Author Topic: Backyard critters  (Read 104477 times)

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Offline dracnal

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2000: October 10, 2022, 10:44:02 AM »
Our next-door neighbor left some cans of cat food on our stoop with a note saying her cat didn’t like them. Our cat does like some of them—we recognized the cans as ones she likes.

BUT there was a second box of a brand I did not recognize. Upon further inspection, I discovered why our neighbor's cat didn’t like that stuff: It was dog food. I told her about it and she burst out laughing. It seems her father bought it for her as a favor and must not have read the label. (I gave it to another neighbor who has a dog.)

I've had cats that didn't mind eating from the dog's bowl and dogs that were happy to eat cat food. Most of them seem to be a case of 'does your pet like this?' rather than 'Is this the food that was manufactured with them in mind?' Usually cats won't eat if they aren't hungry but we had couldn't leave the dog's dry food out and about because the cat would just wait for a chance, swoop in, and eat all he could stomach.

Offline imref

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2001: October 10, 2022, 10:48:52 AM »
cats being cats, they will eat a can of food one day, and decide they don't like it the next.  A week later, they'll eat it again.

Offline English Natsie

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2002: October 10, 2022, 04:01:49 PM »
cats being cats, they will eat a can of food one day, and decide they don't like it the next.  A week later, they'll eat it again.

Oh yes, so true...Having said that, if it's edible Meows will be right there... :lol:

Offline 1995hoo

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2003: October 19, 2022, 09:17:48 PM »
So...it's been a bit over three years and the cat my wife has named Fraidy still shows up just about every night seeking food. We still feed her. Her behavior has not changed a bit. Last month we went to Miami for a week to visit relatives and our neighbor fed Fraidy. When we got home, his wife told us, "Wow, we thought you were exaggerating, but that is one seriously Fraidy Cat!"

So late last week, I want to say Thursday, I was slow bringing in the cat food bowl. Went outside to cover the grill and I could have sworn I saw TWO cats running away, one to the right and one to the left. I covered the grill and came back in and left the cat food out in case the cat came back. A little while later, sure enough, a different cat from Fraidy came to eat.

This one showed up again last night and tonight and I'm convinced it's either someone's outdoor cat, a new stray, or an abandoned cat because tonight I was able to go outside and walk right up to it and let it, scratch its head, etc., and it meowed happily (whereas in over three years, Fraidy Cat has never made a single sound). No collar. I guess the thing to do is to e-mail the neighborhood to ask if this is someone's cat and maybe to post some flyers. Seems like a very nice cat and it's certainly a beautiful animal, but I'm not sure we would be good at caring for a cat if we got it to come inside. I know it doesn't belong to anyone in our row of five townhouses.

(Image removed from quote.)

I posted the above, along with the picture below, on the date shown above, a bit over five years ago. Our next-door neighbor adopted that cat and he was such a friendly little guy. It worked out for the best that she adopted him, rather than us, because he had some medical issues that required surgery that we probably couldn’t have afforded at the time, whereas she went ahead and had it done. She absolutely loved that little cat, and her father kept thanking us for finding him and introducing her to him.

You can guess where this is going. The medical issues caught up with the poor little guy and his kidneys failed. He was put down yesterday. Our neighbor is devastated. She has his ashes in an cat-shaped urn on her fireplace mantel. We stopped by Monday afternoon and saw him and you could tell something wasn’t right. He was too quiet, wasn’t jumping up and running around, and she said he hadn’t eaten in a week.  :'( :'( :'( :'(

At least we got her five good years with a really friendly little cat.





(Edited to remove a misplaced comma that arguably changed what a sentence said.)

Offline imref

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2004: October 19, 2022, 09:21:30 PM »
:(

Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2005: October 19, 2022, 09:56:12 PM »
Nooooo

Offline English Natsie

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2006: October 20, 2022, 07:30:25 AM »
Always a sad moment (many cats have I known...)   :(

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2007: October 20, 2022, 08:10:50 AM »
You gave that cat a few good years hoo. 
 :clap:

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2008: October 20, 2022, 08:11:05 AM »
Cats and kidneys :(  Not sure  why that is.  Glad the cat had a good home for 5 years.  Much better than being abandoned. 

Offline 1995hoo

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2009: October 20, 2022, 09:54:46 AM »
Speaking of cats and kidneys. A new pet store just opened up in the Kingstowne Shopping Center. Its name is Felix & Oscar and it moved from Springfield—it was in the strip mall on Backlick Road where Outback and Chick-Fil-A are and where Springfield Seafood used to be, but they just moved to Kingstowne because they said this new location has a lot more space (and I wonder if (a) the rent is lower and (b) the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru line in Springfield was a nuisance for customers). Has anyone ever patronized this store (presumably in the old location)? They claim to specialize in "all natural" healthy pet food. The last time my wife tried buying something "all natural" that she heard about on TV, our cat didn't like it. I suppose I can go over there (I could probably walk to the new store more quickly than I could drive there due to red lights and traffic) and see whether they have small quantities that we could buy as a trial to see what our cat thinks, but I was just curious whether anyone knows anything about them.

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2010: October 20, 2022, 10:30:32 AM »
All natural cat food? Is that things like "Mouse?"

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2011: October 20, 2022, 11:28:17 AM »
Speaking of cats and kidneys. A new pet store just opened up in the Kingstowne Shopping Center. Its name is Felix & Oscar and it moved from Springfield—it was in the strip mall on Backlick Road where Outback and Chick-Fil-A are and where Springfield Seafood used to be, but they just moved to Kingstowne because they said this new location has a lot more space (and I wonder if (a) the rent is lower and (b) the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru line in Springfield was a nuisance for customers). Has anyone ever patronized this store (presumably in the old location)? They claim to specialize in "all natural" healthy pet food. The last time my wife tried buying something "all natural" that she heard about on TV, our cat didn't like it. I suppose I can go over there (I could probably walk to the new store more quickly than I could drive there due to red lights and traffic) and see whether they have small quantities that we could buy as a trial to see what our cat thinks, but I was just curious whether anyone knows anything about them.
We used to go there and buy pet food for our chihuahua at that store. There was another store in Lakeridge that sold the same food but was cheaper at Felix and Oscar.  Can’t remember the name of the food. She liked it after they took most of her teeth out in 2012. She passed on in 2018 so have not been to the store since. Seemed a nice place and they had a couple of fat cats roaming around the store as I recall.

Offline English Natsie

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2012: October 21, 2022, 04:30:29 AM »
Quick guide to natural cat food (albeit also an advert)...

/www.snappytom.com/post/what-is-natural-cat-food

Offline wj73

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2013: October 23, 2022, 04:31:48 PM »
Our bears are looking really good this fall. We’ve had a lot of acorns and other nuts this year, so the bears have been able to pack on the pounds. We have 5 bears that we’ve seen regularly this summer:


“Bob” - a really big boy. He’s probably pushing 400 pounds at this point. His gut just about drags on the ground when he waddles around. He’s a total chub chub. He enjoys sitting in the fish pond. Never bothers the fish - just likes to sit and soak and relax. Sort of his personal hot tub.


“Raleigh” - yearling male (?) who had a tough time early this spring when his mom first kicked him out. He was skinny and scared, but seems to have found his way, as he looks sleek and healthy now. Most young bears are clumsy and unwittingly destructive, knocking over patio furniture, digging up or crushing plants, etc. But Raleigh has been a very mannerly young bear.


“Mama” and the triplets - a large female who had triplets this year. Usually moms look pretty raggedy by this time of year, especially moms of multiples. But Mama looks really good, with lots of body fat and a nice shiny coat. All her cubs look fat and sassy too. It’s been fun watching them grow all summer.


They’ll be around for another month or six weeks (if they survive the Maryland Bear Hunt which starts tomorrow  :'( ) before starting hibernation sometime in December.

Offline GburgNatsFan

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2014: October 24, 2022, 10:19:03 AM »
Nice.  :)
Our bears are looking really good this fall. We’ve had a lot of acorns and other nuts this year, so the bears have been able to pack on the pounds. We have 5 bears that we’ve seen regularly this summer:


“Bob” - a really big boy. He’s probably pushing 400 pounds at this point. His gut just about drags on the ground when he waddles around. He’s a total chub chub. He enjoys sitting in the fish pond. Never bothers the fish - just likes to sit and soak and relax. Sort of his personal hot tub.


“Raleigh” - yearling male (?) who had a tough time early this spring when his mom first kicked him out. He was skinny and scared, but seems to have found his way, as he looks sleek and healthy now. Most young bears are clumsy and unwittingly destructive, knocking over patio furniture, digging up or crushing plants, etc. But Raleigh has been a very mannerly young bear.


“Mama” and the triplets - a large female who had triplets this year. Usually moms look pretty raggedy by this time of year, especially moms of multiples. But Mama looks really good, with lots of body fat and a nice shiny coat. All her cubs look fat and sassy too. It’s been fun watching them grow all summer.


They’ll be around for another month or six weeks (if they survive the Maryland Bear Hunt which starts tomorrow  :'( ) before starting hibernation sometime in December.

Offline English Natsie

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2015: November 24, 2022, 07:40:00 AM »

Offline tomterp

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2016: December 02, 2022, 09:22:52 AM »
Black bear in the neighborhood @Tom Terp.

That bear was spotted here and there for a couple of weeks, appearances posted on NextDoor.  First I saw was in Penderbrook, near Fair Oaks Mall.  From there it moved just past our neighborhood and out Fox Mill Road towards Lawyers, and into Reston for a short time.  Then, it popped up in Tysons Corner by the Tesla store, raiding trash cans.  Then just as suddenly, it disappeared.



Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2017: December 02, 2022, 09:25:36 AM »
That bear was spotted here and there for a couple of weeks, appearances posted on NextDoor.  First I saw was in Penderbrook, near Fair Oaks Mall.  From there it moved just past our neighborhood and out Fox Mill Road towards Lawyers, and into Reston for a short time.  Then, it popped up in Tysons Corner by the Tesla store, raiding trash cans.  Then just as suddenly, it disappeared.

I hear there's a lot of trash surrounding Tesla lately.

Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2018: December 02, 2022, 10:01:16 AM »
Big bear pawing up bijoux at the Galleria...

Offline Kevrock

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2019: December 02, 2022, 12:08:09 PM »
That bear was spotted here and there for a couple of weeks, appearances posted on NextDoor.  First I saw was in Penderbrook, near Fair Oaks Mall.  From there it moved just past our neighborhood and out Fox Mill Road towards Lawyers, and into Reston for a short time.  Then, it popped up in Tysons Corner by the Tesla store, raiding trash cans.  Then just as suddenly, it disappeared.




Yeah, he/she has been on the go! Exhausted food supply here and just moved on.

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2020: December 02, 2022, 12:15:23 PM »
How do they know it’s the same bear?

Offline tomterp

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2021: December 02, 2022, 01:12:45 PM »
How do they know it’s the same bear?

They don't really know, but if a bear is seen in this area perhaps once every 10 years, you can bet with a lot of confidence there's only 1.

Reports of its location moving around made a lot of sense to explain a single bear just exploring and eating. 

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2022: December 02, 2022, 02:03:03 PM »
They don't really know, but if a bear is seen in this area perhaps once every 10 years, you can bet with a lot of confidence there's only 1.

Reports of its location moving around made a lot of sense to explain a single bear just exploring and eating.
Fair enough.

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2023: January 05, 2023, 05:08:11 PM »
Not my back yard but amazing.


Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #2024: January 31, 2023, 08:14:32 AM »
So, there's apparently some breaking and entry at a zoo in Texas, and they stole a couple of rare monkeys.  They're described as having a bushy unibrow and long whiskers.  I don't know how rare that could be.  I saw a lot of them at the Q&A session with Rizzo, Scialabba, Davey, and Zim last Saturday.