Thanks again - I'll be link readin' for a while.

Joe, we usually have a fair amount of snow, and several weeks of very cold temps, and a lot of freezing rain and sleet. We have lots of small birds, though less whenever there's been a major clearcut nearby. As for rodents... we got our new cat last November. Between Sept and Nov. I trapped eighteen mice, and squirrels tore the insulation in the garage roof to shreds. Just the scent of a cat solved the problem.

WYSIWYG, that sounds like a horrible time. While not quite as bad, since only cats were involved, here's my not for the squeamish story. One set of my grandparents had a large farm, and they had barn cats, and then they stopped farming, and then my grandfather died. He used to dispose of kittens regularly. Within a few years, the cat pop. exploded (no coyotes back then, and they had a barn for shelter), and my grandmother continued feeding them - barely enough to survive. At least they were outdoors.

When she finally had to move in with her daughter, back in the nineteen sixties, my gentle Dad was assigned to dispose of 34 wild, distemper-infected cats that no one could care for. He borrowed a gun and shot... one. Then he rigged an old hauling trailer to be airtight, proceeded to catch as many as he could with a net and food, attached the car exhaust to the trailer, and came home many hours later. He never said a word about how that went, though I suspect not so well - but the cats were dead and buried.

Whether I can 'pacify' her or no, this kitty's gittin' fixed.