It’s the bird nest building season (Feb-Aug) and I have just learned that domestic cats can contribute to the welfare of birds which is nice to know considering that ornithologists are annoyed about cats attacking and killing birds.
A lady writing to the East Bay Times says that she brushes her cats on a table outside, on her decking. When she has left her brush on the table a bird, who is a regular visitor, flies down and stands on the brush handle and pulls the fur from the brush. The bird collects a nice wad of cat fur and works it into shape in preparation for its use in preparing her nest. How about that? I think that is very cool.
Is this a version of positive (good) karma? I feel like collecting my cat fur from brushings and placing it on one of the bird feeders. It would be a nice way to contribute to bird welfare. It would be an incomplete payback for the four birds my cat has killed while I have lived at my new home.
The key aspect of doing this is to make sure that the fur is placed where your cat has zero access to it! Otherwise putting fur down for birds would be bait to attract birds for your cat to attack, which would achieve the opposite to the desired objective.
Cat lovers and guardians can partially assuage any guilt they might have about their cat killing birds by collecting cat fur for use in this way provided it is carried out sensibly.
I am more sensitive to karma nowadays. It is not mumbo-jumbo. It is about cause and effect. A good example of negative karma is the Covid-19 outbreak. The cause is said to be the killing of wild animals at a live animal market in Wuhan, China. This is an abuse of animals and nature has bitten back and hurt humans for it. Live animal markets have been banned in China in response. Will it last?
An example of positive karma is doing something good for a old person and that person leaves you a nice bequest in her will after her passing.
