TomW ... hmm, bamboo skewers, protein, let's fire up the grill! 

Nancy, I've heard about the motion sensor device you're talking about. A friend of mine used one with success while battling raccoons, but it was in a confined space. Humane, absolutely, but unfortunately not practical for me on an acre with all kinds of other visitors, including chickens. If I set up motion detectors, water would be spraying all night!

I laughed at your reference to the "mating dance with howl." Cats can be even more disruptive to a good night's sleep than a drunken domestic dispute next door. At least you can call the cops on the humans. 

Anglo1, thanks for the cat trap offer. The cats out here aren't so bad ... there are only two or three and they don't mate, screech and hiss at each other all night like the Oleander cats. In my old neighborhood I borrowed a cat trap from a neighbor and had no success. There were two cats causing all the problems and no one could catch them. Like I said before, as long as they stay off my patio furniture, we can coexist peacefully! 

 Oil Prices May Drop, But So Will Dollar

WASHINGTON — Consumer prices shot up in June at the fastest pace in 26 years with two-thirds of the surge blamed on soaring energy prices.

The Labor Department reported that consumer prices jumped 1.1 percent last month, much worse than had been expected. Energy prices rocketed upward by 6.6 percent, reflecting big gains for gasoline, home heating oil and natural gas.

The big rise in prices cut deeply into consumers' earning power with average weekly wages, after adjusting for inflation, dropping by 0.9 percent in June, the biggest monthly decline since 1984.

The report on retail inflation followed similarly grim news on Tuesday that wholesale prices had shot up by 1.8 percent in June.

U.S. stocks looked to be headed for a mixed opening amid worries of how rising prices may affect the economy.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Tuesday that the Fed was concerned about the threats posed by rising inflation.

Bernanke said that the "upside risks to the inflation outlook have intensified lately, as the rising prices of energy and some other commodities have led to a sharp pickup in inflation and some measures of inflation expectations have moved higher."

Bernanke's comments underscored the bind the central bank is in, caught between a faltering economy that is struggling to overcome a prolonged housing slump and a severe credit squeeze, and the risk that inflation would move higher.

Many analysts believe that the central bank is likely to leave interest rates unchanged for the rest of the year out of concern that any tightening of credit policy could send the economy into an even worse tailspin.

http://www.huffingtonpost.c...