THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601300155
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
The wide TV screens in my house that occupy my cat Whiskey's idle hours are two windows where I have bird feeders.
The feeders are stuck onto the pane with suction cups and Whiskey can watch birds whenever and as long as she likes. The birds are usually obliging except during prime time.
Though the glass gives Whiskey a rude rebuff if she decides to pounce, she doesn't seem to mind and neither do the birds. They dart off just like they do when I approach the glass too quickly. Then the little finches, chickadees and tufted titmice come, twittering, right back again to eat some more.
A cat on the other side of the glass is nothing like a cat in the bush and the birds seem to know it.
On the other hand, the cat doesn't seem to realize that the house finch at the feeder is not a bird in hand. This sweet, loving, orange calico cat of mine that curls up in my lap at any opportunity turns into a tiny tiger.
Her native instincts take over. She sits motionlessly, eyes set on the bird in the feeder. Her tail moves with a nervous twitch. She utters a low, clicking sound deep from her throat. And she pounces.
Then I'm so glad she's in and the birds are out. I know if Whiskey were allowed outdoors, she'd be doing the same thing but only she'd be killing the birds, too.
There are those of you who are going to tell me that it's OK for cats to kill birds, that it's just nature taking its course. As I see it, only half the equation of cat versus bird is nature and that's the bird.
The cat is not. Whiskey has an edge over all the wildlife out there. She has warm shelter, a soft cushion to sleep on, medicine when she's sick and, being well-fed, she never has to search for food. Still, the old, deep-seated hunting instinct takes over at times.
Long ago, I had another well-fed, happy cat that I used to let outdoors. He spent most of his time hunting and brought all sorts of little gifts to the front door - birds, mice, rabbits - none of them eaten but all of them dead.
It seems a lot of cats are still bringing gifts to their owners. A reader recently sent me an article from the September 1991 Sports Afield magazine entitled Killer (Kitty) Cats. It appears to be written from a hunter's perspective and even hunters are alarmed about the damage cats do to wildlife.
Author George Harrison interviewed several biologists. He found among other statistics that cats kill 47 million rabbits nationwide each year and that 5 million cats in Britain kill 70 million animals, 20 million of them birds every year. Harrison speculates that the estimated 60 million cats in the United States must be doing far more damage.
It is now against the law for cats to roam free in Virginia Beach (and they also must be licensed), but no one seems to listen. A sleek black cat, in search of birds, lies in wait in my yard on a daily basis. Sometimes I think I should take up the feeder that's out in the middle of the yard so the birds aren't sitting ducks for this wily creature.
There's the cat's side of the story, too. My cat Whiskey is actually Whiskey II. Whiskey I was an inside cat for all his 14 years until he died. He never killed any birds, but neither did he ever get hit by a car, get in a cat fight or run into a rabid raccoon, among other possible hazards.
A letter from reader Betty Hazen illustrates the cat's point of view. She wrote about her long-haired white cat with black markings that she had had for nine years before it wandered away one day in December. She let her cat go outside in the courtyard of her townhouse complex for short periods of time, she wrote, but it never left the premises.
But one day, her cat did leave. She has searched and searched and offered a reward, but since the cat has no ID tags, she has little hope of finding her pet.
``I was stupid for letting her go outside in the first place,'' Hazen wrote, ``and also for not giving her an ID.
``Please ask your readers to learn by my mistakes so this will not happen to them.''
Her letter reminded me of a some advice I got from the Virginia Beach SPCA when I adopted Whiskey II. I didn't think she needed to wear a collar with an ID tag since she would be an inside cat. But, the SPCA told me, the inside cat will really get lost if it happens to slip out the door, because they know nothing about their neighborhood or finding their way home.
So, put an ID collar on your cat, give him his own wide TV screen and keep him inside.
P.S. A free program on snakes will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday at Back Bay national Wildlife Refuge. Call 721-2412 for reservations.
BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS and the latest research on these summer visitors is the topic of a program at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Virginia Marine Science Museum. The fee is $2 for museum members and $4 for the public. Call 437-6003.
A SHIP-MODELING WORKSHOP, sponsored by the Life-Saving Museum, will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Princess Anne Inn, 25th and Atlantic. Modelers from the Hampton Roads Ship Model Society will lead the discussion. The workshop cost is $5. Call 422-1587. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
A pane of glass separates Whiskey, an orange calico cat, from the
finches, chickadees and tufted titmice that feed from two
suction-cupped bird-feeders.
by CNB