Idk,
Shouting “Hey, don’t do that” loud and clear may be more effective.
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kid may have thought they where alone and will get jumped from getting caught.
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May alert the parents their kid is up to mischief.
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Doesn’t potentially start an escalation war with neighbors
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Doesn’t carry the small risk of the child falling or otherwise getting hurt with you as an easy blame.
Think of it like this: Does the kid now understand the “evil” of their actions to try be better next time. Or will they feel vindicated by their parents support against your “evil”
You’re probably in the right here, but at least they’ll know what it’s like to be assaulted with water.
The code of Hammurabi clearly states an eye for an eye.
Or will they feel vindicated by their parents support against your “evil”
Then that’s a parental problem, not a problem caused by the action.
“Teach the bully to be more careful before they torment animals.”
You’re right, but this is fuck around and find out territory. I would want the escalation to make it clear where I stand with my cat.
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“Next time it won’t be water”.
Bullets?
Cat piss
Let’s start with feces, John Wayne.
If someone intentionally caused harm to any of my cats, I live near a large national forest, and once you get a few hundred yards off a trail, no one is going to find a body.
Yep you harm a hair on my cats head, my vengeance will be swift and brutal
I mean I’d just punch that lady…the cats are going to be fine but children are easily traumatized. All she had to do was talk to the parents and let them know what happened so they could discipline their kids.
You’d punch her over a harmless bit of water? Helicopter much?
Children famously not traumatised by quick-to-violence rage parents.
I doubt you would, and I’m interest in seeing how you perceive water being thrown in a child as traumatizing, when it isn’t considering traumatizing to do it to an animal. Please fire up your brain cell and let me know tough guy.
Yeah you right unless I get a sex change first then I’ll punch her
What a gentleman.
If it was funny to do it to the Cat… It was hilarious doing it to the kid.
Can confirm.
I have a robot that clears snow on my driveway (it’s a diy build,). One winter, we were having problems with a couple teenage boys chucking snowballs at cars.
Their dads conspired to teach them a lesson.
They recruited me and S5-SY (the robot, pronounced “Sassy”,).
So they played some mind games to get the kids to think it was their idea to record themselves-live- chucking snowballs at the “defenseless” robot.
In the video, the robot turned to face them, drove itself into the snow bank and turned on its sweeper to give them the worst white wash of their lives.
I’m sorry, you can’t just say “I built a robot that clears snow”, like it’s no big deal! Do you have more details? Also, please link the video of it blizzarding the teens!
I don’t have the video (and wouldn’t link other people’s kids anyhow.), sorry.
In any case, I’d drop a how-to, except that it’s actually rather kludgey. just getting a driveway dialed in took about two weeks. (movement is largely dead reckoning in similar manner to using an FDM printer in relative mode.)
her working-side is a snow sweeper brush- you can buy replacement brushes online and not the whole snow sweeper, for the record. the big drum-shaped brushes. she uses a hub-mounted motor to drive that and her two driving wheels. a couple car batteries and and her control box provide counterbalance and mass (for traction,) while her 3rd wheel is a caster wheel.
she uses an inductive charger in a cradle, with everything basically sealed in a water proof enclosure/chasis that was 3d printed.
there’s a base station that’s mounted high up under the garage’s eaves that has a camera deciding when it’s time to go out. (she struggles with heavy, wet, snow, but this gets compensated for by going out more often when it’s warmer. the base station also provides localization and object avoidance.
building was simple enough. I’ve a giant home-build 3d printer, PETG works, Polycarb is better if you can afford it. For sealing the enclosures, I made my own silicone rubber gaskets using silicone caulk and aquarium tubing (force the caulk into the tubing using the caulking gun. if you want it hollow, use an air compressor blower nozzle to blow out the tubing after it’s full, if you want it solid, don’t, but after it’s cured in the tubing, use the blower nozzle to get it out, either way.)
the other thing to consider is the sweeper arm. It can just be set rigidly for simplicity (and that’s a 100% valid and probably smart choice to make…) or if you add the ability to extend on both sides, you can give the brush a cant so it pushes the snow to one side or the other… reducing how many trails you leave.
Some flashy lights are important (and raised up so people can see them in cars!)
Oh. also. she hums like R2D2 when she’s working.
Is the lesson “why throw snowballs at cars when you could be having a snowball fight with a robot instead?”
actually, I’m pretty sure the lesson they learned was they got more of the attention they wanted when they were funny rather than jerks.
Their friends thought the were in on it and were laughing. not sure how they passed that off, since their faces were 1 part confusion 1 part shock and 2 parts “fuck that’s cold”
Like, I agree with the tit for tat. But don’t let your cat outside.
Who tf gets a pet cat and doesn’t let it outside? If you don’t have space for a cat don’t get one.
Letting it roam freely risks it getting hurt and without you being there to help it. It’s not very responsible.
It’s also how house cats have been living for about 10000 years.
And they’ve been dying in some horrific ways during that time. Now there’s also a lot of extra, human caused dangers. A responsible pet owner wouldn’t subject their pet to such dangers.
Please elaborate your claims about past and present dangers for pets, I’m curious about specifics.
Also how are you mitigating the risk of “such dangers” for pets and children?
Well you might have heard of cars, highways and other such human created things that haven’t existed during all that time.
Here’s one study where they examined the welfare concerns over unrestricted/unsupervised outdoor access (and other concerns). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7070728/#sec5-animals-10-00258
Also how are you mitigating the risk of “such dangers” for pets and children?
I wouldn’t allow a cat or a small child to roam around unrestricted. It just seems due to the inherent threats pretty irresponsible.
The study weighs the pros and cons of outdoor and indoor keeping. It also offers some ideas how to mitigate the cons. It’s an interesting study, you should ask someone to explain it to you.
The study mentions that risk factors of outdoor keeping vary by location. There is no mention of historic risk and therefore no assessment how these may have evolved.
Who tf gets a pet cat and doesn’t let it outside?
People that love their cats and don’t want them to die young. Outdoor cats live an average of 2-5 years, indoor-only cats live an average of 10-15 years. By allowing cats outside, they’re exposed to pathogens, parasites, and dangers that they wouldn’t otherwise experience. In my area, there are coyotes, bobcats, rattlesnakes, hawks, and owls, all of which will quite happily make a meal of a cat. There are also cars; they don’t tend to be able to stop on a dime.
Worldwide domestic cats kill billions of songbirds annually. Many songbirds are insectivores that prey on mosquitoes and flys helping to keep their numbers in check.
The current problem of insectivores is a massive massive lack of insects, not cats.
Habitat loss, bioaccumulation of Neonicotinoids and predation by invasive species (domestic cats included) are top three issues for declining numbers of songbirds in the US.
Edit: added region
Even the studies most friendly to your position put the conglomerate that cats are counted it in 4th place - e.g.:
- Habitat Loss & Degradation (40-50%)
- Climate Change (20-30%)
- Pesticides & Chemical Pollution (10-15%)
- Predation by Domestic & Invasive Species (5-10%)
- Collisions (5-10%)
- Disease & Parasites (1-5%)
- Illegal Hunting & Trapping (1-3%)
- Light Pollution (<1-2%)
Let’s be very generous and concede cats could contribute 5% (sorry magpies, crows, etc pp. - you contribte almost nothing)
I don’t argue this point because I am way to fond of cats. I don’t even agree with the above scale - at least when it comes to (formerly) common birds such as house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and common blackbird (Turdus merula). Their main problems are Usutu virus and loss of insect biomass.
I am shit-scared about the loss of insect biomass. I am old and observant enough to have recognized the Windshield phenomenon by myself. I concur with the Danish study hinting at a 80% decrease from 1997 until 2017 (I actually think it is higher now). I live in major city with nice parks - the decrease is observable here too.
If the food supply of songbirds has declined by at least 80% that is your biggest problem right there - and it does not only affect songbirds and not only insectivores.
Over-emphasizing cats in this situation is a smoke screen/ red herring akin to BP pushing the carbon footprint of the common man.
Major environmental effects of climate change be it sea level rise, ocean acidification, drought, intensifying storms and temperature rise are all changes to abiotic conditions. Changing abiotic conditions leads to changes in biotic conditions. A habitat is defined by the combination of biotic and abiotic conditions. Therefore climate change should be included in habitat loss.
Sounds like a perfect environment to not own a cat. Don’t get get a cat if you live in an area that can’t accommodate them - they aren’t a universal pet despite the fact people treat them like they are.
Under that criteria, there are a grand total of zero areas that can accommodate them. Same goes for dogs.
But that’s a stupid criteria, because cats are tamed, and thrive indoors.
Hope that helps.
Don’t get get a cat if you live in an area that can’t accommodate them
What is an area that can accommodate pet cats lol
cats destroy native wildlife… at least in australia, it’s a huge problem
https://invasives.org.au/our-work/feral-animals/cats-in-australia/
(whilst this article references feral cats, there’s obviously minimal difference between feral cats and roaming house cats as far as wildlife destruction goes)
People with coyotes for neighbours.
I’m not gonna shame people for outdoor cats… but you’re being a little obtuse here.
usdefaultism
huh? I’m not from the us?
Aren’t coyotes a us thing?
ESH. Kid shouldn’t have done it, but also the lady shouldn’t let the cat outside
I just assumed she might be British due to spelling/tone. Cats have been around here for about 1,600 years and it’s considered fairly normal to let them out.
I don’t get why Americans hate animals. You do realise earth isn’t owned by humans?
Mate, cats are not a native species. They hunt for sport and wind up absolutely destroying the local ecosystem. Outdoor cats should be killed onsight like literally any other invasive species.
“These are non-native predators that, even using conservative estimates, kill 1.3–4 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals each year in the U.S. alone (Loss et al. 2013, Nature Communications)”
I personally care more about my local ecosystem than some cat that someone is too lazy to play with and keep entertained.
If my cat escapes one day and you shoot it, we have problems :)
Other than that bit of insanity, I think I fully agree with you.
If your cat isn’t tagged so it can be returned to you, and you fined. And they have no way of knowing who that animal belongs to, if it carries any disease, how many animals it has killed, has it littered any bastards. Then yes, it should be put down.
The only problem there will be, would be you would be down one cat, sad for a while and likely get a new one.
Be a good owner, don’t let the cat escape, and there won’t be any ‘problems’
:)
While I agree with your main point (which to me sounds like “don’t let your cats outside as they’re an invasive species and will do serious damage to the local ecosystem”), suggesting to kill them on sight is a bit harsh and won’t make you many allies.
We have much more humane options to capture, return, and if needed rehouse cats. Remember that these objectively invasive animals are also people’s companions, and that some folks simply don’t know better than the old belief that “cats should roam”.
I love my animals enough that I would rather they live a long and healthy life. My cats are indoors only for that same reason.
Any extra “enjoyment” in their life from being outside is dwarfed by the diseases, parasites, and very likely possibility they die in a terrible way. (Hit by a car, tortured/poisoned/shot by some evil human, torn up by predators like dogs/wolves/coyotes).
We’ve a lot of cats coming through the garden. I wouldn’t mind if not for my dog, who does and goes insane when she spots a cat. So I’ve been thinking about getting a super soaker to chase them away. I think that’s pretty harmless, and perhaps they learn to skip our garden after a while… What do you lot think?
As a cat owner I approve using a a super soaker. I use a mini-soaker on my own cats in rare cases (being bengals they love water but despise being sprayed) - they probably catch on quickly and should bolt when they see you reaching for it soon.
That being said throwing a whole cup at a cat or making it soaking wet is not ok.
Thanks 🙂 I don’t intend to use one of those canon sized ones, I was thinking a mini like you said. Just a little squirt should do the trick 😇
Why not simply work on training your dog to be less reactive?
Hahah simply. I’ve only trained a handful of dogs, so professional dog trainers sound off here but there are dogs that are more or less untrainable. Sure difficult dogs can learn a few manors or tricks, but either because an abundance or lack of intelligence they’re not going to ever be a show dog. Depending on the dog maybe the best they get is just not as reactive instead.
Working on that. Still would prefer cats to skip my garden though!
Naw, that’s a good boi — I don’t want the neighbors’ cats on my property.
I think they taunt you by shitting in your flowerbeds while you’re not looking.
I know they do!
I know that’s how I taunt my neighbours.
Cat a cat trap. Take them to the shelter to get spayed or neutered and adopted.
I don’t think kidnapping someone’s cat is going to solve anything
If they’re collared or chipped they can be returned to their irresponsible owners, and if the owner is so irresponsible they their unfixed uncollared cat is roaming freely than good riddance.
How DARE you interact with my poor, helpless cat, who I lovingly toss outside to slaughter songbirds, pick up parasites, and maybe get flattened by a car. I don’t generally give a single solitary shit what happens to it out there, but this splash of water is TOO FAR.
blocked, mauuu
I think most people just have no idea how terrible outdoor cats are for native wildlife. It should be illegal, just like how you can’t let your dog wander around freely.
On one side, I like to prank cats. on the other, I hate other peoples children.
My neighbors daughter had one of those water guns. I told her if she shoots at me, I’ll get the hose and retaliate. She grinned, shot at me, and ran away laughing.
I talked to her dad, he nodded, and when she came back for more mischief, she got wet.
Cruelty met in kind.
If my kid did that, I’d let you splash them again.
Seriously my first thought if I saw this all occurring and my kid came complaining to me about it is I’d just say “well this is how the cat feels”
Truly cannot conceive of any other appropriate response. My kid’s an asshole sometimes, better he get gentle lessons now.
Speciesism
plot twist: kids a radical ecologist, keep ya cat indoors.
Exactly. There are endangered birds and amphibians who call my garden home. I do not want cats going in there and killing them for sport.
Get a catio! Don’t destroy native wildlife.
I agree with the “don’t be shitty to animals” sentiment, but I’m honestly a little surprised no one else has bothered to consider how shitty that cat might be. If it was always shitting in your yard, picking fights your cat or dog, using your bird feeder as a cat feeder, and tearing up your flower beds, then a cup of water is a pretty benign deterrent that still has a chance of being effective.
If they’re caught in the act, sure. A great cat training tool is a spray bottle of water. But from the story it sounds like the cat wasn’t doing anything at the time, so even if it is a nuisance animal, no correlation is made with an act and a punishment. Not true on the kid, he got something right when he did his malicious action, so if he has any intelligence he might connect the two and not do it again.
Lol minus the birdfeeder thing you just described dogs.
Cats bury their shit, tend to avoid dogs / fights with bigger animals, and I’ve never seen one dig up a flowerbed.
Cats bury their shit
In your flower bed, which is how they get torn up. Then when you go to fix them: smelly shit
tend to avoid dogs / fights with bigger animals
That’s cute, cats in my area love fighting everything
That the risk you take with an outdoor cat. It’s not even like water is harmful to it.
I used to have an outdoor cat and if that happened I would have shrugged it off and expected him not to go there again.
It’s the risk you take letting your kid go outside. It’s not even like water is harmful to it.
I used to have a kid that went outside and if thst happened I would have shrugged it off and expected him to not go there anymore.
That’s the risk you take with an outdoor brat. It’s not even like water is harmful to it.
I used to have an outdoor brat and if that happened I would have shrugged it off and expected him not to go there again.
I mean… yeah
What’re you in The Bloods, you can’t say cat? C’mon 5, what’s brackin’?
What are you saying?
Never talked to any gang members huh?
Well, the joke is that Bloods can’t say things beginning with the letter C, like “Cat,” and the above comment repeatedly used “brat” to replace “cat” as would be done by a Blood. For instance, they don’t say “cracking,” they’ll replace the C, making it “bracking.” Crips will do the reverse, saying C where there once was a B. Yes it’s ridiculous, but that’s what they do, and the joke requires knowledge of this to understand. They also have numbers ascribed to their gangs, 5 is bloods, 6 is crips, so “what’s brackin’ 5” would be something said by some Damu out there to another (a Damu being a member of the bloods, damu means blood in Swahili iirc, and tbf he’d actually say “what’s poppin 5” instead but brackin’ was necessary for the joke.)
Yes it is silly. Now enjoy my favorite old Blood music video from the 47 Miller Gang, If U Blood Throw It Up
Both takes are 100% correct
Oh my god i wrote mine after you wrote yours.
Yours is way better. Kudos.
It’s cruelty. Can we chuck water over you?
Only if I am walking on your fence
But why is it a problem if it’s not doing you any harm?
I am not saying it’s something you should do if someone walks on peoples fences.
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I think calling a splash of water from some dumb child “cruelty” delegitimizes actual cruelty. It’s shit behavior for sure, but don’t compare it to someone who tortures animals for fun.
They didn’t compare it. You are putting words in peoples mouths now.
That the risk you take
Well someone might just hit your car, that’s the risk you take by driving, nobody got hurt, they shouldn’t be held accountable. I would have shrugged it off and started taking the bus.
This is fun, we can remove all accountability from everything that’s not harming someone directly!
Well, you don’t have to let your cat go outside. In fact is kind of reckless to do so.
Well, you don’t have to drive it’s kind of reckless to do that too.
“Nobody got hurt, just LET ASSHOLE BE ASSHOLES! MUH FREEDUMS!”
Nah, I’m a firm believer in ‘Fuck around and Find out’
