I was out walking my two dogs this afternoon… and saw a weird lump on the sidewalk. As we got closer, my eyes and brain puzzled the lump into a shape.
It was a dead baby bird.
A few feet away, there was another sad little lump that turned out to be a baby bird.
I looked in the landscaping nearby to see if I could find a nest, but I couldn’t. But we do have a LOT of cats roaming around the complex, both indoor/outdoor cats and feral cats. I fear that the baby birds (and the entire nest) fell prey to a wandering feline.
A lady in another part of the complex found another baby bird this morning, this one still alive. (I saw her while I was walking the dogs this morning.) She wrapped it up in a towel and brought it home… but her calico cat was following closely, very interested in the mysterious visitor. I hope the little bird will be okay!
Cats can be a serious danger to a local bird population. And birds are a good thing — they help keep the insect populations under control. I feel bad for the birds. And there are tons of nests around here; a lot of the dryer vents have wads of twigs sticking out, which says “birds nest” to me.
But I also worry about those wandering cats. Letting your kitties roam around can be dangerous… especially in an apartment complex situation like this. A busy parking lot, a busy road nearby, a few irresponsible residents who let their dogs run around without leashes or toss garbage where they please… not to mention the trouble kitty could get into with other cats. Or eating things from the dumpsters. Or getting picked up by another family who assumes that they’re homeless.
There are safe ways to let your cat experience the “big blue room with green carpet”.