We've wondered where all the common house sparrows have gone. They were once so ubiquitous they were seen everywhere, perching twittering in trees, scratching under cars to pick up the grist they need to help them digest their scavenged food; anywhere one might look in the great out-of-doors the most common avian sight was the sparrow. It had suddenly occurred to us one day that we just don't see them any more.

Can it be possible that domestic cats have succeeded in destroying their presence? It's a well enough recognized fact that cat depredation on birds is horrendous in its scope, and seen to be the primary cause of a significant dip in the numbers of songbirds now seen in North America. Our obsession with domestic pets hasn't impinged on our consciousness that pet ownership comes with a responsibility. If we're responsible for the proliferation of domestic cats in society, then we're also responsible to ensure we've done our utmost to ensure that they don't prey on wildlife beyond the point of sustainability.

We realize that we'll have to put an end to our bird/squirrel/rabbit feeding station fairly soon. While it remains extremely cold, long past the time when we might have reason to think the weather must soon moderate as we edge into spring, it won't be long before the neighbourhood cats resume their prowling. And we don't want to be responsible for the carnage that ensues when they do, around our own home. We've been through this before and finding the tiny corpses that have been mangled by a well-fed cat amusing itself is not a great experience.

Wildlife that surrounds us will increasingly be able to find their own food sources in abundance as warmer weather inevitably does arrive. In the meantime, we're still getting ample cold and snow events. The 'canopy' that my husband put up over the feeding area on our porch a month ago has been quite useful in ensuring that snow doesn't completely engulf the seeds and nuts. It will all soon have to be disassembled.

When a pair of black squirrels alongside a red one were on the porch this morning, we suddenly saw a grey tabby approaching, seemingly out of nowhere. As alert as the squirrels are, cats are extremely skilled as predators. That was our first signal. As much as nature has equipped her creatures with their primary, overriding instinct of survival, that compulsion is often enough surmounted by a quite dreadful fate.