Mice -- or birds?!
| Weymouth, Mass.
To the gardening editor: It came as a shock to read in The Christian Science Monitor about "Felix III" being kept hungry to keep his master's garden free of rodents.
No doubt the cat catches a mouse or mole, but how many rodents can live in a vegetable garden to supply a cat for a whole season?
You write that in early season (spring) the slow reduction of Felix's food ration begins to force him to go hunting. This is the time our migratory birds return to raise their young. I shudder to think how many of our precious songbirds Felix consumes after his master dishes him out "a little milk." The time will come when spring will be silent in his neighborhood.
According to a report from the National Audubon Society, a cat left outdoors in the suburbs catches up to 50 birds a season. Mrs. Elsie Dreher Sarasota, Fla.
