Kitty Cams Reveal Shocking Truth

I was on my way to Zonie Mae’s last week to get my hair done when I heard two disc jockeys on the radio talking about kitty cams. Seems some folks at the University of Georgia put little bitty video cameras on a bunch of cats whose owners let them roam around the neighborhood.

There was no good news for the lizard, small snake, vole and chipmunk populations who are the targets of roaming cats who hunt. On the plus side, not all roaming cats hunt. 

BTW, I wasn’t sure what a vole was until I looked it up. It’s just a short, fancy word for a field mouse. I know what you’re thinking–getting rid of these mouse critters who have a fancy name is a good thing. I’m of the opinion these little guys have their place in the scheme of life and shouldn't be killed off by cats. 

Did you notice something odd? Birds weren’t on the list. That’s because the kitty cam cats weren’t viewed capturing as many birds as they did the other critters. While they don’t catch as many birds, they spend a lot of time stalking them. And stalking, as we all know, can cause its own set of problems.

Let’s face it, it’s not as if these cats are hungry. In fact, they only ate a third of what they killed and they left most of the kill at the capture site. Of course, some of the cats dragged their kill home for their lucky owners to see. 

Researchers were surprised to discover a few of the cats were seeing another family behind the backs of their first family. This means those cats had two families feeding them. Frankly, this revelation came as no surprise to me because I have known too many people who have been adopted by cats who come and go as they please.

What the kitty cams did reveal is that suburban free-roaming cats face a lot of dangers. They cross the road, exposing themselves to death by car. They meet and greet strange cats who can carry infectious diseases. They eat and drink substances they shouldn’t, like roadkill and sewer water. They enter crawlspaces where they could get trapped and die. And they can be attacked and killed by other animals while they ramble. 

All this is important stuff cat owners should consider when they hold that door open and let their cat out each day.