One For The Birds

We have been keeping our cats inside this spring, and as much as they hate it and are bugging the heck out of us (they are going stir crazy), I think it's having a positive effect on the survival of the wildlife in our yard, namely the birds. On the one hand I feel sort of bad for the cats, they live to be outside, but on the other, they have a good life, and are a little too good at being killers. The birds and animals don't have a chance. What makes it harder to accept is that they ruthlessly kill solely for entertainment, and they are amazingly good at it.

We have bibs which help out, but they are not foolproof. Now R was explaining that in the spring the birds are nesting, so when they get killed, an entire family of birds takes a hit, not to mention little babies that are just getting started. I didn't realize this, but many of the baby birds can't fly very well and are dependent on their moms for survival. Talk about sitting ducks, our cats would have a field day with that.

The plan is to keep the cats in until late spring, and hopefully by that time the baby birds will have matured enough to fly and get away from the cats. I love birds, but I hope they will stay away because if they get too close, it will be lights out. For this reason we no longer have a bird feeder, which is a shame because it's nice to watch them feed, but I'd rather not encourage them to spend time in the danger zone, i.e. our yard.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Emily Stewart for the pic.