SC - Lady Seaton's Project

[david friedman]

Aoife asked:

>A Quick question: How do you reconcile cats and ducks? Perhaps the cats are
vegetarian (visions of a Wellsville-esqe experiment).

A friend of mine has dogs, cats, ducks, geese, and a few other species. Her
solution was to keep the cats well fed, start with adult ducks, and have a
pond where any future babies can escape. She also chose not to buy her cats
SCUBA gear ;-)

Seriously, as long as you start with adults, any adult duck can teach any
cat a lesson in what is and is not dinner. If the cat is well fed, it will
start out with play hunting, giving the duck a chance to teach the cat that
that is NOT a fun game. Any duck which cannot give as good as it gets is a
non-survivor anyway- trust me, pound for pound, geese have nothing over on
ducks for aggressive/protective instincts. This also works with chickens and
other largish domestic fowl- the cats and dogs learn, as do the fowl- there
is very rarely a problem, unless a strange animal comes on the farm. If it
is a cat or dog (or a fox or raccoon!), the cats and dogs protect their
territory- if it's a wild bird, it had better either socialize in a hurry,
or it's someone's dinner.


Phlip

Nolo disputare, volo somniare et contendere, et iterum somniare.

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

"All things are poisons.  It is simply the dose that distinguishes between a
poison and a remedy." -Paracelsus

"Oats -- a grain which in England sustains the horses, and in
Scotland, the men." -- Johnson

"It was pleasant to me to find that 'oats,' the 'food of horses,' were
so much used as the food of the people in Johnson's own town." --
Boswell

"And where will you find such horses, and such men?" -- Anonymous