farm to help the humans. They kill & eat the rats chase off the coyotes and help guard the livestock.

Living poor and living in ones means are not the same, many people now have tens of thousands of dollars of debt, new cars homes boats tractors etc all new bought on credit. Something poor people don't have to worry about owning a Ferrari as the dealership won't sell em one. Youth now are too stuck in having the next smartphone (best thing) so yes they are on way to owning lots of debt.

M

 

[TomSeller]

Just as my Dad said, wrestle with a pig and all you get is muddy and the pig likes it.

Guilty.....

In her case I wish I was the pig.

 

[MossRoad]

Poison kills many different species not just the target species, including cats, dogs or owls who find a dieing or dead critter an easy meal. Yes if you have a bunch of dead mice laying around they are snacks for a dog, cat, skunk or whatever. I raised mice and sold them as a kid so know what those critters can take and now many species feed on them. I supplied about 50 mice a month to a couple pet stores, usually for snake food from about 8 years old till maybe 13. We raised pigeons, hunted, fished year around as well as hand dug large gardens all for food. I grew up POOR while rescuing a kitten was something we could & did do taking it to the vet was not in the budget as taking us KIDS to doc was not in budget (real easy to figure out when there is 0 money!) We kept a cat or two around with only rare small bag of food 2 or 3 lbs lasted a month, the cats ate mainly from mice/birds they caught. Some of the happiest animals we ever had were ones that would go hunting in fields or woods with us. They got the spoils of a good hunting trip or fishing trip (innards of the soon to be dinner for mom and my brother.)

People having this holier than though attitude is not something I cotton to. Lots of people say they were poor yet they had/have phones, TVs, Cars, electric & heat and parents with jobs earning money for those luxuries. I grew up with 3rd hand clothing hand-me downs from my brothers who got it from others.

Again just because you say un vaccinated cats spread disease it is less likely than Vets and Vaccine companies want you to believe. If the cats are healthy, fit and are able to feed themselves without eating poisoned dead mice they live long, healthy and happy lives.

Mark

Ah the good old days... when we ate out of lead cans, insulated our houses with vermiculite, and smoked tobacco as much as we possibly could...

We know better now on a lot of things, including vaccinating animals (and people).

 

[Bird]

My grandmother's family raised hogs...she used to tell us about how she and her brothers wrestled hogs down in the snow and cut their throats...and letting them run around (squealing) until they bled out...

When I was a kid, we butchered our own hogs and calves, but they were ALWAYS shot in the brain with a .22 rifle, then had their throats cut. But a neighbor/friend a few years ago told me that when he was a kid helping his dad butcher hogs, he told his dad that the ag teacher in school said it was better to cut their throats to start with. He said his dad handed him a knife and told him to do it. He said by the time he got that hog killed, he knew he would never again tell his dad how to do something or what a school teacher said.:laughing:

 

[Bird]

Ah the good old days... when we ate out of lead cans, insulated our houses with vermiculite, and smoked tobacco as much as we possibly could...

We know better now on a lot of things, including vaccinating animals (and people).

Yep, when I was a kid, I had 3 horses (one at a time), we had milk cows, chickens, hogs, dogs, and cats. No animal ever saw a veterinary for anything, certainly no vaccinations. And while we bought food for the cows, chickens, and hogs, no dog food or cat food was ever bought. Of course with a family of 7 in the days of no microwaves, we did have scraps thrown out for the dogs and cats. I can remember when we had an old black tomcat that usually stayed out around the barn and a grey female cat that spent more time near the house, but they'd both be nearby and ready for some warm milk when I went to milk the cow. And my Dad did not allow an animal inside the house, or even on the porch, regardless of the weather.

But yep, everything changes. When we bought a place in the country, a Chow dog showed up and adopted us, and my wife wanted to keep him. So I told her the first thing was to take him to town and get him vaccinated. Then I built a doghouse for him. And I vaccinated our goats myself. And now, our little dog gets regular checkups at the vet and all kinds of vaccinations.:laughing:

 

[downsizingnow48]

Had a lot of mice at the country place until a long black racer type snake moved in. I see it every week or so in the warmer weather. Either it eats all the mice or they relocated. No mice and no vet bills.

 

[tcreeley]

We all know what's good to do, but sometimes we just have to keep it to ourselves - because the cure is worse than the problem.
People mean well, but the one size fits all approach doesn't hold up. Too many individual situations.

This summer we tamed a bantam (or small wht leghorn?) chicken that had strayed from someone's house. It was living in the woods and perching up in trees. We started throwing out cracked corn for it and calling. Overtime it came close to the barn and after a hard cold rain this fall, it came into the barn. That night it was perched up on a beam above the horses. This went on for a week. It would let us pick her up after we had been feeding her- (someone's lost pet?). My wife carried her into our chicken coop with our barred rocks. She can easily fly straight up 7'. She could have left anytime she wanted (fence is only 5' high) - but she stays. If she had left she'd be dead by now. with the cold and snow, or predators.

I figure that if an animal hangs around, come looking for food- then what I offer is better than what it has.
Two summers ago we had a female cat who we had been feeding bring her young kittens to the source of food. They were wild. Soon after she went and got pregnant again and on a rainy day she carried 4 very young kittens one by one in her mouth, into the house and hid them behind the couch. We had to act like she wasn't there. A week later when it was warmer, she took off with them. I found them a couple of days later under the deck. I grabbed them up and brough them inside. We lured her into the room with the kittens- she was frantic and shut the door. We fed them- she hid and the kittens played with us. In time the kittens and she were all fixed, along with her earlier kittens (live trapped). We still can't touch her, or the first set of kittens - but she comes and stares at me when she wants food or water. I enjoy cats- allergic to them, can't touch them, but fun to have around.

One of our earliest cats was a stray somebody had put in a bag and had thrown into a river when we were students and living in a 1/2 liveable barn. It escaped- but it jumped out of my hands when we were moving to another place, and was tumbled by a car. Took it to the vet- was there a few days with a wired jaw. Vet did it for next to nothing. We moved to Ohio with the cat and when we came back to outside Boston, it went missing. Two months later I saw it out the window of our apartment licking ice and I went out and brought it in. It's front leg had been broken and healed at a funny angle. The cat finally died of old age here in Maine after two more moves. -Strays, some tame, others wild- we've had quite a few -some dogs too.