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> "They totally freak me out," says Courtney Bledsoe, as she sees a rat dart across the street while picking up her son at a Lincoln Park preschool.

And we're having rats picking up children at school, now.

And if they are going to pick up children, the least they could do is cross the street carefully at the designated crosswalk rather than just darting willy-nilly. Rats these days...
No no no. She's not freaked at by the rats at all, but by the kids! That's why she lets the rats pick them up.
For those interested, the ambiguous phrasing of the quote is called a "dangling participle"

https://www.usu.edu/markdamen/WritingGuide/10dangpt.htm

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/dangling-...

That certainly would freak out anybody.
That would be a hell of a big rat, no matter what grade in school we're talking about.
This was the first thing I thought of. We have two fat, lazy house cats, and we will never ever have mice. I grew up on a horse farm. We had Four cats that lived in the barn (12 horse barn) for the exact same reason. They were legitimate badasses, too. We fed them once a day in the winter. Otherwise, they fended for themselves. One of them came in the house one cold winter night when she was about 16 years old. She never went back out and lived to be 22 as a lap cat.
I've heard multiple stories on this theme: a farm cat that's lived out in the barn and fields for years, often not particularly concerned with humans, one day decides to hang it up and "retire" to a comfortable old age being a cozy house cat. I find this behavior to be so absolutely fascinating.
Not to dispirit you but the idea that mammals get lazier as they get older is a mighty low bar for fascination
I dunno, I find it pretty interesting too (and I hadn't heard any stories like this before). It's a pretty significant change in behavior, especially to just happen out of the blue one day.
It's not the laziness that is interesting, it's how the cat responds to it: by actively choosing to "retire" indoors among the humans as a house cat. Do you know of any other animal that does something like this?
Upvoted for thoughtful phrasing, even though a wild-ish animal deciding to go domestic for retirement does seem interesting.
Not having a healthy predator prey relationship in areas leads to public health issues.

But at the first coyote or cougar sighting in the suburbs, the rifles come out. And then we wonder where all those feral cats came from.

Dogs can be trained (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Terrier) to kill rats in a much more controlled fashion than having free range cats wandering around.
Dogs are also far more expensive, in both cost of care and time/labor.

There are many places in the US that have more of a problem with feral cats than rodents (which doesn't happen with dogs as much here). Some trap/neuter/release programs exist for these, but they struggle. Often the only service they provide the community - beyond simply neutering the wild cats - is a steady supply of pet kittens (also made sterile). I'm sure many people involved would love to see the wild parent cats actually made useful for something, which could also help reduce the problem of the thousands of unwanted cats that are euthanized every day.

Grew up with cats that would kill mice, but weren't very good at it. Got a miniature pinscher, which were also bred to kill rodents, and it was amazing how lethal they were around mice. Grab, bite, dead.
I'll put a terrier up against a cat any day. As you describe: grab, bite, dead, move on to the next one. None of this "let's play with it for a bit" crap from cats, there's work to be done.

Mole problem? Borrow a dachshund for a week, no more moles. For efficient, methodical obliteration of a local pest population, hard to beat a canine for Terminator-like determination and efficiency. Cats just dick around too much.

I'll put my cats up against your terrier any day. Bite, whimper, dead. That would be your terrier.

My cats kill moles and mice. They do a damn good job of it. Only thing dogs seem capable of killing: rabbits and themselves.

I'll put my cats up against your terrier any day. Bite, whimper, dead. That would be your terrier.

Umm, I think you misread my statement, which was intended as "in a contest of who catches the most rats...". It was not intended as cat vs. dog in a cage match.

Though if that's the direction you want to go, the terriers I personally have are "American Pit Bull Terriers". Tell your cat to bring its A game.

And maybe 10 more cats to help.
Yeaaaaahhhh I grew up on a farm. I can tell you from experience once a dog (of more than the toy size) gets a taste of killing cats it's no contest. Cats are tough but if a dog wants to kill a cat, it's a dead cat. Full stop.
My parents have a story when they had some rats that got into the hay in a dog house their scottie had the best day of its life. 13 dead rats later she was bummed she didn't get to play any more.
After an unpleasant experience with rats in a big city, I found the Youtube videos of "ratter" Plummer Terriers going to work morbidly satisfying. Although I've wondered if it's the bite or the shake that finishes the job.
Few years back, I moved to a place in the country where the previous owner fed birds. So there was a bit of a rodent issue. I had with a indoor/outdoor cat, not much of a hunter to look at -- big floofy Maine Coon, and not all that fast. Ran a bit like a bear, thundery, not graceful.

In that first year, I found 23 small rodent bodies inside and out, I got 2 with traps. I found no bird carcasses. Pretty sure he wasn't eating them after seeing one half thrown up on the mat.

So, eh. Some cats kill birds. Some don't. (His brother certainly did. But his brother met something bigger and pointer than he was, and didn't make it to that house.)

> Ran a bit like a bear, thundery, not graceful.

Maine Coons are the powerlifters of the cat world.

Yep. He was a big one, 22lbs for most of his life. When he jumped on you, you felt it.

(edit: and yes, he did have that special skill of always being able to land right on your nuts)

I agree, not all cats hunt birds. However, there was a study (easy to google) where researchers put cameras on cats, and they found that some outdoor of cats do kill a monumental number of birds.

Overall, I think we can't conclude that any specific cat is doing this, but we can conclude that outdoor cats do greatly reduce the bird population.

Not having a healthy predator prey relationship in areas leads to public health issues

I wonder what could be released in a dense city like New York to take care of the rat problem. Bats? Snakes? It's a comical thought, but so far there's no real solution.

The only healthy relationship we've found so far is that of rats to poison, but the rats seem to be winning that battle given their ubiquitousness!