Gonna Skin Me A Cat

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

hball55

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2013
Messages
2,452
Reaction score
621
Location
Oroville, CA
I like cats but there’s a neighborhood cat that has got on my bad side. Today, the temperature got into the low seventies, so spray painting was a go. Carefully wiped down my rocket and took it outside to paint. Had a table covered with plastic sheeting; sprayed a light coat of primer and left it to dry. This evening, I took it inside and what did I see? Cat hair stuck all over the body tube and fins. Luckily it was only a primer coat, but sanding is my least favorite part of rocket building.
 
Sorry to hear that. Cat hair appears on my patio furniture when I am not looking. We have no cats in our home. :mad:

Stray and feral cats are a big problem in suburbia. They breed like crazy and hurt songbird populations (the pro-cat people will argue that.) People feed them, too, which probably does more harm than good.

A feral momma cat in our neighborhood had 2 litters of 4 kittens by August. I did the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) process on her. The benefit of returning the sterile cat to her territory is to prevent a new breeder from moving in. After that trapping experience, she learned her lesson and doesn't visit my yard anymore!
 
Have had way too many bad experiences with cats in my life, both feral and not, to have any patience left for them. Any caught on my property get chased off with a BB gun.
 
That would be annoying for sure. The good thing I can say about the neighborhood cats is that they keep the squirrel population well in check. I've had damage to my house on multiple occasions thanks to those tree-rats, so anything that hunts them is good with me. Also, haven't seen signs of any other rodents around the house or yard since our neighborhood cat population reestablished after a focused round up by animal control five or six years ago...rodents were running the neighborhood for several years after that. I do kinda miss the rabbits though.
 
Sorry to hear that. Cat hair appears on my patio furniture when I am not looking. We have no cats in our home. :mad:

Stray and feral cats are a big problem in suburbia. They breed like crazy and hurt songbird populations (the pro-cat people will argue that.) People feed them, too, which probably does more harm than good.

A feral momma cat in our neighborhood had 2 litters of 4 kittens by August. I did the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) process on her. The benefit of returning the sterile cat to her territory is to prevent a new breeder from moving in. After that trapping experience, she learned her lesson and doesn't visit my yard anymore!

My brother in law's sister got a lot of surgical practice fixing feral cats in those programs while she was in vet school. She said some medic students got practice intubating the cats too. They don't let us do that any more.
 
My experience's with cats have been less than favorable.
Which has been mostly feral cats. And I'm highly allergic to cat hair.
This is not meant to offend anyone.
Cats have 2 purposes in my life.
Target practice, and torture.
I would never harm someone's pet. It's best to put a color on your pet if you let it run freely.
There are plenty of feral cats around, no matter where I have lived.
They crapped in my garden and flower beds, and tear up garbage bags.
 
Many years ago living in a tiny bottom floor apartment I was at a pretty dark place in my life. One night I heard a cat yowling outside my window. I listened to it for three days before deciding to do something about it. I went out and found where it was at, got some food and left a bowl out for it. Next day I sat out and waited for her, she eventually came but would not trust me to get close to her. The following day I left the food next to my door and the door open, went about my business. I looked down and the food bowl was empty and she was no where to be found. I picked up the bowl and put it away. Later I went into the bedroom and she was curled up asleep on the foot of the bed. I asked folks around the building if they new anything about her. I found out a tenant had her and could not take her to the next place so they threw her out.
Turns out we pretty much saved each others lives.
She hated going outdoors and became my first indoor only kitty.
After her I picked up two kitten and both have been and are indoor only cats. The male got out one time when the SIL forgot to close the door.
The cat got caught up on the neighbors smoker and was burned pretty badly. $700 in vet bills.
He now, will not go outside either.
 
Our dogs think they are tasty as well.

I never saw an eagle take a cat until I moved up here from Melbourne. Seen it a few times in the last ten years; like a line-drive to second base. Unfortunately eagles don't fly at night.

We re-homed our cat when we realised how many endangered species we have on the farm. I like cats; I've had a number of cats I was really fond of, but they decimate local wildlife.
 
The great thing about skinning cats is there is more than one way. Or so I hear.

I like cats and have had some great cats, but I haven't had one in more than 20 years. We do not have any pets at all, which means our yard is a great piece of extra territory for the pet cats that live in the other nearby homes. The front and back yards are both great cat territory with lots of perennials and shrubs and trees that are perfect for lounging around, stalking and ambushing things, and climbing. Over the years we have had a series neighbor cats that seem to spend more time at our house than they do at their own homes. They just go home to eat I guess. They probably have annoying dogs or kids at their own homes and come to our place for peace and quiet. Right now there is one really big guy who looks a lot like Sylvester. Big black furry tuxedo guy with a white chest. He's huge, but has the quietest, wimpy, little meow. It's kind of comical. We always seem to only have one neighbor cat at a time. They might last a year or two, then a new one comes in. There's probably a pretty good turf battle before the changeover.
 
We get these kind of feral cats over here. Took this pic with my phone held up to my binoculars. She started stalking my dog a few weeks back. Gotta be careful at the end of the street now20201220_140810.jpg
 
My younger brother had just remodeled his kitchen; new tile floor, expanded wall out, etc. We had just hooked up a point-of-use water heater under the sink, and decided we would paint the bottom shelf. Because it would probably see water, we painted it with oil, a nice medium brown (over the existing white). We left the doors under the sink open so it could get air to dry. We came back the next morning, and couldn't help but laugh ourselves silly. During the night, while the paint was still wet, the cat decided to check out our work. There were a set of paw prints through the wet paint, and since it was still wet, a corresponding set of brown paw prints across the tile floor.
 
I've got 3 cats at home. All collared and tagged. I let them out when they need to. I've watched them and they all "go" under a huge spruce tree and then wander around for a few minutes or hours and then come back home. They "Meow" when they want to come in. They use the litterbox during the winter, but go outside to "go" the rest of the year. As far as cat hair goes, they are all short or medium hair cats. Not a lot od cat hair there, although those of us who are in fandom costume making have a saying:" The costume isn't done until the cat hair is on it!" ;-) ! So true! NOW then, don't get me started on barking dogs!!!! We've got 2 of those, one of whom is a cat herder breed An Aussie Shepard. Loudest stinking dog I've ever heard! That was my wife's choice. Heaven knows why. Cheers!
 
I've got 3 cats at home.
Never again more than two! My mom bred Siamese and we had a slew of household pets as well. At one point counting kittens from two females we had 19 cats.
Most of the cats were come inside and eat and go outside.
Running joke from my mom was: "You can put down on your resume for your first job, Doorman at a cat house."
 
Back
Top