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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

foxes?

we have now lost 2 microchipped young female cats in the past 6 weeks. We kept them indoors at night on the advice of the vet until after they were 7 months old. They both went missing at night and never returned. It might not be foxes in this cold weather but perhaps it is. I am perplexed t as I have had cats in this area for 25 years without them going missing before.

Tags for Forum Posts: foxes

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on January 5, 2011 at 16:00
The predatory chain: as well as other benefits, cats are useful to us humans in keeping down vermin. Foxes are not so useful – in urban areas they scavenge and cause a nuisance. I don't think the cat will "enjoy the chase" Eddie any more than your foxes will after I've formed a posse with The Harringay Hunt!
Permalink Reply by Liz Young on January 4, 2011 at 13:13
I don't know if foxes are responsible, but don't give up hope. My timid 17 year old cat went missing on 10th July and she turned up again on 4th September 2 months later. I had been just about to take my missing posters down and it's as well that I didn't as that is how the lady whose garden she turned up in reunited her with us.
Permalink Reply by pamish on January 4, 2011 at 14:55

At least your Missing posters stayed up. Mine were removed by some jobsworth about three weeks after I put them up. Is there a council policy?

 

My Eliza has gone, I am reconciled to that, she was not well and would not have lived this six weeks without her drugs. But I'd like to find the body, still. Hadn't thought that a fox may have taken her, a more real possibility than the urban-myth vivisectionists and fur-traders. And OAE. 

 

Permalink Reply by Debbie on January 7, 2011 at 14:10
Parnish, what did your cat look like?
Permalink Reply by pamish on January 7, 2011 at 20:16

She was a long-ish haired tabby. She can't still be alive as she's not had her drugs since mid-November.

 

Here's her photo.

 

I live in Seven Sisters so not in Harringay catchment.

Permalink Reply by Liz Young on January 8, 2011 at 13:10
I presume you've contacted local vets, Wood Green Animal Shelter etc.?
Permalink Reply by pamish on January 8, 2011 at 13:21

She was chipped so any contact with a vet etc means I would have heard. No, she went off and died (or Foxy got her), she never travelled far before. I reckon that in the spring someone will find  her bones tucked away under a shed or something. Sick animals run from the pain and seek shelter and a hiding place. She had a heart problem that meant she was on diuretic drugs, she will not have survived without them. Two things I wish - that I had put a collar on her, and that I had taken her to the vet earlier (she was due a routine check shortly) and he would have told me she was very sick and I would have euthanased her then, instead of this not knowing.

But we had ten good years, and her last year was extra to what she would  have had in 'real life'.

Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on January 4, 2011 at 13:46
I like cats.

I used to think foxes looked cute; but less so after reading this post. I sometimes see foxes out the back, between this house and the railway line (some years ago, a friend said he saw a fox at Farringdon Station). They have come into the city along the land by railway lines where there are no humans to obstruct them.

If and when legislation is reformed, I propose some form of Harringay Hunt: not to protect sheep, but our feline friends.

.
Permalink Reply by matt on January 5, 2011 at 19:38

 

Article.

 

'The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, recruited a network of backyard birders named Neighborhood Nestwatch to help study the fortunes of baby catbirds in neighborhoods in Bethesda and Takoma Park.

 

The researchers tracked spring nestlings with radio transmitters. In the neighborhoods with a lot of cats, 80 to 90 percent of the fledglings died, most of them killed by cats. In the other areas, about 50 percent died, a rate found in nature, he said. The results suggest that catbirds in cat-heavy areas are not able to reproduce at a rate that is sustainable.'

 

 

Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on January 6, 2011 at 9:02

Right, let's hear it for the boids! Why shouldn't cats be muzzled, just like pitbulls?

 

Only problem with the Washington Post article is the headline: 'Roaming cats decimating bird populations'.  That would be just 10% of fledglings as catkill, rather than 90%.  The linguistic equivalent of the grey squirrel - but I suppose it's not as bad as Wayne Rooney's 'The World Cup decimated me.'

Permalink Reply by Kit on January 6, 2011 at 9:41

 

If everyone kept their cats indoors between dusk and dawn, a better chance for the boids to breed/less risk of foxes snaffling pet moggies. Two birds, one stone.

 

james walshPermalink Reply by james walsh on January 6, 2011 at 10:08

Kit* this article may interest you.It's about the cataclysmic effect cats are having upon aboriginal fauna/flora of australia. I saw a documentory about it recently and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it. In most australian states it's the law to keep your cat indoors dusk to dawn.

http://www.messybeast.com/ausdilemma.htm

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