My border collie (also a twitcher) and I rescued a crested pigeon from
the neighbour’s cat on Saturday evening around dusk. We live on a 2-acre block at
Highvale (around 35ks n/w of Brisbane cbd). The moggie was toying with the
capture up the back of our block and my dog came in the house barking for me to
take a look. Of course the cat took off as we approached and I was able to
rescue the CP. Unfortunately the dog was unable to catch the cat!!
The CP was missing all but 4 tail feathers and plenty of down feathers
from around the anal region. Very little blood though and no puncture marks so
I dabbed it with some Betadine in the appropriate places and took it off to our
wonderful wildlife carer for some R & R where it has lived through the
initial shock (which is the usual killer), and has survived to day 4. Hopefully
in around a month’s time I will be able to release it back in this vicinity.
A peculiar aspect of this episode though is to attest to the fact that
the cat was wearing a collar with bells and serves to prove a suspicion that
I’ve had for some time: -
I’m
certain that after wearing these bell collars for some time, cats learn to hunt
and stalk without them ‘ringing’.
Anyone have any comments in this??
Cheers
John
