-=> Quoting Ivy Iverson to Walter Luffman <=-
 WL> ...  Because of
 WL> their size and their tendency to patrol a territory, cats may
 WL> be more vulnerable to attack by rabid animals than dogs.
 II> 
 II> True.  Fortunately for cats, if there is a tree nearby, a cat can
 II> usually get up a tree, out of reach of most preditors... _IF_ they
This presumes the cat will want to get away rather than stick around to 
defend its turf or "play" with an interesting visitor. My Meko would almost 
certainly go into attack-mode if anything smaller than a human came into the 
yard; she flushed a big cottontail rabbit the other day while leading me on a 
tour of the yard.  (We were on opposite ends of a leash.)
 II> still have their claws!  (Besides, would YOU like someone to cut off
 II> YOUR fingers at the first knuckle???)
I couldn't bring myself to have a cat declawed unless it was the only way to 
save it from death...I had a hard enough time accepting the idea of having 
Meko spayed.
 WL> for short periods under close supervision; while she has her
 WL> claws (and knows how to use them), she's also only six pounds
 WL> and no match for a larger or rabidly-vicious animal.
 II> 
 II> Very true!  Skunks, even those who are no healthy, are a major risk
 II> for cats, because when they tangle, it only takes a skunk a few seconds
 II> to disembowel a cat!  That would HAVE to be a terrible death!
I didn't realize skunks (except perhaps rabid skunks) did this. I always 
thought they relied almost entirely on their scent-spraying ability for 
defense, and used their claws and teeth only on others of their own kind.
 II> So for my money, if you love a cat, there are three prime directives:
 II> 
 II> 1) Keep the fe-lions INSIDE!
 II> 2) Let the cat(s) KEEP their claws, JUST IN CASE they get outside!
 II> 3) Vaccinate!
I agree with all three of these, with the same exceptions to directive 1) you 
follow: use a leash or carry outdoors.
 II> By the way, Shadow is in a family way, (after 2 years!)  I'm about
 II> ready to stencil "GOODYEAR" on her belly!  We shall see what kind of
That's great news!  Congratulations to both of you...and to the father, of 
course.
 II> mommy she is.  When she was born, her mother, (also a first-timer),
 II> just could NOT understand that she was to stay in the birthing box -
 II> she INSISTED that she was going to have those babies under the blanket
 II> on my bed! Fortunately I saw what was going on, and when she jumped out
What a story!  And I can certainly unerstand Mama's thinking. Where would you 
rather give birth, in a nice big confortable bed or a strange box that 
doesn't even smell right?
Walter, wluffman@usit.net    CompuServe: 74721,3464
... Computer and TV screens exist to backlight a cat's lovely tail. ___ Blue 
Wave/DOS v2.30 
--- InterEcho 1.19
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