A Cat Being A Cat: What Jeff Killed

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

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Maybe it's something about orange semi-stray toms. We had a cat similar to Jeff. Copy was an orange-colored tom that decided to take up residence with us. (He got his name because we also had a fully domesticated orange-colored tom that lived with us first. So when the new cat started hanging out, the kids called him a copy-cat, and the Copy part stuck as his name.)

Copy also regularly brought us presents. A cat-savvy friend enlightened us that the presents were just a Copy's way of expressing thanks and appreciation.

Neutering didn't make any difference, nor did giving him food. Giving him food just meant that he didn't finish eating everything he killed; made him more willing to share. The only thing that stopped Copy from hunting was when he became arthritic in his old age.

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Cats are very efficient killers. That's how they evolved. I'm perplexed that many people seem to be offended when carnivores behave as carnivores.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

Growing up we always had cats and we had one tomcat that was a hunter without equal... He would go out and catch the "usual" birds, mice, etc... but there were also a few occasions when he would catch a rabbit and leave it on the porch as well. It is kind of a sad statement but that cat was a better rabbit hunter then my father's beagles at the time which I think learned to hunt from that wise old cat...

Nothing like walking out the door and seeing a dead rabbit with the cat curled up next to it.

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

We had an orange tom cat that we found as a kitten on the road over in Illinois. He was a great pet and we loved him. He was a hunter and liked to show off his kill at the door. You never knew what you might find - birds, rabbits, squirrels, even frogs. We were sad when he got hit and killed crossing the street by our house.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Growing up we always had cats and we had one tomcat that was a hunter without equal... He would go out and catch the "usual" birds, mice, etc... but there were also a few occasions when he would catch a rabbit and leave it on the porch as well. It is kind of a sad statement but that cat was a better rabbit hunter then my father's beagles at the time which I think learned to hunt from that wise old cat...

Nothing like walking out the door and seeing a dead rabbit with the cat curled up next to it.

Since Copy died, the squirrels have been much more of a pest in my garden. Now I often lose half (or more) of the fruit off of some my trees to the squirrels. I'm thinking about getting another hunter.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

My tuxedo female cat was the greatest hunter I ever owned. She'd always leave something for me at least once a week on the back stoop. Her hunting was cutback one summer when she got a baby blue jay. The other jays wouldn't let her out during the day. She was an indoor/outdoor cat.

When we had all the work done on the house this past summer we got a couple of field mice inside. My 18 year old nuetered male brown tabby promptly disposed of them. Do you thing 2 mice pay back for 18 years worth of food, litter and vet bills? I shouldn't hold it against him as he has always been an indoor cat so the opportunities haven't been there for him.

[hope54 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close hope54]

One of our cats got a baby crow this summer. I could not figure out why the crows were making so much noice for two days until I found the dead baby by our basement door.

I have a politically correct cat as well - she gifts me with pine cones. On some of her most generous days I'll have a dozen pine cones at the door.

Then there was the mellow orange cat who would "hunt down" leaves with long stems on them and gift us. He was not the brightest light bulb in the chandilier!

Hope

[gophish Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close gophish]

Our cat Ares is an accomplished hunter also. He has caught I believe every chipmunk in the yard and I don't think there are any left. He goes after the squirrels but I have not seen him catch one yet. He also goes after birds and sometimes catches them. Always brings stuff up on deck and presents to us. He sometimes tries to bring his trophies in to the house and present them on the kitchen floor but we don't let him.
He, like many cats most often plays with his prey before he finishes them off, and one day when I opened the door to let him in he came running in and I saw out of the corner of my eye that he had something in his mouth. I grabbed him quick and put him back outside and lucky that I did as when he was back outside he dropped the chipmunk he had in his mouth and it ran away. I that had been inside I would have had the chipmunk to deal with in the house although he probably would have caught it again.
I am fond of the birds and have several feeders around the house and I spend a lot of my spare time doning bird photography so I used to get upset when Ares would get a bird but he is just acting on instinct, it's what they are programed to do.

[EAM Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close EAM]

We once had a cat that liked to show off what he had accomplished while hunting. Usually it was a bird or a mouse; occasionally a rat. But the time he seemed the proudest was when he found the remains of some game birds that had been discarded by a hunter in the neighborhood.

And later, we once had a cat that decided he would rather live off the land than share our home. Occasionally we would catch a glimpse of him hiding in a grassy field, leaping towards the sky as a bird came within reach.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Our red Tom cat

Cats are hunters no matter what. You can give them the best food but when something moves, they are after it even with a beam of light. It's so funny to watch him react to that and try to catch it.

Lately, we have crickets in our house and our cat can still be as quick as lightening when he goes after them. I try to save them and put them outside but not after he has injured them already. I just kill them quickly. We once had a mouse and all our cats were chasing that poor mouse.

This cat is very old (17) now but boy can he still move fast. He once raided a hummingbird's nest that we were watching from inside. We had one every year but no longer after this disaster.

He became a house cat for many years after he had his accident on the street but now he can go outside again in our backyard but we keep an eye on him that he doesn't disappear. Because of the accident, he has a problem jumping over the fence or climbing a tree but he still can run and move very fast.

Taffy is also a beautiful red tom cat that we found as a tiny kitten at a restaurant. This cat really loves people but has no time for other animals so we didn't have to get him a companion when all our other pets had died. He is our only one now and he gets spoiled by both of us.