Hunting

Well I guess all these games of Barneys where he is killing his toys has come in very, very handy. Heard a squeak in the back yard, went out to look and one of the cats had brought a rat in and left it running about. Tommy the cat was sat on the wall just watching. Barney got hold of it and it didn't last long. That's the second one in a week, must be the year for rats. we find that each year the cats catch more of one species than any other. One year it was mice another was shrews, I could cope with them even when they brought them in the house but rats, yuk no thanks.

Yikes! rats! I am terrified of them. Well done to Barney I say. Max came in yesterday with a mouse hanging precariosly from his mouth!!! Love all God's creatures and hate to see any of them hurt, but vermin really do scare me. We live beside fields, so naturally we are going to get them at this time of year, but to see a baby one scarper under my duvet last Winter was as much as I could take, so I immediately bought this plug-in appliance which supposedly prevents them from staying in the house. Oh the joys of country living..not!

If possible, keep & eye out & take any rats away from your cat & dog before they eat it. If your neighbours use rat-bait & your dog eats the gut, they can also be poisoned. One of the common ingredients in rat-bait is warfarin and this causes hemorrhage.

Just going to say what Caraline has posted. A friends dog years ago died from a rat that had eat rat posion. From what i recall it wasnt a nice death.

Wow....good advice Caraline!!!!!!

We have allotments immediately behind us, that's where the cats have got them, I have had Tommy for 12 yr and it's only the second time he has brought a rat back.

As soon as I was sure it was dead we took it off Barney. Will have to watch the cats as well because we have found the rats have been in our shed and had a go at the potatoes that we were storing, so they will be chucked out. I'm going to buy some rat traps and see if we can get rid of them, I could of got some today but I want some easy setting ones, nearly take my fingers off otherwise. A lot of people have chickens on the gardens but obviously we won't know if they are poisoning, so better safe than sorry.

Thank you so much for that info, and must admit I didn't know that, so thankfully it wasn't a rat that Max caught and in fact he did drop the mouse withing seconds, but still it is good to know these things.