Kristal
05-10-2011, 06:17 PM
I took my girl out this evening as it was nice and bright and warm.... My neighbour from across the alley was just feeding the cats, though, so they were all crowded around opposite our place.
Rifa had a fantastic time climbing up and down the fire escape and investigating the neighbours balconies. She was bounding around and doing the funny spinning around on me thing that she does when she is really happy and excited.
But there were a couple of cats that were watching her with really close interest from the ground. One of them even started to ascend the stairs, stalking her, and she walked TOWARDS the cat, apparently oblivious to the danger of doing so. She could not have been more than 25 feet from the cat. I freaked and did my poor imitation of a squirrel alarm plus hit the railing on the stairs (she was on my neighbours fire escape, right next to mine). She seemed to understand and ran up the stairs (their instinct is to go up when scared, anyway). But I am not sure that she even registered this big, orange, stalking tom cat as a threat.
I know that the cats sometimes perch on my balcony to watch "the squirrel show" going on in my apartment. Now I am worried that they all think that cats are safe since they have only seen them from the other side of the window.
Am I right to be worried? Is it just that she was so busy taking it all in and felt safe with me being near? What should I do about this? I have taken so much trouble to raise them with at least SOME fear of my dogs, but now cats are an issue??
The thread is here, thanks:
http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27410
Rifa had a fantastic time climbing up and down the fire escape and investigating the neighbours balconies. She was bounding around and doing the funny spinning around on me thing that she does when she is really happy and excited.
But there were a couple of cats that were watching her with really close interest from the ground. One of them even started to ascend the stairs, stalking her, and she walked TOWARDS the cat, apparently oblivious to the danger of doing so. She could not have been more than 25 feet from the cat. I freaked and did my poor imitation of a squirrel alarm plus hit the railing on the stairs (she was on my neighbours fire escape, right next to mine). She seemed to understand and ran up the stairs (their instinct is to go up when scared, anyway). But I am not sure that she even registered this big, orange, stalking tom cat as a threat.
I know that the cats sometimes perch on my balcony to watch "the squirrel show" going on in my apartment. Now I am worried that they all think that cats are safe since they have only seen them from the other side of the window.
Am I right to be worried? Is it just that she was so busy taking it all in and felt safe with me being near? What should I do about this? I have taken so much trouble to raise them with at least SOME fear of my dogs, but now cats are an issue??
The thread is here, thanks:
http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27410