Protecting Iris from Voles

I think that they will eat the roots, but perhaps they are not the first choice on the menu or they prefer the other plants. Perhaps the daylilies grow faster than the voles can eat them.

The voles eat as many daylilies as I can plant. I have been busting rocks to interplant with my daylilies. This seems to help. I will look at my hellebores. I did not know they bothered them.

LOL

I just gave DH a "barn cat" kitten for Christmas! I wanted help with bunnies, voles and mice in the garden.

So far it's been 8 days, and she hasn't gone outside once. Whenever we are near an exterior door, or the doors are open, she disappears FAST. I've seen her go by a closed door if none of us are near it, but when the door was left open for her, for an hour, she hid. Thus far, she's content to eat non-stop, play inside with the dog, and use the litter box, which the folks that found her didn't even know she knew how to use. They are farmers, she was abandoned nearby, and they swear she refused to come inside their house.

so much for getting an outdoors cat. oh well....

Enjoy it while it lasts. The kitten is just establishing her home base -- as soon as she feels content, she will be out the door! I had a cat (my mother's when she went to a nursing home) that had been indoors for 5 years. She stayed holed up in my bedroom for 3 months, then, one fine spring day, she decided the screen wasn't really that much of an impediment, and out she went! After that, she went out regularly (I have a dog door) and became one of my best "mousers"! Who would have figured? LOL!

I have some (Maine Coons and Norwegian Forest cats esp) that want to be outside as much as possible. Some are much more content to be inside.

Some cats choose inside not because they don't want to be outside but because they want/need human and/or cat companionship.

oh good to know!

The temps dropped here last night into the teens. My two "outdoor" cats keep coming inside to check their food and then heading to the back door. After about 5 minutes, they want back in. They have turned into "fair weather" cats. :-)

At least you can get yours to go outside. We had heard a cat crying under the shed for a few weeks, I think it was five years ago. We put some food out, and it would be gone the next morning. Finally it snowed, and a visitor opened the garage door and the cat ran in. And there she was. She will go out if it's really nice out, but the weather has to be almost perfect, not too warm, not too cold, no rain, etc., etc.

She wandered out the door today! LOL

Randall immediately says "don't let her go far" and I'm, like, "uh, honey, she's not exactly on a leash...."

Randall sounds pretty cute. :-p Does he have a mama-bear bone?

Polly, it sounds like yours had enough of the outside from day one . . .

oh Katie, a big mama-bear bone. When we were dating, he knew I was a single mom. He saw me always take a doggy bag from the restaurant we went to, figured out that $ was tight at home. Next thing I knew, he insisted when we went out that I order an appetizer, a soup, a salad, any meal I wanted, and a dessert. I'd go home with enough leftovers to feed me for two days! by the fourth month of dating, he was driving my kids to school in the mornings.

OMG, that is soooo sweet. Gives me chills. :-)

I have to say that some cats (the ones who go outdoors) appear to be birders and others prefer rodents. Mine are, for the most part, rodent catchers. Somebody could make a whole lotta money breeding good mousers, I think.

I think so, too, katie. I might even get a cat if I could be sure it was a good mouser. I would have to make some special arrangements though because DH is allergic.

Allergies can really vary with the cat, too. Pixydish on the PNW forum has remarked that they have one new cat (from her daughter) that doesn't make her sneeze when the others do. And I know that I tend to sneeze around orange/yellow cats, while I have a housefull of other cats that I've gotten completely used to.

oh no. well..... it is his cat. Guess I'll need another cat for a mouser.

DH is not going to let her go outdoors at all. sounds like he wants an indoors only kind of cat. She is a bit on the small side, though she's grown since we've had her. He says "you won't want an outdoor cat."

but the wood cockroaches are trying to come indoors for the winter. Need to find where they are coming in (and seal it up), because she caught and ate 2 yesterday.

Well, at least you know she'll be safe. It sounds like DH is smitten with her.

So she IS a hunter, at least. Maybe you can supply her with lots of little mousie toys . . .

We should never do 'outside' cats here any more because of coyotes. People have lost them. We really need 'tame' mountain lions to take care of the deer.

Katie, you're being very conniving with those mousie toys!! LOL

My DH, too, says that some cats bother him more than others. I don't know, though, how I could know in advance which cat bothers him. I would love to have a mouser, but it would have to be a "barn" cat.