Cat kills ringtail possum today
Today, Saturday, about 830 am, Brian, from two doors down, rang my front door bell and in his hands was a ringtail possum.
“My cat’s bitten it and it needs a vet but I’ve got to go to work,” he said, very upset.
I rang WIRES but it was too early for them and the recorded message said I could take it to a vet most of whom cared for injured native animals free of charge – something I hadn’t known about. The message advised to put the possum in a box and cover it with a towel, as that would calm it.
So, off my friend and I drove with the possum in a box, to the vet at Erskineville.
No good. The cat’s bite had crushed the skull and injured the brain so the little thing had to be put down.
Brian is upset with his cat. He’ll put some bells on his cat.
He said there’s a family of ringtail possums in our street and he sees them skipping along the roofs and trees when he gets home late from work at night.
The now dead possum was about 200 mm long, very pretty and well proportioned:
WIRES were terrific; rang me back after I left my phone message to follow up and see what vet I’d taken it to.
13 000 WIRES – 13 00 094 737
Cats kill a lot of native animals. I’ll buy some bells for my neighbour’s cat tomorrow.
Cats are cleaver, they muffle the bell by putting the bell right under their neck, and of course somehow they seem to mange to get the bells off.
That´s true. I´ve recently read an article that referred to a study of the researcher David Paton. According to the article, Paton found out that “cats with bells took similar proportions of prey to those without”.
Unfortunately cats are clever hunters and you’d be surprised how silent they can be with bells on. This is a big part of the reason our two cats are indoor-only.