Catzilla?

I also hate to see dead rodents, cute or otherwise; I prefer it if the cats take them away and eat them in a neighbor's garden.

By the way, can I please borrow that cat?

Ha, Catzilla, indeed. He is a big, big boy --whom we named "Boy Cat" (duh. how original). But he's already acquired a few nicknames... Boyo, Fubsy Dumpling, Gigantor (Gigi, for short). He'll answer to anything.

I thought only female cats tried to teach their people to hunt. (Our two female 'inside only' cats couldn't be bothered.) But Boy did seem to be trying to entice me with his still living (but not for long) prey. I declined the offer.

Until recently, we always had several spayed male Siamese cats. They were all great hunters--not to mention great pets. If we had cats now, we could never let them outside in what has become Wild Kingdom. They would be dinner for something else.

But...there is a cat we all call the Neighborhood Cat. No one knows who he or she belongs to, if anyone, tho he does look cared for. Outside in all seasons. Every time we think he is...no longer with us...he turns up. He was on my deck last week checking underneath the gas grill where chipmunks reside.

No outdoor cats in my neighborhood, because we had lots of coyotes for several years. Now that the coyotes have disappeared (could have been from mange, although I've heard rumors of the town shooting them) the place is completely overrun with bunnies and other "cute" vermin. The cats, of course, are still gone; either really gone or kept indoors.

I don't really mind the damage to the garden from the bunnies too much, so far, but I DO object to them drowning in my swimming pool and to the ticks they carry. Have never seen ticks in my yard until this spring, and I don't think Damminix tick tubes are effective when the tick hosts are bunnies.

I gave up feeling sentimental about chipmunks and other rodents years ago. This year was the final straw. We had a family of chickadees that had made a nest in a tree stump right outside our kitchen window. The mom and dad worked like slaves for weeks feeding their brood. Late last week we found that chipmunks had tunnelled into the stump, raided the nest and, I think, eaten the two adult birds as well. There were feathers all over my terrace. I cried all day for those birds! We rounded up all the feathers and had a fire pit ceremony for the birds.

Chipmunks are no longer cute.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Chipmunks are nothing but striped rats. They carry deer ticks and they can ravage a garden. I've had way more damage in my garden from chipmunks than woodchucks, deer or any other critter. I absolutely abhor them and we become readily overrun. They procreate waaaay to quickly. We have lots of coyotes, owls and hawks, none of which seem to be doing a very good job. There's one neighborhood cat that puts up a good battle, but there are way too many for one cat to conquer!

Whitegarden, I'm really sorry about those chickadees.

We had one chipmunk show up in our garden last year for the first time. Now this year, I see there are two of them. I stopped using a certain birdfeeder because they could climb the post and would empty it in a few hours. We have a new feeder on a pole and installed a squirrel baffle to keep the chipmunk out but I saw a feeder that had 10 pounds of seed in it go from full in the morning to almost empty by 4pm. I could not see the chipmunk on the feeder, so I'm still scratching my head. I watched one make his way to the area where the feeder is but never saw it climb the pole or on the feeder. I just can't imagine enough birds that would empty that feeder that fast.

We are taking care of cats for a family member but they are indoor cats. I'm tempted to put them to work. I would never get permission for that though. LOL I think I am going to have to come up with some way of getting rid of them before I have 100 of them.

I wonder if this is a bumper year for chipmunks - my two outdoor cats (I also have an indoor one) are bringing home (they leave right by the back door!) at least a chipmunk a day - as well as the occasional rabbit, mouse or mole. I've never had them catch so many.

I really have changed my opinion of chipmunks. Even more after reading about the chickadees! How awful. Attacking pulmonarias is one thing, but eating birds... Chipmunks ARE just striped rats, and I too have never seen as many as this year. I have some in the backyard that continually raid the seed that falls from the bird feeder (when the squirrels, who hang on the feeders and snack much of the day, drop them). And just a day after Boy Cat caught Chipzilla I saw another in my new front garden. They're everywhere. And Boy Cat can kill as many as he can catch and I won't mourn them anymore.

Boyo officially became our cat after we took him to the vet for what we feared was an ear abscess. It was actually a hematoma brought on by head-shaking due to ear mites. Once the vet got him, he wanted him snipped, of course, and we agreed. After that, we figured we owed him a good home. He insists on going outside but we always get him in before it's too dark, and he can't go out in the morning until the sun is well up to avoid coyotes' favorite hunting times. I couldn't bear to lose him now, but it's a question of quality of life. If we try to keep him inside all the time he'll be miserable.

And now that my pulmonarias are recovering it's time for another loss. A %$*#%^&*% deer (giant wood rats!) ravaged my Hosta 'Guacamole'. Just like last year. Sigh. I doubt it will recover enough to flower this year. Grrr. It's always something...

Thanks for the sympathy for our family of chickadees. Even my husband got really upset.

We have coyotes,foxes,fisher cats,owls,hawks and still we have too many chipmunks.

It can be hard, whitegarden. You get so emotionally invested. We had a large flock of wild turkeys descend on us last year. There must have been at least 9 of them, and there were 4 young ones in the group. The adult birds disappeared and we only saw the 4 young turkeys. And then there were 3. Then 2. The morning that we pulled out of the driveway and saw a lone adolescent turkey limping down the street... We knew it would be gone very soon as well. Turkeys aren't very cute, and I didn't see them hatch or watch the parents working so hard to feed them, but I still shudder every time I see a wild turkey. I can imagine how terrible you and your husband felt. It may be nature's way, but it still makes you cry.

We had a similar experience one summer when we were getting to a nearby pond regularly. We saw a Swan family up close and personal all that summer and they started out as little fuzzy babies and were adolescents by the fall. The family seemed to split up before winter came that year. We saw the parents with three of the adolescents and then down to one and then none. It was very sad and that was just the natural progression of how it all works.

We enjoy the birds in the yard too and I would find an attack on a bird nest very upsetting. Sorry you had to experience that.

I can't imagine how the chipmunk population stays high with so many predators in the area. I wonder if snakes are the best deterrent?