Conference misery::feline_v1

    Pam, unfortunatly mine don't play with them.  Wish they were like
    your Chewy.  Even bells don't help.
    
    Hope she doesn't change her ways.
    
    P.S.
    Hope your landlord doesn't find out she's not gone.
    
    Cindy

    I wish my cat would bring them home alive. My cat loves to hunt. I come
    home to find birds missing heads or half chewed. Latley he has been 
    bringing home baby rabbits. I wish I could break him of this, without
    having to keep him inside. It's gotten to the point that the birds are
    "dive bombing" him. Any suggestions ?
    

    I have the vague idea that cats who haven't been taught to hunt by
    their cat-parents might not have the "knack" of actually
    killing.
    
    I think jays and mockingbirds dive bomb cats on general
    principles.  I don't think it has anything to do with the cat's
    actual behaviour.  Other parent birds will try distraction techniques
    that could look like dive bombing when the cat is too close to a nest.
    

    Pam,
    
    A friend of mine's cat brings in frogs, mice, rats, bats and has
    even brought home a live fish out of the lake that he lives on.
    This cat likes to play with these creatures first then kills them
    or plays with them to death.
    
    He has a cat door and usually brings these kritters in when he has
    company or when he knows that the owner is there to impress.

    I can handle cute little mice, birds, frogs and even snakes, but
    please Chewy, NO BATS OR RATS!   YUCK!!!!!!!!!
    
    Pam

    I have three cats, one of which is a hunter, and boy, he loves to eat
    what he catches.  Fortunately, Ben announces to me when he brings
    something home and I usually am able to get it away, but...
    unfortunately it's already dead so I go off and bury it across the
    street.
    
    Barney, on the other hand, loves to play with whatever he catches. 
    He's real fat so it's unusual when he gets something, but he's
    hysterical when he does.  Usually it's a mouse, although he and Gonezo
    played with a snake once, and  they've been known to bring home frogs. 
    He's so funny with them.. he paws at them gently to get them to move
    and gets upset if Ben comes around to claim it as his dinner.  Barney
    will just pick up his prize, bring it to another location, put it down
    and continue his playing.  He can do this for hours.  Gonezo is too
    stupid to catch anything, but if he does, he plays also.  I guess I'm
    lucky to have only 1 hunter out of 3. 
    
    Mary
    

    
    My ex-roomate's cat, Scooter, was sick the day before we had our
    first party.  The vet took him off solid food and suggested water,
    and strained baby food for the next few days. Well, the night of
    the party, Scooter got out of Sarah's room and exited outside. 
    
    A little while later I heard various male and female voices saying,
    "EEEKKK", "YUCK!", "What IS that?", "It's still ALIVE", etc.  I
    went into the room that had most of the food and found Scooter sitting
    in the middle of the room, with a live, squeaking mouse in his mouth!
    He looked at me as if to say "Well you did say it was a 'bring your
    own...' party AND you didn't have anything that I liked."
    
    Needless to say I rescued the mouse, who seemed to be stunned, and
    put it in a safe place outside.  Scooter was very disappointed.
    
    Escho and Brandy have started leaving little 'presents' on the front
    walk and the deck.  Usually 1/2 a mouse. YUCK!  It's so hard not
    to offend them when they offer me the 'best' of their tidbits. 8^}
                     
    Roslyn-who-has-to-stay-on-her-toes-to-avoid-stepping-in-the-'dessert'

    Regarding reply #6....
    
    When you say that your cats play with their catch for hours, why would
    you let them do that and not try to rescue these little critters???

Tabitha, the 14 year old siamese I share space with, is the great hunter
of the family (mind, we have only indoor cats)...she catches any mouse that
is in the house, kills it, then "mushes" it up real good...and then offers
it to her "mom", my roommate, Marge.  Needless to say, this is NOT Margie's
idea of a fun thing.....I still remember the hideous shriek that woke me
up at 4:30 one morning - Tabby had deposited the latest catch on the other
pillow next to Marge and then awakened her...she reached over to feel what
it was and, upon discovering a well-mushed mouse, she came unglued!

    
    Although this note is an old one, I had to reply. I did a dir/title=
    hunt hoping I would find something similar to what my cat is doing.
    Its driving me nuts, and leaving me in tears nearly every day.
     
    An earlier reply stated how their cat wasn't killing the animals it
    caught, it was just playing. I'm in the same situation,
    
    My 1 year old calico Stanley, has been catching birds, about 1 a day,
    sometimes 2. For the life of me, I can't figure it out, I always
    thought birds were pretty quick. Well, Stanley is kind of slow herself,
    she only weighs 7 lbs, she is very small. She still looks like a
    kitten.  Anyways, she doesn't kill these birds, she just handicaps
    them, usually takes a bite, breaks a wing, etc.   These poor birds are
    still alive, (sometimes barely) and she just watches it and once and a
    while will throw a punch at it and knock it around, but for the most
    part she just lays on her back, with all four paws in the air, and her
    head to the side and is totally mesmerized by what is in front of her.
    
    Its killing me to see these poor animals so frightened and hurt, the
    minute I see that she has one I lock her in the house and try to save
    it, but the poor things usually half dead...Consequently, the neighbors
    think I am crazy for even trying to save these things. I guess they
    aren't as sensitive as I am.  I got a collar with a bell hoping it
    would help, but nothings changed. Shes still getting more and more
    birds.  
    
    Does anyone have any kind of suggestions? Thanks in advance.
    
    /jenn
    

    I don't know of any fix for this except keeping the cat inside.  If
    you have bird feeders, getting rid of the feeders will reduce the number
    of potential victims, but that's about all.
    
    My neighbors' cat is belled but still catches many birds.
    

    Be lucky it's only birds...we have six cats in our two family and
    we find birds, snakes, mice, moles, etc.  A couple of weeks ago
    one of mine (noone will own up to doing this...but I know one of
    them is guilty) brought a live bluejay down in my cellar.  Thank
    god I was walking out the door and heard chirping.  All three of
    my cats were stalking this poor bird in the cellar.  We did save
    this one....
    
    I too believe the only way to stop this is making him and in-door
    kitty.
    
    It is discusting...but don't forget to thank them for bringing their
    kill home...it's only a present to you.
    
    Sandy (Tamba, Poco, and Barkley)         
    
                                    

    Nippa, the almighty hunter, left me an unidentifiable package on the
    step last nite.....I figured out it had been a bird (First I've known 
    about).  For the past four years  I have had 2 Id tags on her collar,
    (one didn't contain enough basic info...like an area code.  W/ all the
    people moving these days, I thought it would be important info should
    she decide to investigate).  They clink together all the time, and if
    is real quiet I can usually figure out where she is.  This may be
    why she hasn't caught a bird until now, and I figure it must have been
    off if she did catch it....either that or she is getting smarter as she
    is getting older.....I can't really say.  But I will be watching
    her....

a bird sitting on a nest, or trying to play decoy in order to protect young
are vulnerable to cats.  You are probably seeing the results of that.  If so,
there's not much you can do...or the birds can do to prevent it unless you
elect to keep the cat inside...this is the season.

be careful, sick birds are also easy prey and our cats can get sick from
catching them.  Also be aware of parasites.  You should regularly take stool
samples to the vet in order to diagnose worms.  It isn't cheap, but some
forms of worms can kill the cat, and some are not species specific..it is
a legitimate concern.

    Believe it or not it is starting to get colder here in New England in
    the mornings. It was 51 at our house this morning. As this season 
    approaches we let Mocha out later and later. It seems the cold weather
    coming suddenly (after a real hot humid spell) makes the birds slower
    in the mornings. It's like they are coming out of a stupor/sleep and
    are moving about slowly due to the cold.
    
    When the temperature keeps a more even line the birds adapt quicker.
    This is when so many of the birds hit the  windows/sliders also. We
    have bird feeders so are very careful with Mocha and all the neighbor
    hoods felines. ONE cat near those feeders and the birds let us know
    and out comes the quirt gun or a BIG glass/pan of water. So far this
    year the birds have been safe. No one kill.
    
    Barbara
    

    thats interesting information, barbara (.15).....kinda like how I feel
    in the morning.   :*)
    
    Michele

    re: .16 - Geez!  Now I know what's wrong with me these days ;-)

    re -.1
    
    Ohhh.. so that's it...
    
    jack
    (who will now slink off to the far side of the notefile, out of reach
    from Nancy)

    re: -1   GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR............
    
    Must be time to sharpen the claws again............

    
    
    now kids.......;^)

    re: .20  - Don't you just love "Double Digit" families  :-)
    
    (That's families where both husband and wife work for Digital)

    that's cute nanc!

so...that means the rest of us are single digits, right?  and the temps are
temporary digits....and new hires are "NEW" digits....I like it.

				D