# Our cats - hunting / poison



## Buskitten (Apr 11, 2010)

Dear Ex-Pats,

Hi! I wonder if any of you could offer us some advice, please?

We have the opportunity of living and working in rural Tuscany, looking after a large house and grounds in the remote countryside. This would be long-term arrangement and if it were to work out, we would be taking our two beloved cats with us.

My question is, do hunters shoot cats - we know they come in to the 'garden', as there is no boundary to the property. The dogs certainly come in to the garden, with their bells on ( so you would hear the dingdonging, I suppose).
Do these hunting dogs kill cats?

The other worry I have is poison - do hunting people put poison down which a little unsuspecting cat could eat? 

I would be so grateful for any information you could give me - this really matters to us and will affect our decision-making. Whilst I know one cannot gaurentee the safety of our animals, if we would be putting them at extreme risk, we won't go 

Many Thanks and Best Wishes,

Liz


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## marzia (Jan 4, 2009)

Dear Liz ,you are right to be concerned.

Sadly poisoning and shooting at anything that moves is common in ALL the continent when hunting is a major '' hobby'': so mach so that hunters ,at tjme ,even shoot at each other !
Have a look at my thread -stray dogs-, it may help you. I would also like to communicate with you personally, as your decision is very important for your two cats, please send me a private message.

Regards 

Marzia






Buskitten said:


> Dear Ex-Pats,
> 
> Hi! I wonder if any of you could offer us some advice, please?
> 
> ...


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## Buskitten (Apr 11, 2010)

Hi Marzia,

Thank you very much for your reply - which did not surprise me, sadly. I guess I wanted to hear was that the Hunters don;t shoot everything and we could all live happily ever after.....it's always been our dream to return to Italy, but putting the lives of our pussycats at such risk is not part of the equasion. 

We lived in umbria some years ago and lost 2 cats - well, one was poisoned, we think the other just 'disappeared' into thin air about a week later. It was awfu,l truly, truly horrible and I would never want to put an animal at risk again like that - but we would dearly love to return to such a wonderful country....what a dilema.

Now we have a great opportunity, work-wise....oh dear 

I can't figure out how to send a private messgae on this forum - just me being thick I think!

Thanks again for replying Marzia - do you live in Italy? We are in Scotland, UK at the moment - in the snow!

Best Wishes,

Liz


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## marzia (Jan 4, 2009)

Just send you a message, hope you get it 

Marzia




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## marzia (Jan 4, 2009)

Try this:

Login
on right handside under your name it should appear Private message

Click on link and send a message to Marzia 

Good luck


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## Buskitten (Apr 11, 2010)

marzia said:


> Try this:
> 
> Login
> on right handside under your name it should appear Private message
> ...


Hi Marzia,
I can't seem to reply to your pm -I have read it, but there doesn't seem to be a way for me to reply


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## Buskitten (Apr 11, 2010)

We could use email or facebook?


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## marzia (Jan 4, 2009)

Dear Liz I am sorry we cannot communicate . For obvious reason what we could talk about is of not interest to other forum users. I am at the moment in the UK myself and I could give a link to an UK text number (only text) on replay I could send you my email address. The job in Italy was on offer on a well know British publication 2 or 3 weeks ago ? There may be other issues other than cats which you may like to consider

Marzia




Buskitten said:


> Hi Marzia,
> I can't seem to reply to your pm -I have read it, but there doesn't seem to be a way for me to reply


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## Buskitten (Apr 11, 2010)

Hi Marzia,
My email address is buskitten at hotmail dot com
Please lets continue our conversation!
L


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## bunty16 (Sep 26, 2009)

Buskitten said:


> Dear Ex-Pats,
> 
> Hi! I wonder if any of you could offer us some advice, please?
> 
> ...


 I wish I could say something posotive about taking your cats, the only solution is to have built a small outdoor pen to the house, not expensive to do, but will keep them safe, not much fun for the cats though, it's not just the hunters that you need to be concerned about, but the cat population (feral) which can carry diseases, our beloved kitty died rapidly having caught something, and she had not even been outside as we had only been there a few weeks, we had brought her up from one day old, we were heartbroken, also check out the local vet very carefully, our vet was not used to dealing with cats, not seeing them as that important, but your local vet may be better. Just make sure that the 6 months following the blood test has expired before you travel, because if you need to get back in a hurry you do not want to have the cats in Quarantine.


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## sheilamarsco (Jul 2, 2010)

yes i think the advice re the outdoor pen is a good one and not to let your cats out at night. unfortunately i let one of mine out who loved to hunt at night and he disappeared. having said that i have another two other cats who have survived happily so sometimes it's just the luck of the draw. i would definitely accept the job opportunity and for the first months keep the cats indoors until you see how things are working out then you could let them have the run of an outdoor pen later.


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## Buskitten (Apr 11, 2010)

Good Morning!

Thanks, Sheila and Bunty - great point about the run, but not sure how that would work for our old ginger Bob! This may not be our 'time', as we cannot put them in a situation where the odds are stacked so heavily against us.......

I do appreciate you all taking the time to help us - if only Ihad asked last time - but I don't think I even had the Interweb back then!

Thanks again,

Liz


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## sheilamarsco (Jul 2, 2010)

i think you might be surprised how quickly your cats adapt to the new situation mine had been used to living in the highlands of scotland then were transported by plane to abruzzo and i was so worried they wouldn't like it but they don't seem bothered one way or the other anyway best wishes whatever you decide.


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