Does your cat bring you "presents"?

[Withywindle]

Decapitated mice and the like?


Don't waste that protein:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5075946

[SoxFan]

1. I once found a bird's head on the living room floor

No sign of the rest of it.

I guess it was some sort of weird kitty Mafia warning or something.

[Withywindle]

2. Got any recipes?

[Mollis]

3. More often then I would like.

That's for sure.

[Withywindle]

5. Well, now you're prepared for the apocalypse.

Can those birds. Pickle those rats. :9


This is one of my favorite cat websites: http://www.whatjeffkilled.com/

[Lil Missy]

4. My cats stay inside, but my dog did that once.

I ran outside once cause I heard these awful screeching sounds. I thought, OMFG, someone is hurting my dog!

I'll spare the details, other than the dog won.

[Withywindle]

6. The dog I had as a kid killed the squirrels we'd been feeding all winter.

I was traumatized, but the dog was even more upset. I've never seen a dog look so confused and guilty. "What happened? We were just playing! Why is it broken? Can you fix it?"

[Lil Missy]

9. Squirrel in this case too, but I think he was playing with an already wounded one.

[rcrush]

22. Omg Tell us what he killed.

My friend had a rottweiler that tore the head off a dear once.

[Skittles]

25. is that deer or dear as in a loved one?

:o

[rcrush]

26. um the four legged one.

:rofl:

[Lil Missy]

52. It was a squirrel. I don't know how he'd catch one unless it was already wounded.

[seaker]

7. Yep..they have

Back when I had cats...now my dog does. Knowing I can be hard to shop for I try to be gracious and appreciate the spirit of the offering.

[Withywindle]

8. It really is the thought that counts.

I can't help but wonder if they're hinting, though.

"If you really loved me...you'd bring ME some fresh rabbit guts once in a while."

[seaker]

10. Perhaps

Guess kibble served day after day might make him a bit desperate...Ouch...It was an act of desperation

[Lasher]

11. Once the cat brought in a flying squirrel.

We didn't notice until she got inside. And as it turned out the flying squirrel was still very much alive! They can hide real good in the couch. They can get into the tiniest cracks. Took us 3 days to get that thing out.

The way we finally did it, we left a door wide open at night. See, the little bastards sleep during the day. Anyway when it saw its chance it made its escape out the door, cats in hot pursuit. I'm glad cats can't drag grizzlies in.

[backwoodsbob]

12. lets see

a live squirrel
a live rabbit
I couldn't guess how many live snakes
One of the shepperds brought home a groundhog
dozens of lizards.We have a railroad tie wall behind the place and it USED to be a favorite place for lizards.

[Withywindle]

15. We had flying squirrels in our attic when I was a kid!

Could hear 'em rustling around at night. Once one got into my bedroom - cutest thing I've ever seen. We didn't have cats then. We locked the dog in another room. Then we chased it to the balcony, and it went fweee! into the air.


Amazing critters!

[Lasher]

42. We once had a pet flying squirrel.

A flying squirrel built a nest where it was chewing up some telephone wiring at work. I had to destroy the nest. There were 2 baby flying squirrels in it and I took them home.

Mrs. Lasher fed them milk with a tiny baby bottle. She would heat the milk up and test it on her wrist just like she did with our human children. They were so cute, the way they would grab the bottle with their little 'hands' while feeding!

Like other animals, flying squirrels keep their young licked clean. Mrs. Lasher and I were both somewhat adverse to the notion of squirrel-licking and remain so to this day. So over time they got a little yucky from slobbering milk on themselves. It is a danger to them at that age to get even a little wet but I decided I had to clean them.

I got a soft damp cloth and wiped each one until they were fairly clean. Then I dried them off the best I could and buried them in a pile of cotton to keep them warm. One of them died but the other didn't.

The little guy eventually started eating solid food and roaming around the house. He liked to stay right with us and would perch on my shoulder while I watched TV. He would climb up the curtains and glide off the curtain rod onto you. Mrs. Lasher's aunt almost had a cow when she came to see us one evening. I guess I musta forgot to tell her about the flying squirrel and it landed on her as she walked past the curtain rod where the little guy just happened to be. Heh heh, that was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

As he got older he started feeling less like he was our baby and started hiding in the house when we'd let him out of his cage. His independence grew in this manner and we decided it was time to release him into the woods, which we did.

Although he was only with us about a year that was one of the best pets we ever had.

[MrSlayer]

13. Yes my oldest male has on two occasions. The other three cats are sissies.

I live in an inner city row home so we don't have too many problems with this but twice over the past 5 years lone rats found their way in only to meet their demise in the maw of Jasper the Slayer.



He is much, much bigger than this now.


The first time, I was there when he grabbed the rat and he just pranced around with it in his mouth for awhile before I was able to get it away from him. The second time was very recent. This fucking rat must have been living here for a while because he was really clean and wasn't afraid of the other three cats. He actually ran out in front of two of them and they just looked at him curiously, almost friendly, before he ran back in the closet. I was screaming at them to "earn their fucking food" but, being cats, they didn't give a shit. So I went up and got Jasper, who was sort of resentful of my rude awakening but more than eager as soon as he caught the scent. He didn't get him right away but I was awakened 5 hours later by my wife screaming in disgust over having stepped in the eviscerated rat that was left outside our bedroom door.

[Withywindle]

17. I love the artificial leaves.

SUCH a hunter.

Of all the cats I've lived with in the last 15 years, only one ever verifiably was seen in the vicinity of a dead mouse (my late Marlowe). He was so excited and acting so proud, tossing the limp little corpse around. But we'll never know to this day if he actually caught it, or just found it and decided to take the credit. (To be fair, when he was a kitten I also had a pet rat and discouraged him strongly from exercising his feline instincts.)

[The Doctor.]

20. Interesting. You may find this a little unsettling;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis#Behavioral_changes

"It has been found that the parasite has the ability to change the behavior of its host: infected rats and mice are less fearful of cats — in fact, some of the infected rats seek out cat-urine-marked areas. This effect is advantageous to the parasite, which will be able to sexually reproduce if its host is eaten by a cat.<14> The mechanism for this change is not completely understood, but there is evidence that toxoplasmosis infection raises dopamine levels and concentrates in the amygdala in infected mice."

[MrSlayer]

24. Well he didn't eat either of them.

He just killed them. The first was just a snap of the neck from behind, I watched it happen. The second looked like a front of the neck grab and double back claw rake. He rolled on him but he didn't eat him. Jasper only likes a certain type of dry food. He's the only cat I've ever heard of that will not eat tuna. I don't think the rat had this disease either. He was here for a while, grew up in the house stealing food and got nailed when he showed his ass too freely.

[The Doctor.]

39. That's good, because they might have been infected.

[sakabatou]

14. Once.

We found a baby squirrel. Usually she brings us socks.

[Withywindle]

18. My cat hunts cough drops.

She LOVES them. The ones wrapped up like candy. She'll go in my purse like a pickpocket to get them. She whacked me in the head with one really hard just yesterday.

[Deep13]

43. .

:rofl:

[BamaGirl]

16. Mine brings me

birds, frogs, lizards, and parts I'd really rather not be forced to identify thanks lol. :)

[Withywindle]

19. Them's good eatin'!

S/he's just trying to help feed you in the Great Depression II.

[The Doctor.]

21. You're lucky!

All mine's ever brought us was a beak and half a bird-foot.

[Skittles]

23. yes and they are picked clean by the time I get 'em

fucking sorry ass cat

[Withywindle]

28. You gotta get in there sooner.

Assert your dominance and fight him/her for the choicest bits!


(I would. And tell my girl that if the economy gets much worse, she'll have to share her Fancy Feast, so she might as well get used to it now.)

[Skittles]

29. what is it with cats and Fancy Feast?

my kitties LOVE those little cans

[Withywindle]

31. There's kitty crack in there.

I know it's not catnip, cause Madimi is one of those cats who couldn't care less about that.

[Skittles]

33. LOL

:rofl:

[nickinSTL]

46. my cat never much liked Fancy Feast...

he was more of an Ocean Fish Friskies (the dry stuff) fan.

Of course, he's also the first cat I ever knew who didn't love 9Lives Super Supper.

Just as well, as that stuff smells awful. :puke:

[1]

27. i was sleeping a few weeks ago...

i felt something on my back. it was moving. i brushed it off (screaming as i did), turned on the bedroom light. i looked around. nothing.

a half an hour later. the same thing. AAAHHH!!! *brush! brush! brush!* again with the light. nothing.

eventually i figured out...

my idiot kitty had captured a tiny mouse (that she wouldn't kill, just mouth) and was dropping it on me as i slept. a gift i suppose, in her mind.


stupid kitty...

[Withywindle]

32. She wanted YOU to do the dirty work. n/t

[1]

34. maybe. i just think she enjoyed watching me scream and flail about...

she smiles in an affected, smug, or offensively familiar way a lot.

all kitties smirk, right?

[Withywindle]

35. Yes. Oh yes they do.

My cat sometimes reaches out when I'm sleeping, if my tank top has ridden up, and just barely gently touches the tip of one little needle claw to my bare lower back.

She knows it'll wake me up. And it's a pretty powerful threat.

[1]

36. omg! olive reaches out to put a paw on my face every night....

and then does this "slow presentation of her mighty claws" thing that totally gets my attention. i pet her to get her to back off. she has me totally trained.

my last kitty albert (rest his soul) would, when he was mad at me, climb up on my head and fall asleep.

oh please, why can't they invent a kitty that sleeps at night?

[Withywindle]

37. Cats have taught me the true meaning of "crepuscular."

I had to learn it the hard way.

At least my Madimi is more subtle than my ex's cat. Here's a video that could be him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q

[1]

38. ha! that youtube is so my little olive! every night!

olive must weigh 5 pounds soaking wet... the tiniest kitty i have ever met (she must be 3 by now, another of my farm rescues.) jet black, brilliant yellow eyes, with the smallest little puff of white fur on her chest.

and every bit the pain in the ass as the kitty in that video (did you notice the "paw to the face?")

but i do love her so...

[old mark]

30. Maybe once every few years. She mostly just

vomits where you will surely step in it.

:puke:

"Thinking of you."

mark

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

40. He generally eats them leaving behind only a tiny blood stain as a reminder

[Deep13]

41. When I had a cat, he did.

"Old rodent breath" left all kinds of goodies--mostly squirrels--by the front door. He ate most of it and left the head, spine and tail. Then the other cat (who developmentally disabled) would find it and eat the remains. Sometimes the first cat would catch frogs.

[Strong Atheist]

44. One of my cats used to. OTOH, I had a cat who sat on a

mouse while trying to chase it. None of us chasing the mouse (including the cat) could figure out where it went, until finally I said "You're sitting on it!" We got the cat off the mouse, captured it, and let it go

[Withywindle]

53. Bwahahahah!

:rofl:


I would believe that of my old cat. He could sit on all sorts of things and they'd disappear.

[Lost in CT]

45. Baby Chipmunks, lizards... and once a very perturbed hawk. nt

[Withywindle]

54. Wow...cat catches hawk.

Usually it's the other way around. Hawks can get pretty ambitious. :scared:

[nickinSTL]

47. my mom's cat would

when I was a kid. He was a hunter - mice, moles, you name it, he'd kill it. One time when I was about 5, a friend was over and put his foot in his shoe when he was getting ready to go home...right on a dead mouse. I don't think he appreciated that.

My cat...apparently never learned the killing bite, and...he didn't see that well - part Siamese with crossed eyes - his depth perception was pretty bad.

So, as he didn't kill things easily, he'd bring in a live bird, which would flop around the room, crapping all the way, or one time he brought a tiny mouse IN, and promptly lost it...great, thanks.

Another time, we walked into the kitchen to find a bird eating his cat food out of his bowl...and him just watching it. Weird cat.

[Withywindle]

55. That's hilarious!

Sounds like he has the hunting instinct, but not the killing one. So give him a credit card and he'd be a master shopper.

:rofl:

[montanto]

48. Once my cat brought a live possum

which apparently became difficult and he left it in the closet for me to deal with. He used to bring all kinds of dead things too, mostly rats and mice. Once he put a live cockroach in bed, but that was just to play with until he was ready to sleep.

[Withywindle]

56. "which apparently became difficult"

As possums will do.

Once he put a live cockroach in bed, but that was just to play with until he was ready to sleep.

AIEEEEE!!

Cats are useless when you really need them. My late Marlowe used to chase bugs. Well, once in this crappy apartment I used to live in (alone) there was this FRAKKIN' GINORMOUS wolf spider on my bedroom floor, and I'm too wussy to catch it or kill it, and there I was shivering on the bed, and I picked Marlowe up and put him right in front of the critter and said, "Get it! Get it! You know what to do." He just stared at it. And stared. And stared. Until it moved, and then he jumped back about 10 feet with his back arched and ran out of the room.

I guess incidents like that are where the term "pussy cat" comes from.

[azmouse]

49. Why do I think this thread will sadden me if I read it?

[Raffi Ella]

50. Every dog I've ever owned has brought me a rabbit or two.

I was so surprised when my new little dog came trotting out of the woods with a huge rabbit in her mouth.

She's rather timid and very shy and when I gasped she dropped it and slunk away. But then when I asked in earnest admiration "did you catch that Sophie??", she came back and put her paw on it looking all proud of herself.

[MissMillie]

51. socks

Millie has decided that the menace she must save us from is socks.

whether it's my son's dirty socks on the floor, or a pair of matched socks in the laundry basket, Millie "hunts" it down, "kills" it, and leaves it in my chair in the living room.

She's vicious, I tell you.



You can tell just by looking at her.