Breaking News: Feral Cat Captured at the SkyStation. Last night I caught the feral cat that has established here since i found some cat scat outside my kitchen window 3 weeks ago, footprints in the sand 4 days ago, and more cat scat yesterday. This week I began patrolling the SkyStation perimeter with my gun and spotlight at night. Such was my commitment to keeping Jeffery, Sky and Sam safe until i could do something else. I even started giving Jeffery an armed escort back towards his patch at night if i saw him out. I say this because it is clear to me that unfortunately my interaction with Jeffery has meant he and Sky have dropped their guard slightly and this makes me feel my measure of responsibility for them thus increases slightly. I dont want Jeffery and Sky to become a statistic because of me. I do want to take away the predators that trouble them. Unfortunately both are possible as i see it. Now we have a feral cat here and early this week I noticed a clear change in Jefferys behaviour indicating to me he probably knew the feral cat was here too. Im sure that Jeffery would have seen the cat given they both now share nocturnal habits and territory. I also noticed Jeffery has reverted back to his stalking behaviour, never taking a direct route anywhere. He would not run anywhere anymore either and instead and he has begun walking very slowly and cautiously. He would take 3-5 min to cover 50m. It appeared to me that he didnt want to run into the path of a attacking predator because he could not hear it or see it when he runs. That seems logical to me too because a soldier at war does not go into a combat zone and tear off into the jungle at light speed crashing through the bush when the enemy is close. He would inch his way silently in staying as alert to his surroundings as possible. Jeffery clearly seems to be doing this. Little Sam on the other hand knows nothing. He is behaving like a dumb juvenile delinquent about to ket killed. He has however just stopped cheeping like a chick and started crowing like a Weka but he does just hang around scuffing about. Anyway, as you can imagine I was desperate to get the feral cat out of the game and on thursday I went into the local DOC office for advice. They warned me it might take some time as they can be tricky to catch. They offered to lend me a cat trap and some rabbit meat. I set the trap inside to test it out and familiarise myself with it and when Jeffery swung by he walked straight into it grabbed the hare meat and the door slammed shut. Good, hopefully he wont do it again im thinking! Now what about the other two Wekas, Sky and 10 week old Sam? Surely they will walk into it too? That night I set the trap outside and the next morning i go outside and see that i have caught.... Yes, I caught Sam. Well at least i am happy he too hopefully will not do that again either. So just Sky to catch now. Then yesterday evening I unfortunately found some more cat scat just 50m away from here and it appeared to be full of fine white matted fur. This confirms a feral cat is here and its probably eating baby hares. I took the trap up and set it near the scat last night. This morning i went to check and and i could see it was holding a dark object. Im thinking it is Sky, the only Weka that i havent caught, but no it was one angry stripy hissing cat. (dont let the photo fool you). I could not believe the immediate relief I felt given the worry and lack of sleep I have been experiencing this week wondering how long i had to get this feral cat before it did some serious damage. (Remember, Sky is nesting again now). I have never seen a feral cat here in 9 years and I suspect it has come up the mountain from down in Rocky river about 2km away where some transients and alternatives have been camping in house buses. I have despatched the cat with my .22 as instructed by my local DOC office. So, this week it was the high of catching our first stoat, to the low of realising there is a feral cat here to the high of catching it. Im very glad to have got rid of this animal. Very glad. I hope you all have a great weekend. I will sleep better now for sure. Jonny P
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 20:42:21 +0000
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