6 May 2009

The Cook Cat Killer Cuts Loose?

| Hank
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This is a quick follow up on pommy bastard’s previous post.

If this person has taken or killed our cat in Cook please tell us so I can tell the kids and old pensioner next door to stop looking for her.

I understand that this may be same all lost cat news for some people but it’s not same all in the eyes of children.

This post is really to ask a bit of advice on what I should do, and act as a warning to anyone who has a cat in Cook.

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Hi Hank, about 4 weeks ago I found a large tabby male, no collar or microchip,that had been hit on Redfern near the roadside memorial. He was alive when I picked him up seemed to be picking up (though quiet beaten up) when I got to the emergency vet in Braddon. I took him but they put him down. This may be your neighbour’s cat?

I might add for rioters that I was disappoint in the emergency vet. The animal was clearly loved and savable – it was in my opinion a cost effective decision.

Felix the Cat11:02 pm 07 May 09

phototext said :

http://www.tams.act.gov.au/live/pets/dgctfactsht/cats

It seems to me that cats only have to be confined indoors when there is a cat curfew declared for a suburb.

http://www.tams.act.gov.au/live/pets/petowner/catownership#control_confinement

“The owners of cats are expected to maintain [b]reasonable control[/b] of their cats at all times so that they are at less risk of harm and do not create a nuisance or danger within the community.

Confinement of cats to the owner’s property, particularly from dusk till dawn, is therefore encouraged.”

Is that like being reasonably drunk or seriously drunk?! What a vague rule, may as well not have it.

Thank you Lili, funny enough our cat was called Lili, and thank you everyone for your kind words.

We are responsible owners and have had our cat fixed and microchiped, if anyone is having problems with cats in there yard please call the RSPCA to catch and report it, otherwise the owners will have no idea, and therefore unable to correct any issues.

I talked to the manager of Cook shops yesterday about the threatening note and he informed me that he took the note down, but did not see who put it up. I have asked him to keep an eye out and let me know of any hits of who it was. I will tonight do a door knock and see if I get any reactions.

To those that are jumping to conclusions that Hank is an irresponsibile cat owner, I just thought I’d point out his comment in the original thread:

“#56 posted by Hank
(Troublemaker)
11:24, 4 May 2009

We have recently got a puppy, and while we are toilet training him we have been opening the door to let him out. On an occasion letting the cat out a few times.”

As a cat owner myself, I know how easy it can be for them (especially kittens) to sneak out between your legs through a door. I took Hank’s comment to imply that this was an accidental ‘escape’ by his kitten.

Good luck finding your cat Hank, I’d hate to be in the same situation. Fingers crossed!

http://www.tams.act.gov.au/live/pets/dgctfactsht/cats

It seems to me that cats only have to be confined indoors when there is a cat curfew declared for a suburb.

http://www.tams.act.gov.au/live/pets/petowner/catownership#control_confinement

“The owners of cats are expected to maintain reasonable control of their cats at all times so that they are at less risk of harm and do not create a nuisance or danger within the community.

Confinement of cats to the owner’s property, particularly from dusk till dawn, is therefore encouraged.”

Little late to the party, but isnt it illegal to not know where your cat is? Do you just let your cat roam around outside, or do you let it out briefly if/when it sneaks out? If you leave your cat outside, in a way you have no-one to blame but yourself. Maybe your kitty tried to kill some wildlife and a big crow came and took off with it? Maybe it went stalking birds and got hit by a car, or maybe it just ventured into bushland, found an abundance of native food and figured it had found its new home.

Hopefully it did just sneak out while you werent looking, and the RSPCA or some kind soul has picked it up and at best you might only get a fine for allowing it outside and pound fees. Do chase it up quickly though as the RSPCA and pound only hold animals for 7 days once theyre handed in.. Unless of course, you had her microchipped, in which case thats your best chance of her eventually finding her way back to you.

Just tell the kids that she had to “go to a farm”? (Yes it was at really short notice and doesn’t make much sense, but kids, sometimes thats just sometimes how people do things…)

They believed you about Santa, right?

If you get your cat back, consider keeping it inside – less chance of it going “missing” and may help preserve what is left of the native wildlife in your suburb*. Maybe get a cat run so it can still experience the outdoors.

*Unless you can train it to identify and only attack Indian Mynas

Hang in there and try and ignore that sign the other day about the cook cat “person”.

Maybe she just went on a cat bender, 7 months is about the age she may want to find some male company if she was not desexed.

Fingers crossed for you and your family, and the old biddy next door.

Sorry if you’ve already done all this, but ring the RSPCA and notify them, also your local vet/s. Cats who love exploring sometimes end up shut in neighbours’ garages or sheds, hopefully to re-emerge none the worse. Don’t give up!

Feeding onions to dogs and cats? WTF?! While i didn’t know this was dangerous to them common sense should tell you not to do it as a their breath smells pretty bad anyway. Why make it worse!

TheScientist4:36 pm 06 May 09

never heard of cats wondering off, though my cat wandered away a little when it was his time. i was lucky and found him before he died, as he was in a lot of discomfort (liver cancer with internal bleeding and blood coming out too), and we were able to get him to the vet to have him eased away.

i really hope you find your cat, even if it has shuffled off this mortal coil, because there’s certainly some comfort in knowing. And if it’s alive then even better 🙂

Yep, checked, well as much as I could, yelling and listening for meows.

have you checked the local drains? Cats do love to explore and get stuck all the time.

V twin venom3:01 pm 06 May 09

Good luck finding your cat Hank. There is always the possibility that a cute fluffy young kitten (7 months is young)has been found wandering and ‘adopted’ by some nice family with youngens like yourself. A least it’s an expainable outcome for your kids.

Its not like its a secret.
Paracetemol is toxic against most things, in reasonable concentrations.
It takes more than an entire packet of tablets in a single day to cause toxicity in an typical 80kg adult, for example.
(Google yourself if you want to know the concentrations)

Feeding onions to dogs is bad, for similar reasons as to cats, but it involves eating a fairly signiifcant quantity (either all at once, or spread out over several days) for onion poisoning.

Good luck finding the cat, “Cat killer on the Loose in Cook!” seems a little bit like panic-mongering, imho.

Thank you every one for your kind words, fingers crossed she comes home and that person didn’t kill her.

Normally I would agree that they wonder off to die but she is only seven months old, and was happy and healthy.

Hope you find your cat Hank, but Javrishia’s right, sometimes they just wonder off and die. Good luck though:)

I didn’t know that onion was poisonous to cats. I really do learn something new everyday.

I thought it was worth pointing them out – in case some owners inadvertently poison their cat with what appear to be harmless things…
I can imagine a young child administering Panadol to her sick cat for all good intentions.

@ Jivrashia – Any need to publish poisoning methods?

“same ol’ ” you mean…

I don’t think you’ll find cat killers among Rioters, just cat haters and cat lovers (excluding the culinary types).

One of the deepest grief related to the death of a much loved family cat is that they always appear to know their time and slip away to die in a secret place, which only a very few owners have managed to locate.

I’d just let the children know that cat has found a better place to go.

As for warning other cat owners about a cat killer being loose, unfortunately there’s not much that can be done. It’s easy to poison a cat with things readily available (onion, panadol) and harmless to any other creature, and not many authorities will have resources to investigate a few cat disappearances/deaths in a suburb.

I really hope you find your cat.

I know what I would want to do if I found out someone had been involved…

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