Posted on 07/17/2011 3:19:05 PM PDT by JoeProBono
NEW YORK, - A New York woman says she had nearly given up hope her pet cat, Eddie, was still alive after the feline was carried off by a red-tailed hawk.
But Eddie, who weighs in at a hefty 15 pounds, was found stunned and disheveled but still kicking in the back yard of an apartment building after the estimated 4-pound bird apparently couldn't hang on and dropped it.
Eddie plummeted an estimated five stories but was no worse for wear, the New York Daily News said Saturday. "He checked out fine, other than some minor cuts, scrapes and bruises," said Eddie's owner, who did not want to be identified. "The vet says he's an amazing cat."
The woman admitted she wasn't so fine after hearing a ruckus outside her Upper West Side apartment and finding "fur, broken nails and feathers" when she went out to investigate.
"I walked for hours all over the neighborhood and up Riverside Drive, sobbing, looking for his body," she said. "I went to all the hawks' nests. I put up signs with Eddie's photo."
Animal experts said hawks generally don't consider household pets to be on their menu; however, they did recall a 2003 incident in Bryant Park when a hawk swooped down on an unsuspecting Chihuahua.
Biggirl pinged it - thanks!
I’ll bet Eddie wasn’t the first for that hawk, just the biggist. A few years back we had a hawk that got a couple of small dogs.
That one has face markings like my Rocket, and he used to be about that size when he was a younger boy.
Wow. That's a really big eagle. Wonder they can get airborne.
There’s a reference in here somewhere to coconuts, European vs. African swallows and weight ratios.
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‘OMG, you sound like my woman. They have a lot of windows in their building where she works, seems a red-tail latched onto a bunny right outside her office recently. Huge trauma for her and her mates.’
I guess that’s just the way most girls are.
I can’t think of a raptor without thinking of it swooping down, carrying away some little bunny or other innocent little creature and ripping it apart.
My father and brothers hunt, but I could never bring myself to kill anything. I won’t even look at- much less eat what they bring home.
And, yes, I became a vegetarian a long time ago.
One advantage of their hunting; they used to bring home baby bunnies, squirrels and birds they found in the woods for me to raise when I was a kid. Maybe that’s how I grew to love animals so.
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:O) You should see the size of their nests, size of the double wide.....LOL Just don’t let them poop on you, your buried 6 feet under and still on level land..
Yah, I don’t hunt either. As long as there is a Kroger down the road I feel no need to kill to eat. Not that I have a problem with it, if you dig it get some. The only things I can kill without some remorse are copperheads, water moccasins and mosquitos. My handle on another forum is SquirrelCutter, but it is just a joke. I walked out on the porch with my pellet gun one day and there was Mr. Bushy, right there not 10 feet from me. Put that red dot right between his eyes, and couldn’t pull the trigger. If Susan learned I had killed a squirrel in our yard I would be sleeping out here in the Dawghouse for a long time.
Now, when Obama finally destroys our economy I may be taking doves off the telephone wires with my pellet gun. Yuck, but it beats starving.
:)
I’m very glad that Fat Eddy lived to see another bowl of cat food! However, i agree that a red tail wouldn’t get very far with a load that size. Probably the bird managed to get the (wriggling, scratching and biting!) cat up a few feet — over the railing — and then said to heck with this and dropped the load. Frightened-out-of-its-wits feline ran the rest of the way. Glad he’s okay, though!
Believe it. We have a pair of large red tails in our S/D and they literally stalk our 10 lb Chihuahua all the time. As we walk the dog on the leash usually one hawk will fly right over our heads and then perch on the street sign just staring at Coco as we go by. They follow us. One day I thought the thing was really going to make a run at her. Another time I looked out on the deck and one of the hawks was sitting on the edge of the roof looking down at the dog like it was sizing her up. We never let her out on the deck without the other larger dog.
One morning my fiancee’ was walking the dog down the street and one of the hawks came cruising across the street, rolled a large duck that was in someone’s front yard and took off with it across the lake to eat it. Hawks are tough characters.
I saw a hawk swoop my black and tan coonhound once, I had no idea what possessed the bird, but it didn’t fare well, and I felt bad for the bird, I like hawks, this hawk didn’t have a happy ending.
it’s a known fact that cats are constantly plotting our deaths...for example, when they purr and knead their paws into you, they are only testing for soft strike points.
Falcons will dive down at over 120mph and hit the third vertebrae down on a rabbit to immobilize him first to avoid that type of response. Cats would seem suitable fodder for the birds of prey.
Just Damn!
I lived in that area almost 30 years ago now...104/Riverside...85/West End
Birdie ping.
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