Conference misery::feline

    I feel terrible mentioning this but it can be reality.  Read note
    302.112 and on.  (if I'm right about the numers!)
    
    This happens everywhere, not just Mexico.  
    
    To be repetitive:
    A cat will live a longer and happier life, if kept indoors.
    I feel like I should have that tatoo'd on my forehead! :'}
    Karen

    I don't know the area...but is it possible there might be
    some wildlife in the area that could be killing the cats.
    
    In the Fitchburg/Lunenburg area there have been problems with
    missing cats...but they also spotted Fisher Cats, coyote etc
    in certain wooded areas.
    
    This is sad...
    
    Sandy

    Knowing what I went through to catch JJ, I can't imagine how someone
    could steal a cat that won't approach strangers.  I wonder if they are
    setting traps (but then wouldn't that be too noticeable?), but even if
    so, how many well fed cats would bother going into a trap?  If the dogs
    are running loose with the cats, a predator sounds more likely.
    

    I just got off the phone with Diane Williamson from the T&G.  She
    seemed to be very interested in the story and said someone would be
    calling me.  She said a few weeks ago she saw a report on Channel 3
    about all these dogs disappearing from suburban towns around here.  I
    just want some good to come out of all this.
    
    Do you think hawks are big enough to scoop up a cat?

    Just as an off the wall chance, is there an animal control (dog
    officer) that you have, or should, contact?
    
    My point of reference here is that a couple months ago a neighboring
    town (Dudley), published that any cat not having a collar with its
    rabies tag on it, would be picked up and immediately destroyed, due to
    a sudden large increase in rabies.  
    
    I did ask my town's (Oxford) dog officer about this, and she assured me
    that no such thing would ever happen in our town.  I do know though,
    that when a stray cat is picked up in a suburban town it is immediately
    taken to Worcester to be put down.  She said this rule is out of her
    hands, and she really doesn't agree with it.  This was following a
    conversation I had with her, since Barney had been missing for over 12
    hours.  He did come back, and she was very nice in following up with
    me, she called about three days later to see if Barney had come home.
    Ironically, he came home almost the same time as I hung up the phone
    from her.
    
    If animals are picked up, I believe they are taken to the Animal Rescue
    league in Worcester.  Have you walked through there adoption area?
    
    Lyn

    Great horned owls can certainly scoop up cats, and I have heard that
    cats are one of their favorite catches. I would think that dogs would
    be out of the question, though.
    

    
    Well, there could be a predator in the area....coyote, fisher, owl,
    hawk....most likely not a feathered predator, tho' as an adult cat
    isn't easy prey.... 
    
    There could also be a 2 legged predator in the area. )8 )8
    
    1)  Someone who hates cats, and is "doing away" with them....
    
    2)  Someone catching them to sell them to a lab.....
    
    L-

    This past winter has been hard on wildlife.  Owls have been found
    starving and other animals also.  An older, slow moving cat would
    be a prime target, I'm sorry to say.  It is much more likely that
    something ordinary happened:  caught by a dog or wild life, or scooped 
    up and/or hit by a snow plow.  Keep an eye open along the side of the
    road as the snow melts.  I saw a little ginger kitty half buried in
    a melting snow bank this lunchtime in Littleton Common.
    
    I know what's it's like to lose a cat and never know what happened. 
    It's heart breaking and I feel for you.  I hope you get some resolution
    and finally know what happened.
     

    Yes, an adult hawk can scoop a kitty.  As mentioned, the wildlife
    is indeed having a difficult winter, many creatures of prey have 
    been found starved to death.  The coyotes supposedly number in the
    thousands in Mass. now with their big comeback.
    Check with your neighbors, get some figures to work with, the flyers
    are a good idea if you have a number or way to record the information.
    Find out as much as you can.  When the reporter does the story, the
    more you can tell her the better.  Is the town in a rural area or
    urban?  After reading the Mexico story, I don't know which is worse,
    the hungry wildlife or humans....actually I think I can answer that
    question quite readily......
    I hope you can find out something soon.

    Thanks to all of you.  The article was in the newspaper this morning. 
    When the reporter spoke w/the woman at the Animal Shelter, she
    downplayed the part about the animals missing from the Tatnuck area.  I
    called the Shelter this morning because I was upset that she didn't
    back up what we'd been told 3 separate times by her own staff including
    herself!  She really didn't have anything to say.
    
    In any event hopefully some good will come out of this.  It's a
    longshot that we'll ever see our girls again.  But maybe it will make
    people think twice.

    If you don't feel satisfied, call WGMC Cable television.  I'm sure that
    others beside me watch it, since it frequently does the hometown,
    critial current issues type newsstories, with humanistic influences.
    
    See if they would do a story on it.
    
    Lyn

    I had a horrified realization last night of another possible twist to
    this whole thing.  My babysitter allows her daughter to use a
    "footpath" which goes through the woods behind our home and hers, and
    ends up at a two store strip mall on Main St (Oxford MA).  She told me
    one day that she and the daughter had been onthe path and saw a cat
    that had obviously been tortured, killed (this is very graphic) and had
    been skinned.  Her point to me was that she was worried it might have
    been Barney, since the route to his former owners would take him on
    that route.  She did muster courage, and checked to see if she could
    figure what cat is might have been, and hurry home to contact the local
    police and animal control officer.
    
    The point here is that it might have been some prankster teens.  She
    suspects her next door neighbors who are always in the woods doing
    questionable activities, but ofcourse has no proof.  She expressed
    concern that is might be some sort of cultist activities, again no
    proof. 
    
    Sorry to be so graphic, but I just felt I had to off load this horrible
    thought, and offer this as a real possibility.
    
    (and I moved to the suburbs to escape this sort of behavior)
    Lyn

       
       While there always is the possibility that these cats are being
    'caught' and sold, it's very doubtful, since a cat is pretty hard to
    catch INSIDE let alone outside, and the typical chase and capture would
    very likely not be instantaneous, and 3 or 4 dudes charging around with
    nets SHOULD get some attention. What surprises me witht he reporting of
    these disappearances is the seeming lack of verification by the media!!
    
       **Now and then some slime DOES torture and kill a cat or dog. The
    occurrances are not that often, and it usually is done by some cult in
    some sort of ritual, or by some sick person. The number of missing pets
    leads me to believe that this is NOT the case here.
    
       **Accidents kill pets. However, since no increase in road killed
    animals has been found, this is also probably not the main factor.
    
        This leaves TWO very distinct and even more than than, two very
    PROBABLE causes.
    
       (1)With the severity of the current winter, and the one last year as
    well, a bird not often seen in this part of the country has been
    sighted FREQUENTLY. That bird is the Great Horned Owl, usually
    restricted to Canadian and extreme northern woodlands. The Great Horned
    Owl is large, a ferocious predator of small animals, and has been known
    to take domestic cats as a prey. Domestic cats are simply "easy meals"
    to a Great Horned Owl, and cats really have no defense against them.
    They hunt at night, and are completely silent in flight...so a cat
    would not even know the Owl was there until it's talons sunk in...and
    then it would be far too late. The lack of dead animal findings would
    lead me to believe that a predator was and is the culprit.
    
       (2)The SECOND possibility is also a predator. The eastern parts of
    the U.S. from Canada to Florida have seen a rapid influx of Coyotes in
    the past 10 years. Coyotes, although the strain that has invaded the
    eastern seabord is large, averaging between 60 and 90 pounds, is an
    extremely secretive creature, and it has adapted itself to living WITH
    mankind, in and around human facilities and residences. Cases of
    Coyotes living in a person's YARD under ground-hugging shrubs for years
    without ever being seen have been documented. Cats, rabbits, small dogs
    and other small animals are the staple diet of these canids. Coyotes
    are not unlike the Owl in the sense that a domesticated pet is nothing
    more than an easy meal for them. 
    
        I really believe that the cats missing in the Worcester area are
    the result of one or both of these predators. I also believe that as
    long as there are free-running animals available to them, the Coyote
    and the Owl(in winter only) will continue to frequent the area and take
    them as they can. 
    
       While there are SOME species of Hawk that are large enough to kill a
    cat, the instances of these species occurring in the area are very
    rare. What we usually have is Coopers and Redtailed Hawks around here,
    and these species are much smaller than an average cat...and they are
    usually after small birds..
    
      John Mc 

�it's very doubtful, since a cat is pretty hard to
�   catch INSIDE let alone outside,

My guys are strictly indoor kitties, but I know many outdoor kitties in my
neighborhood that will just come up to me for any kind of attention they can
get.  These are the easy targets.  There was a news story (60 minutes, or
some other show like that) several years ago about some guy in North or South
Carolina who supplied cats to a company that provided kitty corpses to labs,
schools, etc. He seemed to have no trouble at all collecting dozens of cats a
week.  He tried to ram the van the reporter came in when the reporter wanted
to question him at his house.

Patrick and the Boys (Chester, Farley, and Jeremiah)

    Lyn,
    
    I used to live in Oxford & still have family there.  Several years ago
    pets were disappearing.  Eventually, many (understatement) skeletons 
    were found in the woods.  As I recall, the police/people blamed teen-aged 
    Satanists.  Hopefully, the incident which you mention will remain an 
    isolated one.
    
    Also, I know that currently there is a woman in the area trapping cats 
    apparently to sell them.  She is _very_ disturbed. 
    
    Cheryl
    
    

    The Tatnuck area is backed up against the Holden Resevoir.  Could be an
    owl. Maybe a call to the Audubon Society would confirm any sightings? 
    I have seen a HUGE raptor in my neighborhood.  It looked FAR too large
    to be a hawk, more like a bald eagle without the white head!  It had
    TWO pigeons in it's talons.  I hurried my 3 small dogs and my son into
    the house as soon as I saw it.  It was sitting, just as nice as you
    please, in the crotch of the maple tree in my yard, just about 10 feet
    overhead!  Biggest bird I've ever seen... Chris, if you are reading
    this, you'll know which tree I mean.  HUGE!  Scary, too.  If there are
    that many predators coming into the urban areas, shouldn't we see a
    decrease in strays and pigeons, too?  Maybe that's why I haven't had
    any new strays this winter?  I hope not. I'd rather believe poeple are
    not dumping there pets off in my nieghborhood...sure, and pigs can fly.
    Sarah

    
    Red tailed hawks are quite common in settled areas, they are wary of
    people but willing to share their domain.  They hunt *very* large
    areas, and will stay in a particular area for several years before
    moving on.  Red Tails are not quite as big as Bald Eagles (who *don't*
    frequent populated areas), but are still big birds, and I would guess quite
    capable of taking a cat.  They're mostly brown, and you can only see
    the red tail from behind when they're roosting.  Red Tails are among
    the largest hawks, and you don't usually get close enough to them to
    see just how large they are. 
    
    The other raptor you might see around the Worcester area, though they're
    much more common in the Southern US, is the Turkey Vulture or Buzzard.
    They're *very* big birds, all black with white undersides to their
    wings and a small red head.
    
    len.
    

The last two times we have driven to Springfield, I have noticed *huge* eagle
look-alikes on 190, near to where it joins up with 290, in Worcester.  I
mentioned it to Steve, but I couldn't determine what they were.  Driving by
at 60 m.p.h., it's pretty difficult.  Certainly looked big enough to carry
a cat away, whatever it was.

Scary.

Laura

    
    	Would a fox go after a cat? My cat, a one year old male, has
    	been missing for almost a week. He never stayed far from the
    	house, but spent many warm nights outside, choosing to sleep
    	in the house during the day. A couple of weeks ago, we noticed
    	a large fox in the back yard! Our house borders the woods. At
    	the time I thought it was kind of neat because the kids had
    	never seen a fox before, but now I feel that it got the kitty.
    
    		Jerry
    

    
       I just reffered to this in another note. Yes, we also lived on a
       woodsy area and it was either a fox or coydog that snatched one
       of our cats. They are quiter and quicker than cats.
    
       I hope your baby is just roaming and will return home.
    
       Best of luck
    
       Shaw

This note caught my eye...

Er, I dunno if this is any help, but I live about 1 mile from the Tatnuck
square area, near the Holden Reserviors, and I've seen live coyotes in the
back yard. You wouldn't expect much wildlife so close to a "city", but I've
also seen deer and wild turkeys...

Our cat stays indoors.