Vern is a wonderful, loveable, & mellow cat. He is Runa's best buddy. They love to play rough and tumble together and snuggle up and sleep with each other. But Vern has one major fault. And, no, it is not being a circus clown on the side. He is a bird killer. I am not talking about the occasional bird now and then. Last summer it got up to a bird a day! Part of Vern's story is that he was a stray for a couple of years before he came into our lives. He had to eat, I understand, but he is fed now. We weren't sure what to do. It was heartbreaking to have so many birds killed and we didn't want to return him to the shelter. So I did some research and found that bright colored collars can scare birds before a cat can pounce. This my final collar design. At first it didn't have the the mylar bird scare tape it was just the bright colored cloth but, birds continued to die. So I thought about what I used to scare birds from my garden and it was bird scare tape! So the frilled lizard look was born! (PS - I DID TRY ALL KINDS of BELLS - Vern is a very talented hunter & bells never slowed him down!)
It works like a charm! I let him out once recently without his collar on a super cold day, thinking the birds would be safe..I was wrong :(. That mistake will not happen again! It is a pretty simple design. I thread a quick release type collar through the casing so if he gets hung up on something the collar will come off. I have 2 collars in reserve just in case he loses one. Last summer I had to add more mylar once, it wore out a bit and Vern got a bird. It looks goofy and I am grateful Vern is so mellow about the collar going on. (I do take it off so he has a break when he is inside) It is a much better solution than the alternatives and it really works~!
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