It’s Earth Day (we all live on another planet the rest of the time) so La Presse has environmental tips as does Le Devoir.
The city will be doling out free compost next month as the gardening season starts.
Updates from April, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Tattoo artists find that their clientele is in decline, with too many artists chasing too few customers. Might be time to get that ink you’ve been dreaming of.
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Kate
This CBC piece on a memorial held for a neighbourhood cat handwaves that he was killed in traffic. It’s unclear here whether the cat only lived in the dépanneur or also had a home to go to. But his people must have known that Sherbrooke Street was a dangerous road for a cat to wander around on.
I’m familiar with a personality cat in my neighbourhood and am always happy to spot him, not only because he’s a cool character, but because it means he’s still surviving. You can pride yourself on having a cat with street smarts, but a cat has no defense against a fast car.
Andrew
I like birds and therefore I don’t think people should let their pet cats outside, but it is also bad for cats.
Kate
More birds die from flying into windows and decimation of forest and insect life than were ever killed by cats.
westisland-permatourist
“In Canada, an estimated 100–350 million birds fall victim to cats each year.
Cats are responsible for the extinction of at least 40 bird species worldwide.”
https://www.catster.com/statistics/how-many-birds-do-cats-kill-statistics/
dwgs
I live nearby, sorry that’s how he met his end but he had a great life, far better than if he had been cooped up in an apartment for all those years.
Kate
qatzelok, I simply do not believe that. Humans have devastated forests and insect life, which birds need. Most domestic cats, while quite capable of killing, don’t need to do so and – after induction into domestic comforts – can’t be bothered.
Yes, cats were a problem on closed island ecologies like New Zealand. But here in Canada? Pfft.
DeWolf
I’m allergic to cats, so consider me neutral on the debate, but the estimates of how many birds are killed by cats each year seem very dubious. They’re taking very specific circumstances (farm cats in Poland! Housecats equipped with kitty cams in Cape Town!) and extrapolating pretty wildly from that.
CE
My cat (who just passed away a couple weeks ago) would go outside and seemed to just look at the birds and squirrels but considering the cornucopia of delicious food he had at home, was completely disinterested in pursuing them. That seemed to be the case for most of the cats I’ve had over the years (with the exception of a couple killing machines who were more wild beast than domestic cat). My previous cat never saw a mouse he didn’t kill and promptly eat though.
Andrew
Here’s the original source for the Canadian number, from 2013: https://www.ace-eco.org/vol8/iss2/art3/
“These estimates suggest that 2-7% of birds in southern Canada are killed by cats per year. Even at the low end, predation by house cats is probably the largest human-related source of bird mortality in Canada”
But since we’re talking about domestic pets:
“Feral cats on the other hand likely kill many more birds than pet cats despite their lower numbers (roughly 25% of cats, 59% of kills)”
EmilyG
I’ve seen the cat art gallery. I hadn’t known before this article that it was inspired by a particular cat.
Kate
Sorry to hear about your cat, CE.
CE
Thanks Kate, he was quite old when we got him so I’m glad he stuck around as long as he did.
Meezly
An artist is planning a pop-up exhibit in September Meowtréal : The History of Montréal’s Cats. i think they’re still collecting stories, memories, photos, etc about our city’s cats. What a lovely idea.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ExyvDeg2k/?mibextid=wwXIfrjeather
One of my cats was a stray before I got her, and I was told she was a voracious rodent killer (she might have also killed birds, but she really got to the rodents). I once left the balcony open and caught her and my late cats all sleeping on a couch with a squirrel who was busy eating chocolate.
Kate
jeather, that’s wonderful.
jeather
The chocolate wasn’t cheap!
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