Posted on 08/07/2012 8:19:10 PM PDT by george76
Cast aside all fantasies of your house cat frolicking through flower-filled fields in the afternoon sun. When kitty scratches at the door begging to go outside, it's the killing hour.
...
cats ate about 30 percent of their kills, brought home another 25 percent and left 49 percent of their prey to simply decay.
So what are cats killing?
Lizards, snakes and frogs (41 percent); chipmunks and vols (25 percent); insects and worms (20 percent) and, of course, birds (12 percent).
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This is a true story.
I was posting on FR around 3 AM in my basement lair two years ago, waiting for the cat to come in so I could lock the back door. I herd a thump in the upstairs landing and thought, "Great, Kitty just came in." Then I heard two frantic screech-growls and thought, "Oh. Not so good, he's chased another cat into the house, and they're fighting in the landing."
Imagine my surprise when I opened the basement door and gazed upon a whirling cartoon-ball of fur, claws and screaming noise consisting of our cat, another cat, and a raccoon. As soon as the two cats saw me they skyrocketed out of the room, leaving me to face a very angry, but fortunately somewhat dazed raccoon in my pajamas.
What happened next involved the raccoon jumping on top of our china cabinet (and subsequently pushing it over, destroying most of my wife's dishes) as I frantically broomed the critter into the garage, where, cornered, she managed to destroy most of our Christmas decorations and a set of curtains before I got the garage door open, forcing her out. Since most of the skunks in our area are rabid -- and 'coons have a similar reputation -- I was none-too-pleased to be wearing my natural feet instead of steel-toed boots throughout the process.
During the entire fracas none of my three children or wife heard a peep.
The next day my wife told me that Kitty had been treeing a pregnant raccoon routinely for about a week, and evidently the 'coon had gotten between the cat and the house with nowhere to go but inside.
I have never seen him run from anything but a very large (HUGE, in fact: 350 pounds by the look of him) black bear who strayed into our cookout at dusk on Memorial Day 2012. Lucky thing, I'm not sure what my wife would've done if the cat had attacked the bear, and my shotgun was upstairs in the cabinet.
Exactly. And with 4 cats I’ve got 4 boxes to clean and after so many years I’m getting sick. of. it.
Plus they leave little piles of throw-up and hairballs and scratch up our carpet till it’s threadbare and claw at the door trim....
Other than that I love kitty cats:)
“leaving me to face a very angry, but fortunately somewhat dazed raccoon in my pajamas.”
What was a raccoon doing in your pajamas? :-)
I had a ‘mutt’ that killed at least 43 woodchucks one summer. The dog was always with me while I worked in the apple orchards near home.
They (dogs) can make good hunters. While managing an apple picking crew, there was one man who always brought his dalmatian, that dog was a good ‘mouser’ - 20-50 mice a day.
Did the woodchucks ever manage to get a piece of your dog?
With their teeth and claws they have been known to take a chunk out of a dog.
That’s unusual. You don’t typically have two cats forming alliances to take on a larger animal.
So what happened to the strange cat?
My Ham ate the face off a baby rabbit the other day. He likes to bring things into the house for us. Sometimes alive, sometimes defaced or debacked or beheaded. It’s just in them no matter how well they are fed.
I hate cats.
Seriously.
And I am sure one of their mindless flunkies will report that to their feline overlords.
Again, seriously.
Who was so dumb they needed to study this???
No kidding. Our neighbor’s cat is the nicest animal we ever met. But sure enough, every couple of weeks, he trots by with a tail (of varying sizes) sticking out of his mouth (sideways) - and we don’t see him that much. I guess he gets tired of Tender Bittles after a while.
God bless those furry little hunter. I hope that cats can evolve to be more effective against squirrels.
“My current cat, Smokey, must have a non-aggresion pact with the household mouse.”
We had a cat who “cut a deal” with the mouse on the patio. They used to sit there, almost nose-to-nose, just hanging out. Other mice, though, were prey.
Just because they’re young, doesn’t mean that they’re not nasty.
A couple of years ago, we had a mama groundhog and her piglets in our back yard. The largest baby, about 7-8” long, started to wander toward the front of our property and the road.
My Hubby stomped toward it and growled, trying to keep it near its mother and prevent its becoming road kill.
That tiny, little baby reared up, and then charged squeaking at Hubby, about 300 times its size! Hubby jumped back! It was one of the funnies things I’ve ever seen.
Mama called, and the baby ran off to her.
Hubby and I have been laughing at that little fellow’s fierce bravery ever since.
We’re very no-kill here. Anybody can live in our yard in no danger from us.
Until TSHTF, they they’re dinner. ;-)
Thanks for all the pings, Slings!
You mean like this?
This is a very serious cat.
They needed a study to find this out? Heck they should have pocketed the money and just interviewed a bunch of cat owners.
We had a cat who would beg for pets, but when he was done, he would bite and scratch.
I cured him of doing it to me by walking away from him each time he reacted that way.
Cats love attention, and depriving them of it after bad behavior is a humane way to direct/alter them to be polite.
Eventually he would sleep on my lap, and he never scratched or bit me again.
Early morning... Groggily drinking coffee. Thanks very much for a good laugh!
We had four cats until recently (three now), and we use a cement mixing tray for their litter box. It’s about 2-1/2 by 3’, and it holds plenty of litter. It’s easy to scoop, and it can accommodate four cats easily.
Available at your local hardware store, and very, very cheap in comparison to the litter boxes you will find at the pet store.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.