+1 on the free ranging cats. About 4 years ago a friend of mine was getting her chicken coop raided. The damage done was too bad to be weasels and didn't look like any raccoon either. I set out a large trap and caught a mangy feral cat that looked like a overgrown housecat and had all the manners of a badger. It took a cylinder full of .22 magnums to the head and neck area to dispatch the critter. After leaving the carcass in the woods for a month, the remains of the chickens disappeared, but nothing ever touched that cat. No more chicken losses after that. I don't see many stray cats running around here in the Adirondacks, but we have a great over abundance of hawks and owls. As one old timer put it to me, there should be a limited season on some of the birds of prey, because we have no rabbits in some areas and few grouse. Farther north, fewer birds of prey, and more small game animals. But coyotes, well they are like the plague up here. I remember one fall I found three deer carcasses, no more than 200 yards apart, and all three been run down by coyotes, had their hind legs chewed up the thighs, and left for dead.

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Vaya con Dios