Cohousing-L Mailing List: Lizard Problem

[Becky Schaller (bschaller]

Looks like it's time for a new start on this thead.

We moved into our community about a year ago.  It is a brand new
development. We haven't even completely closed on the whole project yet.
One of the issues we are looking at is that it appears to many people that
our lizard population has declined drastically and our cricket population
has drastically increased.  We are looking at how to solve this problem.

We have had two meetings on this subject already.  I am looking for us to
break new ground in cohousing by solving this problem.   We have a number of
factors to look at.  Some of them we have informal agrement about.  Some of
them we don't.

We generally agree:
We'd like our lizards back.  (Even my cat agrees with this.)
Some cats in the community are guilty of causing the decrease of our lizard
population.
As with many developments, the land was almost completely turned over before
construction has started.  Therefore, lizards had no place to hide and were
at a decided disadvantage.  This also helped to contribute to our decrease
in lizards.


As far as I can tell we don't generally agree:
On how much feral cats are contributing to the decline in lizards.
As time continues and our landscaping becomes even more lizard friendly, we
don't know how much this alone will help bring back the lizards.
On whether or not indoor/outdoor cats who must remain indoors become
psychotic.
On whether or not it's mean to expect cats to walk on a leash.

So I've put together comments I've heard from this list and people in the
community and I'm working on a proposal.  I welcome your thoughtful and
responsive feedback.

1.  All cats are innocent of lizard and other wildlife deprivation until
they show themselves to be guilty.
2.  After they have shown themselves to be guilty once or perhaps twice,
then  the must be supervised when outside.  Supervision may take the
following forms:
    a.  The cat may be on a leash held by a person.
    b.  The cat may be in visual sight of the owner so that the owner may
yell at it if it looks like it's going to destroy any wildlife.
   c. The cat may be in a cat room or cat cage which is yet to be approved
of or built.   I visualize this as basically a simple box made of wood and
screen or chicken wire.  I imagine it would probably be 9' x 9' or 12' x 12'
and about 4 feet high.   Inside would be a patch of grass, a sandbox, a
patch of catnip, and other cat-friendly plants.  We might grow vines on the
outside to make it more attractive looking.
3.  After a certain period of time, this practice will be reviewed.

Comments welcomed. 

Becky Schaller
Sonora Cohousing
Tucson, Arizona






 





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