I am SO proud of Tico

My little (?) garage cat, Tico, a rather hefty Holstein DS, likes the little window I installed down low in the garage door for her, and she sits in front of it and surveys the outside world.

Last night I was in the garage, working at the workbench, and Tico was over at her window and she started making some "hostile" sounds, and I looked at her and she was fuzzed out like static cling, and I went to the door and looked outside, and there was a feral persian, pretty large, and it stood looking at me from about 10 feet, and suddenly Tico shot out between my legs and hit the persian, and it sounded like WW-3.

After an intense 4 or 5 seconds, the persian managed to break free and get away, with Tico in close pursuit.

Tico comes to her name, and I quickly ran out and tried to follow them, calling her name, and in a minute or so she showed up, still puffed out.

There is enough persian fur in the driveway to almost build another cat.

I had NO idea tico was so jealous of her "turf", but to be such a loveable little furball, she can be a real H***cat when she wants to.

This is more of a Guy thing, and you women might not understand, but when your dog lumps up on another dog, or in this case, when your cat sends another one packing, well, there is a vicarious thrill there that is hard to describe, and suffice it to say, there was a new can of Bumblebee for my little scrapper.

Leonard.

Originally Posted by winwin

:
This is more of a Guy thing, and you women might not understand, but when your dog lumps up on another dog, or in this case, when your cat sends another one packing, well, there is a vicarious thrill there that is hard to describe, and suffice it to say, there was a new can of Bumblebee for my little scrapper.

Leonard.

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as a girl i can only shake my head.

bad Tico, bad

As a guy , i wish my cat would do that :-(


Good luck :-)

Originally Posted by RangerF150

As a guy , i wish my cat would do that :-(

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shame on you!!

Originally Posted by maverick_kitten

as a girl i can only shake my head.

bad Tico, bad

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I have to agree, but I'm glad Tico is O.K.

You are fortunate that your cat was not injured, and it is extremely unlikely that a persian cat is a feral. If the cat is owned by someone and has been injured, you could be liable for some hefty vet bills. Next time, keep Tico inside because cat bites are not fun. It is also possible that Tico has been bit, bites take awhile to fester. I certainly cannot understand the mindset of someone proud that their cat beat the tar out of another cat. It's a dangerous game to play anyway you look at it.

Originally Posted by hissy

I certainly cannot understand the mindset of someone proud that their cat beat the tar out of another cat. It's

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I dunno, my godfather was pretty proud of his rabbit which could beat up dogs. it would lay in wait for their poor unsuspecting pooches them ambush them as they walked past.

bit my dad too on more than one occassion.

must be a man thing

I have to agree with Hissy on this.
I don't understand it either...and I also was puzzled at the reference to a feral Persian.
I would look around the neighbourhood for a possibly badly hurt kitty
and check Tico for injuries.
I don't mean to take the wind out of your sails...but what if Tico was the one that was hurt? Or what if he is next time??
Even hearing the sounds of feral cats fighting (there are colonies by the river here which I live near) scares the crap out of me, let alone watching one of my animals engage in it.

No kidding- when one of my barn cats tangled with a feral they went airborne in the fighting. I saw if some distance away and before I could get over there to stop it, I saw them go into a air roll about 3-4 feet off the ground! My cat had to be rushed to a vet, the feral was found a few days later dead under our neighbor's shed. The old guy had been around here forever dumped off by some uncaring person and wouldn't go into a trap. The vet bill on that encounter was over $200.00

I'm at a loss too in trying to understand how this is something to be proud of. How do you care about one cat, yet feel pride seeing another cat get hurt?

I think this is less of a girl/guy mindset thing, and more of a "are you a compassionate human being" thing...

Interesting !
I have been a vegetarian for some 20 years now.
I hate the cruelty that we humans do to animals.
In those years i have taken some flack for being a vegetarian, by meat eaters. Many who own and "love" cats and dogs.
But are happy to see a sheep , cow , pig etc breed in unfit conditions and butchered to death so they can eat something nice!
My credentials on caring for animals are second to none.

I hate animal cruelty , in any form......

Now on to the question in hand.

I would rather my cat protect her turff than not , and let other animals take over it !
I have to protect my turff , as do you , it's a natural thing to do , for humans and animals.
Would you sit and watch as someone just walked into your property ? I would not , and any self respecting animal would not either , it's instinct.

Just my cat seems to have lost it :-(

Respect to Tico , you rock dude :-)

OK flame on , i can take it !!!

We may differ , but we all love our kitties :-)
Good luck

Originally Posted by RangerF150

Interesting !
Would you sit and watch as someone just walked into your property ? I would not , and any self respecting animal would not either , it's instinct.

Just my cat seems to have lost it :-(
We may differ , but we all love our kitties :-)
Good luck

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I understand where you are going, but our domestic animals don't need to protect their territory. Its not that your cat has "lost it". Its that he doesn't need "it". He is smart. He expects you to do that for him.
And I don't generally see kitties or dogs taking over another's territory
(I am picturing hundreds of cats on a lawn laughing at the insider )

I only know this from first hand experience with dogs, mind you, but I think that cats are pretty much the same in that respect.

And I think we need to take those precautions to do that job and protect them...because we can. We don't have to let them out to do the job when its as simple as closing the door on the potential for them getting hurt.

Just my two cents.
I completely agree with you on your last point

Hey, RangerF150, nice to know there's a fellow vegetarian on the board!!!

Cats, like most animals, are territorial. They will try to defend "their" area out of instinct, not pride or self-righteousness. What has gotten under everyone's skin is that winwin obviously takes pleasure in the fact that the persian cat got a beating. It's hard to understand how anyone who claims to care about cats can so gleefully describe a situation where a cat suffered injury.

Well actually !
I am having ( well it's not a problem to me , more my cat) a situation where all the local cat's are taking over "my" cat's turff , and she ain't doin nothin about it .
She is scared of them , that's not good.

I DO NOT want to see any cat injured , or harmed in any way , i would like it if my cat went out and told these dude's that this is her turff , so "go away " :-)

There was a day when my cat would , and did , chase dog's away , it was an awesome sight to see a dog running down the road with a cat in hot persuit :-)

Something's changed , i don't know what exactly , i still look after and do all i can that is best for my cat.
I am not some sadist ,i love my cat and would do anything , to ensure it has a happy life.

As noted above i am a vegetarian, that don't stop me from buying the best of fud for my cat , she get's cooked chicken regular, i get free range , expensive ,sure , i would not eat it , but i don't have a problem with feeding it to my cat . So she sit's there eating her " expensive free range chicken" and i get a lousy "nut burger" :-(

Most times my cat has more fud in the fridge than i have :-(

Tico rocks :-)

OK KTLynn , perhaps i missed a point here , i ain't into seeing any animal in a state of distress, or injury .
To derive any pleasure from that is really not good.

We should be a little smarter than that ....

However i would derive some degree of pleasure if my cat did run them nasty bully cats out of here , not for me, but for my cat's sake....

Either way , don't matter , i still have a pretty cool cat , that keep's me happy , even if , somehow she did turn on the TV in the middle of the night , on full volume ( honest this DID happen,whatever way she bedded down in the TV room , she sat on the remote , turned the TV on , and set the volume up to MAX ,i woke up in the middle of the night wondering "what the hell is goin on here "! ) , yeah innocent cat sat there " was'nt me look" about her :-)

Damm cat get's away with murder !

Hey Ranger, interesting cat you have there ! !

Tico is like that -- she will turn on light switches.

I had to put a safety stop on the back-up light switch on my 4-wheeler, 'cause Tico sleeps on the seat, and one night she decided to turn on the back-up light, and the next morning, guess who had a dead battery on their 4 wheeler ?

I guess I need to run the light through the ignition.

Sorry I started a firestorm, but I'm still proud of my "little" garage cat, Tico !

Leonard.

Leonard, you didn't start a "firestorm", but you did get most of us shaking our heads in dismay.

If you want to be "proud" of your cat for doing what is merely in her instinct to do, that's fine. What is troubling is that you seem to be taking pleasure in the fact that your cat didn't simply run the Persian cat off, but injured it, too. The situation went beyond the point of one cat just intimidating the other - a cat was hurt.

Isn't it possible that the Persian cat was lost, even abandoned? Many times lost cats will "gravitate" to places they perceive as "cat friendly". Lots of cat lovers on this board can attest to that fact, and many have even acquired their cats this way. Imagine for a moment that the situation was reversed and Tico was the lost cat who wandered into a yard looking for food, companionship, etc. Imagine that the resident cat in that yard beat Tico to the point of it "sounding like WW3" and "left enough fur to make another cat". How would you feel about the satisfaction and pride that cat's owner took at Tico's expense?

It makes me sad to think that you have so little regard for a cat who is now injured and possibly in pain who may very well have no one to help him.

Katie, I am proud of Tico for being a good cat and exhibiting all the inborn characteristics of a good cat. I would not like to see her cower at the approach of another cat, and taking pride in her protective instincts of her "turf", IMO, is not reason to fault me to the extent that I am being considered some sort of Cretin.

We feed outside "critters" table scraps, stretched with Old Roy, and amid the coons, 'possums, skunks, foxes, groundhogs, et al, are a number of feral cats, one of which is the subject persian, that come to the food dish after dark, and my wife and I like to watch from a darkened window at the interactions of the various denizens.

If the cat that Tico trounced is NOT feral, then some cat owner is being very lax in their care and concern over the wanderings of their pet.

Simply because I like my cats and would go to any extreme for them does NOT mean that I am a patsy for ALL cats that have been, imprudently, tossed and allowed to go feral.

I think this discussion is likely more political along gender lines than anything else, and since members of this forum are predominantly female, then I am placed in the unenviable position of a germ among penicillin, but I defend my position with rational logic rather than hypothetical possibilities.

I love you all -- have a nice day ! !

Leonard.

oh leonard and tico, its not that I am female or that your male just that you have felt the need to brag, I also dont believe that a persian would be a true feral more just lost. My misty got out side one night and was bitten by a cat? and got a huge absess that had to be drained . so best to close the stable door before the horse bolts, its cheaper ,safer and nicer.House cats rule.

Nope, I disagree that "this discussion is likely more political along gender lines than anything else". As I stated in a previous post, this is more along the lines of "are you a compassionate HUMAN BEING, or not". Woman don't have the corner on compassion.
This has nothing to do with gender, but everything to do with being a humane PERSON.

I'm even more surprised at your original post now that you've written that the Persian is one of the cats who comes to your property for food! You're kind enough to put food out for this cat, yet at the same time, you're proud of the fact that he was hurt by Tico. Let me think about that one for awhile...

Please know that feeding wildlife and cats together, is asking for trouble. Raccoons in particular can be fierce and will not hesitate to fight with a cat. Raccoons can severly injure cats, even kill them. The animals you're feeding may have coexisted up to this time without incident, but inevitably there will come a time when you forget to fill the dish, or don't fill it enough, and someone will get hurt.

You mentioned that there are several ferals besides the Persian cat. If they aren't spayed/neutered, you will have your very own cat overpopulation explosion. Feeding without neutering is a recipe for continuing the misery of feral cats. It sounds like you've been feeding for some time, so you can't simply stop doing this. The cats have come to depend on this food and it's cruel to abruptly stop providing it.

Why would you refer to yourself as a "patsy" of all things, for caring about cats who aren't your own? I agree that irresponsible people are to blame for the plight of feral cats. And I blame them, not the cats. Why wouldn't you have sympathy for a cat left to fend for himself, who is just trying to survive? I wouldn't expect you to take every cat you see into your home, but what's wrong with feeling sorry for the cat, or being concerned about it? If I see a cat who needs help and I can do something about it, I'll do it. Sadly, there are too many times when I can't. Do I think of myself as a "patsy" because I give a d*mn? No way. Maybe if I did, it would be easier to deal with the sad situations I come across. I could "toughen up" by calling myself a "patsy" if I found myself starting to feel sorry for a stray cat. Maybe that's what helps you...

Since you believe in rational logic, I offer the following -
In "Know Your Cat: An Owner's Guide to Cat Behavior" by Bruce Fogle, DVM, there's this: "When a cat feels she has lost control of a situation or that she is under threat, the "fight or flight" response is triggered and adrenaline is released. Your cat will make a show of aggression... Even a terrified cat will put on a convincing display of defensive body language, although in many cases such behavior masks fear rather than genuine aggression... with bristling tail and hair standing on end, the cat is very scared but is trying to hide her fear with a display of aggressive body language."

Your description of Tico's hair standing on end is an indication that she was very frightened by the Persian, even though she attacked him. It was her attempt to look larger and scarier to the other cat. What she did was motivated by fear, not pride, not out of indignation that the Persian was on her "turf".