Open spaces around the home means less mice in the home

It is true that open spaces around your home should deter mice as they have a fear of open spaces. They don't want to cross them to get to your home where they may have access to warmth and food. 

In effect this means reducing the vegetation around the home. My girlfriend had a mice problem because they had access to the space behind the shiplap panelling attached to the wall. From there they found a way inside her ground floor apartment. 

The problem with open space around the home is that if a mouse does venture into the space it is more likely to be attacked by a cat if the home owner lives with a cat companion.

So it is true that you are less likely to have mice coming into your home alive with an open space barrier, you might also have more mice coming into the home half dead in the mouth of your cat! 😉

The other obvious deterrent for mice is to keep the home free of food scraps. That means keeping the kitchen clean and vacuumed and the home generally uncluttered and so on,

The rodent expert who proffered the advice about open spaces is Laurence Barnard, Professional & Speciality Solutions Manager, for BASF.

"Cutting back vegetation and bushes around the building will help....because rats have a fear of open spaces, so by trimming back shrubbery they will be less inclined to cross an open space to gain entry. It also means natural predators, like cats, will be able to spot them more easily!"

Also watch out for structural defects in the walls of your flat or house. I mean small holes such as between pipes and brickwork through which the amazingly pliable mouse can wriggle.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Putting domestic cats into a monkey enclosure to kill the rats backfires

Kunming Zoo is located in the Yunnan Province of China. In that zoo they have a monkey enclosure. And in the monkey enclosure there were rats which migrated to the enclosure after a food storage issue.

Because hundreds of rats got into the enclosure, the zookeepers decided to introduce domestic cats into the enclosure to get rid of the rats. In all 10 cats ended up in the enclosure.

Woman tries to jump into monkey enclose to save the cats placed in it to clear the rats but the monkey's molested the cats. Image by MikeB based on images from AsiaWire

A problem developed in that the monkeys started to abuse the cats with apparently some mounting the cats for sex and others pulling out whiskers.

A visitor to the zoo became distressed at what she saw and decided to jump into the enclosure to save the cats from abuse.

There is a picture on the Internet of a woman being grabbed as she tries to jump into the enclosure.

The upshot is that the cats were removed from the enclosure. The woman is okay and the cats are been removed except for 2 to deal with any remaining rodents.

Apparently there are no issues concerning cats and monkeys. They get on well we are told at the moment.

The zoo management "expressed their thanks to the public for their worries about the animal's welfare and emphasised their commitment to looking back on the things they did wrong and will consider public opinions." The quote comes from the Daily Star.

It appears that the remaining two cats will be rehoused in safer places by the China Small Animal Protection Association.

That's the story. The headline is rather more dramatic and it states, "Woman jumps in monkey enclosure to save cats being molested and mounted by animals".

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Frail, elderly cat survives encounter with the world's second most venomous snake

NEWS AND VIEWS - BRISBANE: The experts have decided that this was an Eastern Brown snake. It is described as having venom which is rated as the second most toxic of all snake venoms in the world. An untreated Eastern Brown snake bite can kill a person in under an hour and it is arguably the quickest killing venom in the world. An expert said that no other snake in the world has killed people so quickly and so regularly.

Frail, elderly cat survives encounter with the world's second most venomous snake. Picture: Rebecca Daynes.

And this snake was found wrapped around the neck of a frail and elderly cat by the cat's owner, Rebecca Daynes. It seems the stake came out of the bush as her home backs onto the kind of habitat where this snake lives.

She says that she was terrified which is entirely understandable and that she removed the snake from her cat describing that moment as "probably the most stupid thing I could have done". It is reported that she used salad tongs to remove the snake. 😊

The remarkable aspect of the story is that the snake didn't bite the cat or Rebecca Daynes. In fact, the story says that the snake was injured but survived the encounter as did the cat.

The snake wriggled off back into the bushland and Rebecca Daynes hopes that it will survive.

It's not known why the snake decided to wrap itself around her cat's neck but it is suggested that it was to defend itself.

RELATED: Do cats have the quickest reflexes of all land-based mammals?

A while ago I did some research on reaction times of snakes and cats. Cats have faster reaction times than snakes which is remarkable considering that snakes have a very fast reaction times. It's partly why cats can kill snakes and avoid a bite. When a snake lunges forward to bite a cat, the cat simply rears backwards and outpaces the snake's movements.

RELATED:  Domestic cat reaction times are scarily fast compared to ours and most other animals (comparison table).

An then the cat will bat the snake around the head and ultimately kill the snake. That is how the diminutive sand cat operates to kill snakes as prey animals.

This snake was injured so it looks as though it was attacked by the cat in defence. Of course domestic cats do get bitten by snakes from time to time perhaps partly because the domestic cat is out of practice with dealing with them.

The last point to make is that Craig and Jackie Adams who ran a Facebook group about snake and spider safety awareness said that "Snake identification isn't always straightforward and many factors can make identification from a photo difficult". This implies that they are not sure that they snake was an Eastern Brown snake on my interpretation.

After the encounter, Rebecca Daynes said that her cat tried to go out again and hasn't learned any lessons! It looks as though she doesn't need to learn any lessons because she is well able to deal with snakes despite being frail and old.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Cat takes mighty leap to successfully hit a Ring doorbell to be let inside

Determined and athletic cat leaps from parked car at the Ring doorbell to be let in. Where is the cat flap?!

The picture above comes from the video below which won't last long so enjoy it while you can! I can't find the original Ring.com video and I think this one is a rip-off. But it is okay. 

It shows how domestic cats are amazingly resourceful in getting their way particularly to get inside their home. They learn how to attract attention. 

These must be homes where there is no cat flap. The cats get left outside. I wonder about that and ask why owners don't install cat flaps if they intend to let their cats go outside unsupervised.

Here is another video of a resourceful cat employing the same technique to be let in:

There are many examples on the internet. All are a testament to the intelligence and learning ability of the domestic cat plus there athleticism and resourcefulness. Impressive guys aren't they?

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Ed Sheeran leaves fans in hysterics as eight cats run when he sings in a Japanese cat cafe

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A post shared by Ed Sheeran (@teddysphotos)

Ed Sheeran is a great guy. So normal. It is nice to see. The video is from Sheeran's Instagram pages. He was at the Cat Cafe Mocha Lounge in Tokyo on Monday.

Ed Sheeran smiling after he scared away the cats with his singing.