Conference misery::feline_v1

    My cats are interior-only, however:
    
    The other morning, I found Karamaneh at the foot of the stairs.
    She was sitting proudly over a "kill."  It was one of my wife's
    partially-rolled knee-high nylons.  
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    

    
    My kitty "Melissa" once dragged home a phesant.  It was alive and
    scrambled away when I made it clear that she could not bring it into
    the house.

    In her hunting days, Mutu brought home snakes, and couldn't understand
    why I wouldn't let it into the house!  Munchkin always brought things
    home alive, with a very soft mouth, and then released it.  Of course,
    being Siamese, Mutu always talks, and we know she has something
    in her mouth because she sounds like she's under water!  Their
    daughter, Shadow, brought home a live morning dove, released it
    in the house, and my in-laws had to lock her in the room so she
    could recatch it!
    
    J.
    

    My two cats, TAFFY and KASHKA are both good hunters. They have brought
    home tens of dead field mice, several birds, some alive, a snakeskin,
    some chipmunks, several baby rabbits.  I have tried several times to
    show that I do not want them to do this but they still bring their kills
    on to the porch or garage steps for our notice. 

RE: .0

The old expression "looks like something the cat dragged in" is based on very
real experience.

Hunting is an instinct in cats--they are carnivores, after all.  I think the
sharing of kills with their human friends is a sign of affection.  Attempts
to discourage it are likely to be misinterpreted as rejection.  Attempting
to "correct" this behavior is likely to be futile, anyway.

--PSW

    i saw some program on PBS that had the mother cat teaching her
    young to catch mice by bringing back a live mouse for them to play
    with.
    
    Maybe the cat wonders why its taking so long for the pet human to
    learn how?
    
    My cat keeps trying to get me to play catch with the mouse, if i'm
    in the same room.  (one of the hazards of having a cat door)
    
    Fortunately she has learned to take her "toys" back outside when
    she is done playing.
    
    -dave

    I have never thought of it that way before....
    
    jo

My cats stay indoors, and have never exhibited "kill" behavior.
However, I grew up with cats, who were able to go out and come in at
will through a cat door in the porch door.  Needless to say, they often
brought us presents.  We had birds, mice, moles, chipmunks, squirrels
(did you know they shriek when they are killed?  We found that out in the
middle of the night once...), and rabbits.  Only one of the cats out of
the many we had over the years brought in snakes (just garter snakes).
And one, our idiot Siamese, Clarence (so named because he was really
cross-eyed), no doubt in an effort to emulate the snake-catcher, proudly
brought us earthworms.  HUGE earthworms.  And those were the only things
he ever caught, as far as I know.
						-- Nina

    
    My Abby "puppie" (yes! she is a cat!!) regularly stalks, kills and
    brings "home" socks.  When she does, it's a sure thing we'll be
    haveing sock soup for supper!!!

    My cats never kill their "toys", but they do sometimes bring them
    home.  I wasn't watching carefully yesterday, so I now have a live
    fieldmouse, last seen hiding under the sofa (too little space for
    either cat to follow it there) in the living room.  How do I catch
    this critter so I can release outdoors??  Or should I wait until
    one of the cats catches it, put both of them out, and only let the
    cat back in??
    
    I didn't see who brought this critter, but it was probably Nebula.
    She has also brought baby rabbits, small moles, and, once, a small
    green snake, but this is the first time I didn't see that she was
    carrying something in time to get her to let it go outdoors.  It
    is a very, very small mouse, but I don't want my housekeeper (who
    comes tomorrow morning) to freak out.  Any ideas, anyone?
                                                              

    re: -1
    
    It's my bet that the mouse will be gone by the time you get home.
    Where do they go??  If you ever find out - let me know.  I had
    a similar situation, and the critter just up and disapeared!
    
    Marion
    

    It may be gone from where I last saw it, but there's no way it can
    get outside again by itself.  Neither of the cats ever kills any
    of her "toys" (though my friend's cat, the infamous NUGGET, not
    only brought a RAT as big as he was home and in through the cat
    door - I don't have one of those - but proceeded to devour it on
    the hall carpet, waking up his pet human, my friend John _ in the
    morning, there was nothing left but the tail, and the mess. John
    was less than amused....Nugget, of course, is a tomcat!).  I just
    hope the housekeeper doesn't see it; she'll be real unhappy!

    Trust me,
    
    It is gone.  It's sort of one of those misteryies of life - like
    where are all of those baby pidgens.  Your kitties didn't eat it.
    It did not hide under the carpet.  It's just gone.   If you're Catholic
    - think of the mouse like - um - well like orignal sin after baptism.
    
    
    Marion

    I didn't get a chance to look for it or remains of it, or manage to
    rescue it before the cleaning lady came, but she seemed un-fazed
    by the idea of a live mouse, after I assured her that it was a live
    "toy" rather than a partially-eaten or otherwise mangled mouse that
    I was talking about.  I won't be home tonight, or tomorrow, or
    Saturday, either, so it will have a good chance of disappearing,
    if it is going to.  The cats are no longer acting like there is
    something fascinating under the heavy sofa, so maybe you're right! I'll
    look around Sunday when I get home and see if it is about someplace.
    
    I wish Nebula would leave her playthings outdoors.

    Don't forget, mice have the most uncanny method of squeezing through
    cracks...they squish themselves flat and slip through.  However,
    don't be surprised if it shows up again.  Haven't you noticed that
    during the early fall, a lot of field mice get into houses?  I bet
    that if it shows up again, Nebula will find it.
    
    J.
    

    I was afraid she would find it, pick it up in her mouth, and bring
    it (squeaking in terror all the way, poor mouse!) to show Mrs. Ford,
    since the cats have long since accepted her as part of the household
    - and I wasn't sure how she would react.  I'll be home on Sunday
    and will take a good look around for the critter (or its remains,
    if it died of hunger or fright or something).  The only "toys" that
    either cat actually eats are grasshoppers - and they make Neb sick
    to her stomach when she does it (dummy!).

    Last night, Chauncey got his first trophy.  An unfortunate moth
    managed to find his way into the house and Chauncey (my hero) saved
    the day.  He bounced from chair to table to sofa in hot pursuit.
    At one point, when the moth was fluttering near the ceiling, Chauncey
    was on the top of his climbing tree, his little chin quivering,
    practicing his lethal bite (oh, Chauncey, how dramatic!).  He
    eventually caught it with a paw and chomped on it.  But instead
    of bringing the prize to me, he brought it to his big brother who
    beamed with pride!  Can cricket season be far behind???
    
    re: .17...have you looked around JFCL's mouth for a little bit of
    grey fur??
    
    Mary

    re: .18
    
    Yes, moth season has started.  And yes, singing crickets will be
    next.  My cat hasn't been able to find any mouse "toys" recently,
    finally presented me with a large moth.  Fortunately this one didn't
    survive the trip into the house.
    
    Does chasing another cat into the house count as "live" "toys"?
    Last night (4am) i heard growling and hissing in the bookcase next my
    bed - my cat was under the bed, and a grey tiger cat was doing
    the growling.  Whenever it tried to get down from the bookcase,
    my cat would chase it back up there.  
    
    It seemed like a nice cat, didn't even try to attack me when i tossed
    it outside.  The strange part is that i recently had my brother's
    tiger cat visit for about a week.  Maybe my cat wanted to make sure
    i only wanted one cat?  She was very friendly after the other cat
    was gone.
    
    -dave
    

    Well, I finally managed to banish the cats' "pet" a couple of nights
    ago!  I hadn't seen it or been able to locate it for a few days
    but was pretty sure it hadn't managed to get out (the house is
    practically air-tight, at least until I put the screens in the storm
    doors - cheaper to heat that way - so it is presumably mouse-tight
    too) and hadn't been consumed.  Tuesday night, while someone was
    visiting (of course), the mouse made a dash for it from under the
    stereo bench to under the sofa.  Later, there was a BIG commotion,
    and I discovered that Nebula was in the process of learning to climb
    curtains (something neither cat ever did much of even as kittens)
    to get at her "pet", who was fratically dashing back and forth on
    the top of the curtain rod in the front window of the living room.
     I called for human reinforcements, and with three humans (carrying
    buckets and other potential "mouse-holders") and two cats chasing
    it, we were able to herd the poor critter out the front door!

    We too had a cat visit us one night and in the middle of winter
    no less!  I woke up to cats hissing and screaming, and my daughter
    shouting, "Maaaaaaaaa, Maaaaaaaaaa!"  I went running to her bed
    and there was a full grown cat sitting on her bed and one of my
    cats giving him the evil eye.  Needless to say the whole house was
    up and I was demanding "All right which one of you kids brought
    ANOTHER cat home!!!!" "Honest Mom, we didn't do it".  Well, I picked
    the cat up and put him outside and found that he had pushed the
    back door open and came in that way.  We never saw him again.  Strange
    but true.