Do your cats bring in the things they catch and release them indoors?

[pstokely]

They don't kill them, they just bring them inside to torture them

[camero]

1. No

But my dog does.

[skygazer]

2. He does if I'm not careful to latch the door

He can open the screen door if it's not latched. One day, the SO and I were standing in the kitchen when the cat came in the living room door - out of the corner of our eyes, we saw a quick movement.

When we got into the living room, the cat was staring intently at the area rug and there was a tiny little lump under it. My SO corraled the cat and I carefully peeled back the rug to find a very small baby vole - he was perfectly still, probably hoping no one would find him.

It was very cute. I rescued it and took it outside - we kept the cat in for a couple of hours. He wasn't real thrilled but that's what he gets for bringing the poor thing in.

[kedrys]

3. Yes, and unfortunately it's usually palmetto bugs

You know, the giant cockroaches of DOOM... The s.o. is scared pissless of the damn things, and I have to chase 'em down, squash 'em and flush 'em. The cats apparently take too long to kill 'em *and* let 'em escape under bookcases and beds and stuff.

[Skittles]

4. no, they are dead and very much picked over

which pisses me off that they are presented as a "gift" - like I could actually make a meal of it. :(

[Mz Pip]

5. Depends on which cat

I have one cat who is pretty lazy with the mice. There have been numerous times I have smelled something yucky and had to go around the house searching under bookcases, couches, chairs looking for the critter that somehow got away then expired under a piece of furniture. Yuck.

Our other hunter doesn't play with them. If she brings them in they are dead. Still yuck, though.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[zanne]

6. One of my cats brought a Bluejay inside....

We had a pet door one summer. My little hunter brought the bird in the house and upstairs to the spare bedroom. I screamed, the bird got loose and started flying around the room, with my cat making spectacular jumps up to five feet to retrieve it. I opened the second floor door and the bird got away. I still have nightmares.

[skygazer]

8. Trick for getting birds out of houses

Turn off all the lights in the house and open the door. If it's a sunny day, it will be brighter outside and the bird will head toward it.

If it's night, turn off the inside lights, turn on an outside light and open the closest door. :hi:

[zanne]

9. NOW you tell me! nt

[Arkansas Granny]

34. That really works. We have birds fly into the shop where I work

in the summertime and a regular basis and they guys that work out there thought I was out of my mind when I suggested that to them. Now, if they get a bird in the shop, they use that method and he's gone in no time.

[pstokely]

10. Ever tried a Catbib

http://www.catgoods.com/

[GenDem]

7. As a matter of fact

Last Wednesday I was having my usual weekly lesson with a home school student that I teach, when she said -- "Mrs 'GenDem', there's feathers under your table!" And sure enough there was. :rofl:

No sign of the bird that used to wear those feathers. Just a big pile of feathers. I was a little :blush:

[badgerpup]

11. Nope...I just find ex-critters...

...or partial ex-critters in the yard. Yuck.
Time to do another sweep and have a mass burial.
I've a lilac bush needs planted, going to go over the top of this mass grave, and the little beasties will be wished "Better luck next time" and thanked for nourishing my lilac.

My monsters cats apparently feel I don't need 'lessons' in providing, since they don't bring me 'gifts'.
I suppose that's good...

[elocs]

12. I had a cat once that used to bring in live mice and drop them on the floor

as if to say, "Here you are". Then she would act like she could not see the mouse at all. I found this cat when she was only about 3 days old so she was never taught how to kill the mice, but she would instinctively catch them.

[Katina]

13. my guy thinks it's a great favor

so when he's at the back door meowing to be let in, I always do a "critter" check to make sure that he's not bringing a "gift" inside. I've had to catch too many live mice, chimpmunks and rabbits in the past. I just don't know how an old cat with no front claws can still be catching these things. I guess Darwin's "survival of the fittest" really is the law of nature.

[SeattleGirl]

14. Yup. One of my cats just loves to bring mice into the house and

play with them!

[mike_c]

15. mine do, but thankfully that are not big hunters...

...so I only get live gifts a couple of times a year. On the other hand, one of my cats brings me pieces of wood or downed fruit several times a day. He always announces himself loudly, carrying a stick in and dropping it near me. At night he'll drop them in the bed.

[Forkboy]

16. My cat is so lazy I depend on things catching him and bringing him back.

[deadparrot]

17. She used to.

However, in recent years she's slowed down a bit, and I think she's gotten the message that we don't exactly consider it a present. When some poor unfortunate creature does turn up deceased, it's usually not on our doorstep anymore.

[Maraya1969]

18. YES and I hated it. He brought in a baby possum once and here is a pic of what I woke up to one

morning.

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>


I thought it was a Raven and I was going to die. I had to rush to the computer and look up Raven to make sure.

That cat drove me nuts. Mice, rats, a SNAKE, the possum and birds.

EDIT: to add....lizards. I have a dog door and that is how he got them all in.

[spacelady]

19. That is the most gorgeous light fixture on your fan! n/t

[Maraya1969]

22. Thanks. I splurged on it and I love it too.

[Maraya1969]

21. Here is a picture of him. I swear he has not evolved all the way down to PET yet.

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>


I actually had to find a new home for him because he tormented my other cat and it got so bad my other cat would not come home. It was horrible.

[Forkboy]

23. Wow...that's a beauty.

[Heidi]

20. Yes.

We had a field mouse under the bed last night, thanks to The Wiley and Excellent Boy Cat Named Ginger's "catch and release" program. :eyes:

[bridgit]

24. i refer to them as 'offerings'...

i used to have a siamese that would lay them out on the floor for me in the morning all in a row and sit by them looking up in anticipation of my approval...i love kitties

[murielm99]

25. My wonderful cat does that.

Once, I when I left for a weekend, my dh was home alone with the pets. I told him that the cat had been batting a mouse around the TV room, and he better keep an eye out for it. It would either show up as an offering, or die somewhere.

When I came home, he told me that the couch smelled really bad, and maybe we needed to throw it out. I told him to lift the couch. The dead mouse was decaying under the couch. Everything was fine when we cleaned and aired the room.

I haven't found an offering in awhile, thank God.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

26. A live rabbit

Great fun!

Be vewwy vewwy quiet, we're hunting wabbits.

[LaurenG]

27. My cats are indoor girls but we had a mouse family

living somewhere under the house and found a way into the house. The cats let us know that there was something important happening under the kitchen sink as they'd both be just sitting there watching the baseboard day after day.

One morning, just out of the shower, I walked into my bedroom and there are the two kitties chasing a tiny mouse back and forth. We caught it and then put it into a coffee can and took it to the park up the street. We played out the same scenario three times.

I guess if you're a cat you need to bring them to the bedroom to chase.

They are great huntresses.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

28. Good heavens, all the time!

Over the many years/cats, I have found far more live critters in the house than dead. Even though I live in SF, I am right next to a huge park, so the kids always have a plethora of critters to bring home to "mom". I think they do it because they enjoy the "sport" of me running after them yelling, "Put the mousie down!" :D

I've woken to find snakes curled in a perfect coil on the kitchen floor - heck, one was dropped in our washer's double sink and his head was in one sink and his tail the other! There have been loads of moles/gophers brought in (the moles make a fascinating sound when they are angry/terrified), dozens of teeny tiny field mice, and way too many sewer/roof rats.

One afternoon I came home from work, sat down to watch some TV, and noticed the fronds of my 6' ponytail palm moving. Junior, my hunter, was sitting in the cat tree right next to the palm, staring at the top of it. When I walked over to get a closer look, I found a foot long sewer rat hanging on for dear life to a frond! I have spent my entire life wrangling critters my cat's have brought in so I could get them to safety, but the the idea of handing the world's biggest rat freaked even me out. But, I finally just put on some heavy work gloves and went in for the grab. He strugglered a bit, but I held on until I was outside and able to release him in the field across the street from me. Here's the kicker: I let the rat go, he scampers a few feet into the grass, then he turns around and shoots me the dirtiest look I have ever seen! This was one seriously put out rat!

[reyd reid reed]

29. Not any more

but I used to have a cat who just loved to bring her toys inside and let them go.

:eyes:

[NV Whino]

30. Yes

Frogs, mice, voles, snakes, lizards, lizard tails, potato bugs... I'm sure I've forgotten something, but you get the idea.

[deucemagnet]

31. I've had one live critter and a bunch of dead ones lately.

I'm watching my mom's cat, who is quite a hunter. Just this weekend, I found half a mouse skull on the kitchen floor, a dead mouse on the patio, a dead baby bunny on the kitchen floor, and a dead mouse that my indoor cat got a hold of and brought to my bedroom. It keeps life interesting. :eyes:

[RiverStone]

32. That's the only reason we can't use cat doors...

My 2 kitties are super outdoorsy (like me) and like to go in/out/in/out and play in the woods - particularly at night.

Of course, when the cat door was operative I would awake to dead or partially dead rodents, snakes, baby rabbits, and lizards. The WORST is to step on a freshly killed something barefoot on the way to the bath room in the middle of the night!

That'll wake ya up!

Anyway, now before I let my cats in at night - I turn on the pourch lite and screen for something dangling from their mouth. Dang, why do cats choose to be so mean in the way they kill? Of course, to a cat - its not mean at all - it is simply hard wired instinct (and a little fun in the process).

[El Fuego]

33. Catch and release.... then catch again! And release again!

Then catch again! And....release!!!

:rofl:

Then I catch the poor lizard and put it outside, hopefully while it's still alive.

[Arkansas Granny]

35. Yes, she does. I haven't figured out if she thinks I want to play

with them so she brings them to share or if she's just showing off. She's really good at it, though. The only mice I've seen in the house in years have been the half dead ones that she brings in.

[NMDemDist2]

36. yup

this new kitty hasn't yet, but most of my cats have brought me 'presents' from time to time.

when my old Triscuit had kittens, she'd bring in mice all the time for the kittens to play with

:banghead:

[AngryAmish]

37. I don't have cats

[Brewman_Jax]

38. I'm waiting for the cat to bring a freeper in the garage

he's brought in other gross things. :D

[Danger Mouse]

39. No. My cat leaves various internal organs body parts as 'presents' for us.

Yum, yum.

[Kashka-Kat]

40. No not to torture. She just thinks the house should be stocked with LIVE MICE.

People supposedly have cats to rid their house of mice. Not me. My cat brings in live mice and lets them go, and then immediately loses interest the second they disappear behind the furniture. We have a large mouse population now in the house where originally we had none. Someone in the apartment asked me, "have you noticed any mice in the building?" I sheepishly said, yeah, I think I might've seen a couple...

[ElizabethDC]

41. Yes, lizards and mice

and sometimes to kill them. Mostly the killing went on outside and the dead lizards would be deposited at the door step. Eventually we had to shut off the cat door, though, when a few mice were brought in.