“Unadoptable” shelter cats get second chance at life by chasing mice

Behavior problems in dogs are all about training. Behavior problems in cats are mostly about environment, and virtually never about training.

A cat really is a mirror of its environment. Most problems arise from pent up energy, group dynamics, clueless Humans, bad toilet placement (yes cat toilet makes the cat happy, as a German saying goes).

Lots of space, hunting activity, ability to choose contact at will and a well structured habitat makes such cats a lot more well regulated.

Well, yes. They're predators. That's what cats are for.

When I kept a horse at the Stanford barn, we always had a few barn cats. The cat people tended to overfeed them, so they wouldn't hunt much. Arrangements were made with the people who catch feral cats at Stanford to exchange the fat cats for some lean, aggressive ones they couldn't place in homes. Worked out fine. Soon, they'd cleared the barn, and started hunting further out until they'd cleared the whole area.

Working cats should be fed about half the food they need, so they have to hunt, says an old British G.P.O. manual.

Metro Vancouver's cat sanctuary RAPS has a "barn cat" program that's similar to this. http://www.rapsbc.com/cat-sanctuary/

RAPS located in the suburb of Richmond, which is an odd urban, farming, industrial fusion of a municipality, and a perfect mix sort of environment for feral cat colonies to go unnoticed. They trap lots of feral cats, and over time some times some of these feral cats chill out enough that they're only semi-feral and can be a good fit for living on farms and killing rats.

They also have all sorts of other unadoptable cats that would be killed at any normal shelter. Some times this is due to high aggression, problem urination, special needs or some disease such as FIV (HIV but for cats).

Nothing new here. Less desirable kitties have become important rodent hunting 'barn cats' as long as I can remember. The problem is they tend not to discriminate prey, and decimate already hurting bird populations.

The real unspoken issue here is overpopulation, please spay and nuter your pets! /rip bob

HUGE cat lover here. Dogs are great too but a lot of work. No point to make, just a fun anecdote:

Growing up in the country, some of my earliest memories are of my older brother, my little sister, and me sneaking down to the barn to discover new kittens, and excitedly telling our mother.

Cue weeks of sneaking down and snatching fat little kittens and carrying them around loving them.

Plus, they would hunt and keep mice out of the barn. Useful AND adorable.

I do not remember the title of a sci-fi book I read that mentioned in passing that many spaceships had ship cats to manage rodents, just like sailing ships. It wasn't a feature of the story, just part of the tapestry.

I used to work with a cat and I was quite amazed at his contribution to software development. This cat lived a few hundred yards away from the office and there were multiple gates and doors for him to get through. Often he would start work before anyone else, often he would want to work late. He chose my desk rather than the sixty or so others to work at. He was very adept at using a mouse, however, this would not be like how most 'people' use a mouse. Essentially he would stretch out, see the mouse move on the screen, then reposition himself so the mouse would move again. It looked like he was moving the mouse properly but he was just reacting to his own actions. Quite incredible to see a cat 'using' a computer like so, engaged with the screen and convincingly moving the mouse.

His contributions to software development were many. One thing this cat worked out that no Apple/Microsoft/Ubuntu software engineer managed to notice was that repeatedly holding down the 'Print Screen' button would permanently immobilise a computer, making a reboot required. Try it for yourself - the multitude of dialog boxes builds up and makes the computer not usable. This is also the case if the computer is locked, on Ubuntu (and maybe Windows) the dialog box still pops up on pressing 'Print Screen' at the login prompt.

I would say that the H.R. department also liked the cat as on any tour given to a new employee the introductions would be made. At least one of my colleagues joined the company because they liked the cat friendly working environment. So he was definitely a hit for recruitment and retaining employees.

There certainly was no rodent problem but I was on the side of the mice and have prised his jaws open on a few occasions to let some terrified creature escape to die from shock a short while later.

To get to the office this cat would take a stroll through an artist's studio. One time he arrived covered in pink, orange and grey paint. He had ruined a painting that was due to be sent to a posh gallery in New York. As it turned out a lot of people wanted to buy that particular painting as it had been 'improved' by the cat, so it sold for an absolute fortune, unlike the rest of the collection. The paint lasted quite a long time on him as it was oil based. This was one of many legendary stories concerning this hard working cat, he also stowed away on a boat and went missing for a fortnight, eventually making his way back home all by himself.

His actual owners had a fireplace showroom as part of their building business, so this cat chose our office over his own 'workplace' where he had a dozen or so fireplaces to sprawl out in front of. Needless to say he did a good job of selling the fireplace lifestyle to people too.

I think there were a good half dozen or so elderly ladies that he would check up on so another of his roles was as a care worker. Without his visits they would have not had as much exercise and contact with 'people', they would let him in but shun human 'care workers' so he did take his care work seriously.

This cat did have actual staff, so the handyman would go to a posh supermarket to buy fresh king size Icelandic prawns for him on a daily basis. If the prawns were a day old then he would turn his nose up and dine out on mice.

As for his hunting skills, his agility was a mix of Houdini and those oriental style martial art films. His breaking and entering skills were tantamount to magic. He could also move mid-air in a way that defied physics, making 90 degree turns mid-leap. He defended his territory and as well as keeping the vermin down he would teach dogs who was boss. Once he broke up a fight between two dogs giving both of them bloody noses, intervening where no human dared.

He also made timely entrances in company meetings, once when the boss was called to the front this cat decided that he should spring forward and beat him to the stage. This had everyone in hysterics.

In North London there is a special cemetary for working animals, I would like to go there some time. There are ship's cats from previous wars, pigeons from WW1, servicemen's dogs and other remarkable working 'animals' buried there. Recently they renovated the place and had a 'fly by' of pigeons which I would like to have seen. I think my feline friend has contributed enough to be worthy of a place there when the time comes in eight lives' time...

Cats are decimating bird populations, we don’t need more options for cats, we need less cats.

One of the local breweries in my city partnered with a local animal shelter to do something similar. They're the happiest cats that never want want to meet you. (they are all spay/chipped/collared/vaccinated and get yearly checkups)

I think its interesting we have acceptance of this basic hunting behaviour, and belief it works, and we have simultaneously denial that cats cause an overwhelming majority of bird deaths in economies where cats are only an introduced species. By denial I mean both the wider 'we're in denial about this' and the specific 'oh... not my cat' response.

Pet cats, feral cats, both. Mainly now, feral cats because we (Australia) have a huge self-sustaining population of them. The numbers are calculated into the millions of surplus bird and lizard and small marsupial/mouse deaths per year (native mice btw, not european mice or rats).

I like cats. I was a cat owner. I grew up with cats. Cats are amazing. They also are wrecking fragile ecologies.

If only we could do the same for humans. It's sad to see some of these poor humans effectively neutered or put down by social or legal forces.