Conference misery::feline_v1

        
        One of my childhood cats was fondest of hunting and delivering
        garter snakes, which  I  then had to dispose of (thanks, Ma!).
        They were generally pretty  dead  by the time he got them into
        the garage, but I was  still  afraid  of  them.   He'd sit and
        watch me try to pick up  the  remains using a long stick, with
        that  expression  on  his  face that I  now  can  identify  as
        cat-laughter :^}
        
        Sandy

    That's very insightful, Bill!  Since my cats are pretty much
    indoor only they don't bring me such "gifts".  I did have a
    cat once who sweetly left me a very large dead moth on top of
    my neatly folded laundry!
    
      I've heard it said that cats either relate to you as if you
    were their mother or as if they were yours.  Since humans have 
    not claws and, therefore, can't hunt, the cat will often take
    over that duty for its human - just like a mother cat would do
    for its kittens.  So, you're right Bill.  Accept the gift and then
    dispose of it when your kitty isn't looking.
      Nancy DC
    

    Last spring, Portia and Oscar were both bigtime hunters, delivering
    "gifts" to Larry and I every morning.  Portia actually brought home
    a crow with a 2' wing span one morning.  Larry thought along the
    same lines as you Bill - Larry figured that Porty and Osco were
    trying to teach us how to hunt.  So, Larry would go out onto the
    fron porch with a pair of gloves on, get down on his hands and knees,
    and start batting the "gifts" around with the cats.  Personnally
    I would be disgusted with the whole scene, and go hide in the bedroom.
    
    After a couple days of this, no more dead "gifts".  Occasionally,
    we would get a Live one, but that's another story in itself.
    
    	-Nancy

    
    Re: .3
    
    I don't get it.  Why did they stop bringing the gifts?
    
    Karen

    I found a way to get the cats to not bring gifts several years ago and
    still use this method.  If my cat brings a dead mouse or bird to me, I
    thank the cat for the gift and give him a good scratch and then dispose
    of the gift.  However, I hate these gifts.  My cats always enjoyed
    making the kill where I could see it.  Whenever my cat would appear in
    the front yard with a live bird or rodent, I would throw on my gloves
    and go retrieve the animal from the cat.  I'd put the cat in the house
    and then go release the captive creature.  In most cases, the animal
    was apparently uninjured.  After releasing the creature, I'd go love my
    cat a bit to make up for taking his prey away.  Anyway, my cats learned
    really quickly to make their kills out of site and once they did that,
    they quit bringing the kills home.

    Re .3
    
    The philosophy is that cats bring their prey to their humans to
    teach their humans how to hunt.  A mother cat in the wild will first
    bring dead prey to their babies to teach the babies how to hunt.
    Once the kittens know how to hunt and kill, they are on their own
    to hunt/find food.  The cats do not observe their humans hunting,
    thus find it necessary to teach us how to hunt, which is why they
    bring us "gifts".
    
    Apparently Larry "learned" very quickly how to hunt, and thus Portia
    and Oscar felt that "lessons" were no longer necessary.

    	_nancy

    
    RE: 1 
    
    UGH!  My cat alway brought home LIVE snakes.  I missed most of a 
    class one evening because I was stuck on the couch with a snake
    coiled up on the floor.  I called everyone I know and just got
    "Oh, I would love to help, but I'm afraid of snakes!"   I only
    discovered this when I was walking out the door and felt something
    slimmy against my foot.  That was the second one she brought in,
    the other one was squirming all over the house.  I had nightmares
    for weeks!   Luckily, she never went very far from the front door,
    and the snakes soon learnt to stay away (or she ate them all).
    
    

    People who have the kitty-doors often find live, half-live, or dead
    presents all over their house.  The cats just bring 'em on home,
    whether you're there to supervise or not!!
    
    YIKES!!

    Last night, while I tried to sleep, little 5 month old Julie
    (undoubtedly aided by her mother) stalked and killed a pair of panty
    hose.  It was not a pretty sight.  I woke to the sound of growling
    and ripping.  "What could be happening?" I wondered.  Turning on
    the light, I saw Julie very intent on destroying the panty hose
    I had indented on wearing to work today.  When I called to her (OK,
    when I hollered at her), she proudly presented me with her first
    gift...a very dead, very shredded pair of panty hose.  She jumped
    up on the bed with the panty hose in her mouth and dropped them
    in front of me.  Since it was now safe for the both of us, she snuggled
    under the comforter and purred herself to sleep.
    
    I guess it was better than a mouse!!
    
    Mary

    That's true. In my opinion, all cats like to show to their 
    parents how they love them. I have the same experience. My cat
    cat several time brought a dead present (mouse) for us. Once 
    our Kirinka brought her present to my husband at dinner time
    and put it on his plate. She was so proud of it that we couldn't
    tell her anything bad. We praised her and threw our entire supper to 
    the garbage. Our second cat, Pajda, likes the live presents. 
    During summer she presented us with live frogs. Believe me,
    it was not easy got such present out of the house.
    
    J. 

    Re .7:
    
    >... discovered this when I was walking out the door and felt something
    >slimmy against my foot. 
     
    FWIW, snakes aren't slimy; they're cold and they slither, but they're
    dry.  Like leather.  If it was slimy, it was probably an eel.
          
    Re subject:
    
    Merlin is an absolutely first-rate hunter, but he just can't handle
    the job of _eating_ prey, for the most part, and sicks them up.
    However, more than once I woke up to find that he's left me a
    half-eaten mouse as a present.  Kinda breakfast in bed.
    
    He and Karamaneh once together presented my wife with a live mouse.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    Billie always took this a step further.
    
    Being a indoor-only cat, her hunting took place downstairs in the
    basement in my old apartment.  It was a *very* damp basement, and
    there was often lots of crickets down there.
    
    So she would run down;  come up minutes later with her wriggling
    prey in her mouth, and look for me.  She would make sure I was sitting
    on a kitchen chair while she re-inacted the "chase" for me on the
    kitchen rug;  all the while chirping and meepling.  Then came the
    coup d'grace (I never could spell COOP DEE GRACE);  the kill--ugh.
    But she always thoughtfully left me the legs to dispose of.
    
    The sound a cat makes crunching a cricket up is indescribable...
                 
    Jane
    

    We used to have a lizard (Oman RIP), and both Portia and Oscar used
    to love to sit on top on the lizard cage.  (No, this lizard did
    NOT wander freely around my house).  We couldn't figure out why
    the cats loved to sit there - it was a nocturnal lizard.  But we
    finally figured out that it was the crickets.  The cats were waiting
    for a cricket to escape - easy prey.  We then notcied the pattern.
    When we had jsut fed Oman, and there were crickets in the cage,
    cats would be on top of cage.  Once Oman ate all the crickets, the
    cats had no interest.
    
    	-Nancy

Tsunami stalks and kills crickets.  So far she hasn't brought any to me,
she just eats them.  I only had to praise her a couple of times after 
she ate them and I haven't seen a cricket yet that didn't meet this fate.
I can't stand watching when she eats the crickets, but I'd rather watch
a hunderd times than to find one on my pillow or something.  I hope she 
doesn't feel the need to give me a present! YUCK!!!!!!!!!!

Becky

    re: .10
    
    panty hose, reminded me of a story concerning an ex.  His mom put
    the wash on the table, and one morning he was heading over to find
    an item or two, when he noticed some 'panty hose' on the floor.
    So what does he do but step on it.....(it was dark, early morning)...
    well it wasn't panty hose, but cat poop!  Served him right for walking
    on laundry.
    
    re: .13
    
    I hate the sound of Nippa eating insects, it really turns my tummy!
    I appraoched her the other night when she was sitting on the grass
    playing with a squealing thing.  Well she must of figured I was
    going to take it from her....so she gulped it down.....crunching
    bones and....AAAARRRGGGGHHHHHH
    

    Re .10
    
    Have you ever noticed that when the cat's kill the panty hose, it
    is always the brand new pair, just home from the grocery store,
    never been worn yet?
    
    How do they know when it's new?

    Dubbers always used to bring me gifts.  In fact, the only time he
    actually meowed loud enough to be let inside was when he had a gift
    for me.  Of course Dubbers only wants to show me what he brought
    in.  He generally plays with the mouse for a while (usually the
    mouse is already dead, but that doesn't seem to make a difference
    to him!), and then he eats it.  The only gift he didn't eat was
    the chipmunk he brought up to the door last summer.  
    
    Joy

There was a Desmond Morris program about cats on TV here in the UK over Xmas
which mentioned this behaviour. He said it was most common in neutered
females.
An aside:
 I videotaped this program and the cat goes ba�anas every time I play it
 back, sitting right up to the screen. I have to fastforward through the
 bits where cats are mating though...don't want to give her any ideas!! �^)
*DC

    Re: .17...it was a new pair for the first kill, but she has become
    rather non-selective.  Last night, she grabbed a pair of tights
    out of the laundry basket and did them in.  This is getting to be
    an expensive little fetish!  Funny she doesn't like socks, just
    panty hose!
    
    Mary

    Love this topic - it brings to mind all those pleased-looking kitty
    faces smiling at me over a mouthful of mouse, or cricket, or snake, or
    peacock-feather, or dust bunny...
    
    My current cats don't bring me things, but will hunt if any interesting
    critters get into the house. I have often found deceased mice in
    various stages of destruction; once or twice I found a bird (yep, in
    the house, when nobody had been in or out all day). I think the cats
    must order them in. ("Hello, Dominos Pizza? Two sparrows and a field
    mouse, please.")
    
    Recently I have begun teaching Sirocco to hunt spiders (found one in
    the bathroom and encouraged her to chase it). Envision the scene:
    towel-wrapped woman hopping around the bathroom, pulling the throw rug
    away every time the fleeing spider tries to hide under it, and cringing
    whenever the spider is lost from sight for more than a second or two.
    Kitten excitedly batting at spider whenever visible, and poking under
    rug whenever spider disappears. Kitten finally corners spider, sniffs
    it, pats it - and (of course) eats it. Much praise from me, as I can
    now take my bath without fear of finding multi-legged creatures staring
    back at me...
    
    Theory: Spiders must taste rather bitter. My cats always screw up their
    faces incredibly when chowing down on arachnids. (They also go through
    the routine of dropping the half-eaten bug and picking it up again,
    almost as if they're eating something they don't like "but Mommy said
    it was good for me".)
    
    -b

    
    Re: .21
    
    Loved the Dominos remark!!  That was funny!
    
    Re: multi legged creatures??
    
    	But, if it doesn't bother you that your multi legged cat stares
    back at you, what is wrong with spiders?
    
    Karen
    

    .21
    
    I encourage Amelia to chase those horrible spiders and she seems
    to love it.  Of course, then I freak out when she starts to eat
    it.                                         
    
       Me:   GET IT! GET IT!  AMELIA THERE IT IS, GET IT!
    
       Amelia:  Chirps and meows   (catches spider and looks up at me with
                                    spider legs hanging out of mouth)
    
       Me:   NO, DON'T EAT IT!   DON'T EAT IT!   YUCK!
    
    
    Poor Amelia, she's so confused.  She's supposed to get it and get
    rid of it but then I'm upset when she does.
                                                       
    Jan

    re:.23
    
    Sounds like what I go thru w/ Nippa.  oohhhh I hate when they eat
    those things......(chills up the spine..)
    
    M

    Well, I bet our two catch something that none of yours do... WETAS!!
    These are an insect native to NEw Zealand. What do they look like?
    Imagine a cricket... then imagine something 5 times (or more) the
    size of a cricket. That's a weta. Yuk! They have spines down their
    back legs, and they bite! Kimi and Sura went through a weta craze
    recently, three in one week. Actually it may be just Sura. Watching
    him eat them is GROSS. Finding them walking around on the lounge
    florr is not fun either.
    
    Shayne

    The mighty hunter, Kimi, also catches slices of bread and brings
    them in quite often. He is always very proud of himself when this
    happens, and has to be praised.
    
    Shayne

    Tarot has much in common with -1's Kimi. 
                                             
    He started with earthworms then graduated to twigs and branches.
    I used to love watching him puzzle out how to get a branch through
    the catflap.  First he'd try and get stuck, then again, and again.
    In the end with a thoughful look on his face he'd sit down, chew
    the branch into little pieces and then bring it in bit by bit.
                                             
    After that we went into a crisp and sweet wrapper phase - quite
    a collection (for the US noters crisp=potato chip).  The highpoint
    was when he brought in a whole chocolate bar, still in its wrapping.
    I don't want to speculate where he got it from.
                                             
    Then we graduated to bread.  Some of my neighbours like birds and
    have bird-tables.  Others throw out burnt toast for the birds to
    eat.  For 3 months I couldn't look them in the eye.  Rumours went
    round my neighbourhood that I didn't feed my cat - poor thing -
    look at it picking up bread out there.  He particularly liked toast
    - easy to carry I expect - he'd bring it in and then sit on the
    carpet and crunch it.  I don't think he actually ate it, just left
    a little charred pile for me to sweep up.
                                             
    At the moment all is quiet, but I have to wash my windows pretty
    frequently.  A favourite game in the summer is to sit on the
    windowsills and pat the moths as they come to the light.  Gentle
    tapping on the glass is an accepted summer noise in our house and
    in the daytime when the sun shines through the glass a pattern of
    muddy pussy pawprints can be seen.
    
    BTW both our cats chase spiders (I hate spiders).  I expect that
    the funny face is probably due to the tickling.
    
    Kate
    

    Kate's last note reminded me of the time Kimi brought home... a
    roast leg of lamb! We THINK(/hope) it had been thrown out. He couldn't
    fit it through the cat door, so ate it outside.

    re: .27 - pawprints on the window
    
    The biggest window in our house is the picture window in the
    kitchen which looks out onto the side yard where the bird feeder
    is.  It is the cat's TV.  This window is coverened with little
    spots from the cat's noses!
      N

	The people who previously owned our house had at least one cat 
	and perhaps more.  When we moved in and starting cleaning, we
	found noseprints in the same spot on *every* window in the
	place! :^}