"JerryMouse" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com... : Gray asphalt wrote: : >
: > I know this sounds cruel but we have tried for over a : > year to keep them in and a new neighbor has a rotweiller : > that is dangerous. We've lost one cat already to another : > dog further down the road. : >
: >
: You may be trying to solve the wrong problem. : : In most contests with dogs, cats will win. Consider: : 1. For short distances, the average house cat can hit 30 miles-per-hour. : 2. Cats can not only climb, but jump MUCH higher than a dog. : 3. Cats have a much higher pain-threshold than dogs. : 4. Cats are not stupid - they will not knowingly put themsleves in harm's : way or torment a dog. : 5. A dog cannot "sneak up" on a cat; a cat can come to dog-harm only by : being trapped and it's defenses overwhelmed. : : (I recently read a story about a dog being walked in a county park. The dog : gave chase to a roaming cat. The cat went zip up a tree while the dog, its : eyes being focused on the cat, ran past the tree at full speed and off an : 80' cliff into the river below. It took the fire department rescue team : four hours to retrieve the dog (unhurt) from the water below. The cat, still : in the tree, nearly laughed itself to death.) : : So, you need only to deal with the rare case of #6. Two possible solutions : come to mind: : 1. Provide adequate escape mechanisms for the cat (ramps, small, one-way, : holes in the fence, etc.). Your neighbor will probably cooperate. : 2. Kill the dogs. : : We have a (mostly) outside cat. I have personally seen her bring an Irish : Setter to grief, chase two 30-pound raccoons into the next county, and teach : a significant - and painful - lesson to a oppossum. No one knows what other : wildlife she's brought to Jesus. : : Nevertheless, one high-tech idea is a combination motion detector and : water-sprinkler. I'll leave it to you to work out the details. : : Best of luck. : :
One of our cats got killed by a neighbor dog. After reading one of the posts I'm wondering it there isn't a chance that the neighbor might have trapped my cat.
I meant that the neighbor might be willing to keep the dog inside while we broke in the fence, not long term.
We've got a bunch of cats so the collars might be too expensive and we have to worry about poisoning, too, so even if the dogs aren't a problem then we still have to keep them in.
Thanks so much for you suggestions, It makes me feel good : -)