Revenge of the Killer Cat

My late cat Max once came racing across the garden with a string of sausages trailing behind him - presumably someone's dinner defrosting by the window I've had mice, birds, a tiny lizard, frogs, a hare and a several baby rabbits over the years. Some I've managed to rescue and release others sadly were DOA. Current boy has 'lost' several mice and waited patiently for hours until they've thought it was safe to emerge - thankfully he's always managed to regain control eventually! Current girl wouldn't be seen dead (pun intended) with anything so gross as cat kill but loves presenting us with her own toy mousie several times a day. She makes a lot of noise announcing it's arrival too

When the DC were little we had two cats, brother and sister. The Tabby Twitchet only hunted feathered things and Frederick only hunted fur. Tabby died young but Fred went on to bring in squirrels, rabbits, mice, rats, voles, moles and anything else he couldn't eat in one night. His record was a grown rat and five half grown baby rats - we know as the remains were left around the patio, mostly stomachs, he never ate the stomachs!

However, he would lay in the sun on the lawn with blackbirds searching for worms around him in complete safety.

We never had another cat after his demise, I have a dead thing phobia and couldn't face any more unexpected corpses in unexpected places scaring the life out of me!

apricot Your cat says " those indoor death offerings are not a gift, but a warning, capiche?"

We live near the canal and on three occasions our cat, Wilbur, brought us home a gift of a moorhen! These birds are quite large with huge yellow feet. I don't know how he managed to carry them the hundred yards or so from the canal. Two of them were extremely annoyed and very much alive! One of them was bobbing around on our pond, but the other live one was running round the garden with Wilbur in pursuit and me, in my nightie chasing after Wilbur with a saucepan full of water! We managed to catch both of the live ones and took them back to the canal in a cat carrier. The dead one was headless! Not a nice gift first thing in the morning!

The South African cats are very disappointed with their pet human. Since last night they have refused to have anything to do with her, although they graciously allowed her to put food in their bowls for them. They followed her daughter around purring whilst glaring at my friend. When her daughter went to school they slept on the daughter's bed until she came back then helped her with her homework by sitting on her books. All the time making it quite clear how displeased they are with my friend.

We're all waiting to see if they bring her any gifts tonight

Yes, but my point was that if he was unconscious he wouldn't be able to breathe if you just piled earth on top of him - they do need a bit of space to fill their lungs!

Ana, I thought moles lived underground. Haven't you read The Wind in the Willows?

Oh, apricot, what would you expect a frog to do when confronted with the teeth and claws of a huge predator? Stand on its hind legs and form little fists...?

George came in yesterday without the collar. I'm surprised he hadn't left it on my pillow.
His hunting is not a problem, it's just occasional and of course I have to accept it as natural behaviour. Those anti-cat statistics which say cats kill millions of songbirds apparently start off assuming that all cats hunt all of the time.
Frogs behave so pathetically when caught by a cat, covering their heads with their hands and squeaking loudly. Luckily George never actually kills them.

anno, it might have been merely unconscious, but wouldn't it have suffocated if buried in that state?

My late cat, Sam, when we lived in Norfolk, used to frequent a field which kept him plentifully supplied with shrews. I soon learnt not to come barefoot into the back porch in the morning. They were invariably decapitated, head, body and intestines spread across the floor, and cat looking for approval. His best 'gift' was a mole with not a mark on it. I buried it, in the vain hope that it was merely unconscious (don't laugh) with Sam looking on bristling with displeasure.

One of my previous cats once appeared through the bathroom window with a cooked turkey carcass, while I was in the bath beneath. He also brought home fillets of frozen fish on a few occasions. We never found out whose kitchen they came from!

Our last cat, Monty, used to struggle through the open window of the porch (aerial version of a catflap!) with all sorts of 'offerings', once a live frog and once the remains of a rather ancient leg of lamb or somesuch obviously raided from someone's dustbin...

He also attempted to capture a duck which had unwisely strayed from the river to the bottom of our garden - he had it by the leg but DH managed to rescue it in the nick of time!

That South African cat must be really pissed off with the owner it is hunting for so carefully - such a fussy eater. First the lizards are rejected - delivered ready-to-eat direct to the mouth too - then when given a choice between a freshly caught lizard and a nice juicy mouse, she won't eat either of them, and throws out good food in a tantrum. So ungrateful!

My daughter's cat started by bringing her mice, but when they were not well received, went over to presenting her with dried-out crusts of bread. At least these were less unpleasant to dispose of.

Last night my South African friend awoke to find a dead, bloody lizard on her pillow at one side of her head and a dead, bloody mouse on the other. She said it was like the horse's head scene from the Godfather . Apparently the cats were quite upset when she screamed, scooped up the gifts with a shovel, threw the dead creatures out of the door and muttered menacingly at them as she changed the pillow cases.

Yes, my brother's cat used to hunt with three legs, the other front paw on his bell, deadening the sound. My own solution is to keep my cat really well fed, and keep him in at night. So far - we've had him 9 months - no dead bodies in the garden apart from a couple of mice.

Bells on cats are the worst things-only takes a couple of days for the cat to adapt and move even more stealthily! They actually catch more!

Vampirequeen, Ugh!

I have a friend in South Africa. Her cats seem to think she really appreciates them bringing live lizards into the house and dropping them into her open mouth when she's asleep.

Sorry you are having this problem.
My cats are being a pain at the moment! Almost every night one or both of them have been bringing me 'presents' from the fields behind my garden. It isn't so difficult if the rodents are already dead, but a few times they have escaped to hide behind my bedroom furniture. The cats then sit on sentry duty until either I catch the offending animal in a pet-proof trap, or they get to finish the job. The worst experience for me was a live baby rat on my bed, while I was in it! Fortunately it was already injured, so my rubber mallet came into use!
I just have to be grateful that they no longer bring me unharmed baby bunnies. They were so difficult to catch!
Why do we love our cats so much? Sadly it is their instinctive behaviour.

Sorry, but as they say, "T'is the nature of the beast"

I only had one cat that was so hopeless at hunting that all he seemed to manage were moths

His brother brought in a blue tit, which we chucked outside. Non hunting brother brought the same bird back in the next day, showing signs of rigor mortis. I think he had happened across it and thought "that's handy, I'll take that in!"

A friend of mine had a cat that was a great one for frogs, she swore blind that it was the same frog that the cat kept bringing in (said she could recognise the expression on it's face

I've been tempted in the past to go for collars with bells, but to be honest I'm more worried about the cat getting caught up in branches etc.

My two cats murder mice, voles, shrews and birds. I believe I posted about finding a dead starling in the kitchen that neither of them seemed to want to take credit for. (Nor did one of next doors cats, Fraidy, who was also present)

At work we now have a "workshop" cat to deal with mice etc, but of course he will no doubt catch the odd bird. I'm afraid it can't be helped.