3 posts tagged “cats”

When Bob Walker and Frances Mooney moved into their current home with their five cats in the late 1980s, they decided to modify their home to make it a more cat-friendly environment.

They started with a floor-to-ceiling scratching column covered in 395 feet of pink-dyed sisal and connected to a wall-to-wall beam just below ceiling height.

“Initially, the cats would run full speed down the hall chasing each other, go up and over the top of the two couches and climb up the column and race along the beam and hit a dead end where it connected to the wall," says Walker.

To solve this problem, they extended the beams through the walls, running them from room to room to create 140 feet of cat pathways. They added more roaming space with ramps and staircases.

These walkways lead to ceiling-high hiding-holes and lookout stations, because as Walker explained, “everyone knows cats like to look down on us.”

Walker and Mooney have written a book that goes into more detail about their pet friendly home modifications, which is entitled The Cat's House.

Feral cats in Los Angeles now have a better alternative than euthanization when picked up by the humane society. Previously, feral cats had little chance of leaving the shelters alive because they usually cannot be sufficiently re-domesticated enough to be suitable pets.

Recently, the LAPD, along with the animal welfare group, Voice for the Animals, instituted a Working Cats program that uses such cats to combat the rampant rat infestation in their various facilities.

Everywhere the cats have been placed, they've effectively ended the rodent problem. Though the cats kill whatever rats and mice they are able to catch, the problem is solved mainly by scent. The rodents become aware of the feline presence by the smell of the cats and their urine -- and simply move on to areas with less cat density.

In areas where the cats have been placed, officers have been assigned to feed and care for them, which supplements their rodent diet.

It's a humane solution all around: the cats are saved from starvation or euthanization and the rats are spared more grisly methods of control, such as glue traps.

It's a great idea that should be imitated in other cities wherever rodent problems exist.

Thoughts?
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Working Cats