While I like cats in their place (indoors), I'm on Russell Rogers's side
when he writes, "Having a free-roaming cat is an irresponsible thing. I
have no sympathy for any cat that is eaten by a Raccoon, Owl or a coyote.
My only sympathy is that it does not happen more often." A couple of big
old feral cats have taken up residence around my house. I borrowed a live
trap from the Olympia Animal Control people but only caught one young,
naive cat and a local 'possum twice. Maybe someone can suggest a way to
encourage Great Horned Owls or some other predator with a taste for cats
to hang around and do their good work. (Not coyotes--I'm in a city
neighborhood.) BTW, 120,000,000 birds killed annually sounds low to me;
when this thread has come up before, here and on Birdchat, estimates of a
billion or more have been reported. If anyone's interested, I have a big
file of Birdchat messages about the issue.

Burt Guttman guttmanb at elwha.evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College Voice: 360-866-6000, x. 6755
Olympia, WA 98505 FAX: 360-866-6794