BS: Presents from your cat

20 Jul 02 - 02:08 AM (#751444)
Subject: Presents from your cat
From: Genie

Just as I was getting ready to leave on a 6-day trip, I noticed something kind of dark and fuzzy-looking in my bathtub behind the shower curtain. I thought it was a large cat turd --though there was no odor--or a dust bunny, but I couldn't imagine why it was there. Then I thought maybe it was a giant hairball, but it looked almost like it had a small beak. Looking at it a bit longer, I realized it DID have a beak!

It seems my dear Melanie La Mew, who can get into and out of the house through the bedroom window, had decided to leave me a going-away present--a very small, half-eaten bird!

Now, this has nothing to do with music--unless you folks know of songs that deal with this kind of subject matter. Or maybe other cat staffers* who have been similarly tributed by their furry felines will be inspired to celebrate the event in song.

Anyway, this is the first time any of my cats has brought me a bird as a present (they generally eat the few birds they catch) or brought any such trophy into the house through the window (though I've had a mouse left on the porch before).

Mainly, I just wanted to share my joy -- not to mention my relief that I found the "gift" BEFORE my 6-day absence--with fellow moggy huggers. Feel free to relate your own trophy stories.

Genie

*Dogs have owners. Cats have staff.

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20 Jul 02 - 02:26 AM (#751448)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Liz the Squeak

My first cat Koh-i-noor presented me with 1 live baby rabbit, 17 half eaten mice/shrews/small birds of indeterminate species but mostly headless and 1 pork chop, seasoned.

My third cat Ceramen (check out 'cat farts' thread, probably about 2-3 years ago here) brought a whole pigeon through the cat flap. We don't know how he caught the pigeon, because a) it was bigger than him, b) he was as thick as the proverbial pieces of carpentry, c) he'd never caught anything before.

The perpertrator was never traced but there was an entire (partially skeletised) blackbird under the chest of drawers once. We only noticed when the flies got unbearable one warm night. We'd been away during the smelly bit and obviously the maggots had cleared away the rest of it.

My second cat, Shadow, spent an entire afternoon emptying a rat nest - she brought in 6 baby rats, all furred, all just ready to leave home. We thought she kept bringing the same one back again, but after putting 2 in the dustbin, got a bit suspicious. We were surprised because by this stage she had had most of her fangs removed (she's getting on) and wondered how she was getting them. Closer observation of the garden showed that she was sitting on the back fence, waiting. When Ceramen came round the corner with his latest acquisition, she would cuff him round the head till he dropped the rat, she would then pick it up and bring it to the house whilst he trotted off for another one.

Most of all they've brought me unending hours of delight and affection.

LTS

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20 Jul 02 - 02:27 AM (#751449)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: DMcG

Our cat is just over a year old. So far we have had two full sized rats, a mouse and a frog brought into the house (rats dead, mouse and frog alive). Most mice and birds he is content to devour in the garden.

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20 Jul 02 - 02:37 AM (#751452)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Blackcatter

Our cats love to play with the anole lizards we have in Florida. We also see our share of tree frogs (not too many though, as they're out when it's wet sort of opposite of the cats), and the fun thing is the occasional palmetto bug (picture a BIG cockroach that flies).

Anything not nailed down is a cat toy.

Do not interfere in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will piss in your coffee mug.

Dogs beg, cats expect.

"Anyone who does not understand protocol has never dealt with a cat." (Robert A. Heinlein)

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20 Jul 02 - 02:39 AM (#751453)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Genie

Liz, I guess I should be thankful that Melanie left her "gift" in the bathtub and not under the bed!

DMcG, no frogs so far, but years ago I made the mistake of "releasing" a garter snake into my front yard. The poor thing was lying on the sidewalk, thoroughly chewed, the next morning.

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20 Jul 02 - 02:39 AM (#751454)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Wincing Devil

Of course you realize these are NOT presents, these are the cat's way of saying "Me Big Hunter! Me can feed myself! It's just more convenient to wake you up in the morning to feed me, that's all!" They're trying to prove that they can still survvw on their own, if need be. My only question is who are they trying to convince, themselves or me?

Thank God cats don't have opposable thumbs or mankind is DOOMED!

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20 Jul 02 - 02:44 AM (#751459)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Genie

Well, WD, it would seem either it's a present or they're tyring to convince me. Otherwise, why not just eat the quarry and be done with it? Why leave it at my feet (which Minnie Meowse used to do) or in my bathtub?

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20 Jul 02 - 02:45 AM (#751460)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Blackcatter

You sure it's not their way of asing for sparrow flavored cat food?

That's always got me - tuna, beef, lamb, turkey flavored catfood - all the animals a cat is likely to hunt in the wild.

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20 Jul 02 - 02:47 AM (#751462)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Genie

Yeah, BC, some cat experts say that "Mouse In A Can" would be nutritionally perfect for a cat, but the humans who buy the cat food aren't attracted to labels like that.

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20 Jul 02 - 02:59 AM (#751467)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Kaleea

My 19 year old kitty left a gift on the floor for me a couple of nights ago. When I got up in the AM there was a wet hairball with something poking the underside of my foot. When I turned on the light & finally got my eyes open, squinting enough to be able to see, there amid the hairball (which always looks like the above mentioned "turd" because it is the shape of the tube from which it came out of, and is surrounded by a wet spot on my carpet) was a twist tie (from a bread wrapper, which I am always carefull not to let her get, don't know how she got it) which fortunately came up instead of going down & therefore causing who knows what damage. And yes, other kitties have brought "trophies" to me such as birds (deceased), portions of mice, unknown creatures, bugs, and on occasion a kitty has brought home a pal who would not leave!

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20 Jul 02 - 03:05 AM (#751471)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Genie

Oh, dear, Kaleea, I do hope your senior citizen kitty is OK, after coughing up a hairball like that!

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20 Jul 02 - 04:18 AM (#751485)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: C-flat

My ginger-tom always brought trophies home and was a very successful hunter. His best haul was laid out in two neat, straight lines, just outside my backdoor. One line of six or seven small birds and the other of mice.
I've never heard of other cats "arranging" their trophies into a "display" like this.

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20 Jul 02 - 08:17 AM (#751550)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Little Hawk

It's when the cat lays the remains of a full grown weimeraner by the back door that there is cause for concern.

- LH

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20 Jul 02 - 08:48 AM (#751559)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Catherine Jayne

When I lived with my parents we had a grey tortoiseshell coloured cat. She would regularily present my parnet with small garden birds and shrew's and moles etc then one day she managed to drag a dead sea gull through the cat flap. To this day we don't know how. I think perhaps the sea gull had been hit by a car and Tiptoes(the cat) thought it would make a nice present for the family.

Tiptoes also used to bring presents like half dead spiders. One morning we were all sat on my mother's bed watching my brother open his birthday presents when Tiptoes jump onto my mothers lap spat out a huge house spider proceeded to play with it then when she had enough decided that it was time to put it out of it's misery and crunched it up and swollowed it down. My mother was less than impressed.

My cat Merlyn doesnt go outside so doesnt have the chance to bring me any living or just dead presents but will regularily sit on anyone who maybe visiting their shoulders, head, lap, chest and purr and then fart!!!

Cat

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20 Jul 02 - 09:27 AM (#751566)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Art Thieme

When living on the coast of Oregon, town of Depoe Bay, 36 years ago, our cat, Running Bear, brought nemerous things into our house on the cliff above the ocean. Once it was a mouse---only half dead. Once it was a snake-- not dead either. Once it was a sea urchin and I've no idea how he transported that little item since it has numerous spines. The mouse and the snake were sort of buried in his litter box. As with various other things, the sea urchin was left in my boot for me to find AFTER I'd inserted my foot. Once a portion of an aurelia (jelly fish) was left in that same boot. It was an unpleasant surprise !!

Art Thieme

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20 Jul 02 - 09:37 AM (#751568)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Sandra in Sydney

My friends lived in a very green suburb, near semi-tamed bush home to various wild creatures, & also had a downstairs toilet in their laundry, next to a floor length window kept open a tad as a cat entrance. He was sitting in what his wife described as the "reading room" one day when their moggy brought in a snake & dropped it on his feet.

Fortunatey the snake was dead.

Sandra (who hasn't been owned by a cat for about 20 years due to living in an inner city apartment building)

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20 Jul 02 - 10:13 AM (#751577)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Liz the Squeak

Ah furballs..... natures' way of saying it's time to brush the cat.....

One of my kittens (the evil black one) pulled one of my fathers' shoes from under the sideboard, carefully crapped in the heel and pushed it back under a different sideboard...... Father was less than amused at this.....

So far Max and Amber are yet to present me with anything other than furballs, although there is a toy spider web that will never support a spider again...

Ceramen used to eat spiders, but he'd only ever manage half of them. You'd hear a scuffle in the night, come downstairs to see and find a small white cat sitting in the middle of the living room, with a couple of pairs of legs still hanging from his mouth, like a kid caught eating spaghetti.

LTS

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20 Jul 02 - 10:33 AM (#751587)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Art Thieme

I have always felt that writing songs was as close to disgorging a furball as us humans will ever get.

Art Thieme

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20 Jul 02 - 12:42 PM (#751631)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Genie

Phiddle, That purr-->fart tale just warms the cockles of me heart!

Art T., Ouch!!

LTS, when cats do stuff like that shoe crapping routing, I'd say they're mad at someone  (for whatever reason).

OK, you Mudcats, anyone got a 'furball' to 'cough up' on this thieme theme?

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20 Jul 02 - 03:09 PM (#751675)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Mr Happy

we had taro, he was grey & clever,lived to the ripe old age of 18.

during his younger days he brought many & varied 'gifts'

sometimes we'd find dried earthworms stuck to the stair carpet. bits of bread we or the neighbours had put out for the birds.

one evening i was watching tv & i saw something moving underneath. it was a live toad taro had brought from the garden.

other than the usual birds, mice, both live and/or half eaten, the absolutely worst, most nauseating item he brought from a neighbours binbag was a used tampon!!- aaargh!!

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20 Jul 02 - 04:05 PM (#751695)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: RangerSteve

Spook used to catch mice, but now she's lazy, old, and over-fed, so she just plays with them and my room-mate and I have to put the mice out of their misery. Once, when my room-mate was in the hospital, the cat got angry with me, apparently assuming that my room-mates absence was my fault, and out of spite killed a mouse and dismembered it, spreading it over five rooms. I didn't know a mouse contained so many parts. But, like I said, she's lazy now, and winter, I caught eleven mice in my bedroom, using every kind of trap I could find. One of them got into my laundry and was washed to death. I wish my cat would present me with dead mice.

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20 Jul 02 - 04:17 PM (#751702)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

A "big hunter" we once had appeared at the door one evening, yowling to get in, with a strange object in her mouth. She dropped it at our feet and made the usual noises, shaking her tail and rubbing. Hesitantly, my wife picked up the object. It was the tail from one of those Davy Crockett coonskin hats.

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20 Jul 02 - 05:17 PM (#751720)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Wincing Devil

I was just dpwnstairs, cleaning up the rec room. I moved the (3 part) sofa to vacuum under it and eventually came up with 23 (twenty-three!) toy fuzzy mice that they had batted under the sofa. I put them in a plastic container, and they played with the one I gave back to them. It lasted about 20 minutes before it wound up under the oven, upstairs!

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20 Jul 02 - 05:20 PM (#751722)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Catherine Jayne

I dont think Merlyn would know what to do with a mouse if she came accross one but she's quite happy chewing a cardboard box to bits and pretending to kill a piece of string!! However this is the cat that thinks she's a dog.....when she needs the toilet and is about to use the litter tray she runs round the house howling just to let us know and when the post has arrived she runs to the front door and sits ontop of the letters until someone comes and picks it up!!

cat

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20 Jul 02 - 06:03 PM (#751739)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Genie

Well, Mr. Happy, a used tampon does resemble a dead mouse, after all. Even smells kinda like one. *G*

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20 Jul 02 - 06:19 PM (#751745)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: JenEllen

Bridget is hopeless. The only thing she hunts is boys. Sully, on the other paw, has taken to 'instructing' me in the ways of the great white hunter. He catches all sorts of things, brings them to me, expects ME to devour them, and when I don't, he gives this sort of "Will she NEVER learn?" look, and finished the things off himself.

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20 Jul 02 - 09:59 PM (#751834)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Bee-dubya-ell

I used to keep my hammer dulcimer on its stand and its carrying bag under the bed, not zipped up. So, I was getting ready to go to a session one evening and, you guessed it, dead mouse in the dulcimer bag. Fortunately, I saw the mouse before putting the instrument in the case. Now, the bag stays zipped, whether the instrument is in it or not.

Bruce

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20 Jul 02 - 10:19 PM (#751845)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Genie

If I leave a gig bag -- or suitcase, or backback -- lying around open, I'll have a whole cat in it when I go to pick it up! *G*

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20 Jul 02 - 11:28 PM (#751859)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Celtic Soul

Nushka. This cat was by-God the biggest hunting cat I have ever personally known. She caught *everything*. She brought home a lot of dead things over the years (birds, squirrels, rats, mice, chipmunks), but the rabbit that was twice her size and weight was a bit of a shock. Many times, she'd bring them home alive. She brought us a couple of mice once. I am guessing from the rodent problem we had in the house afterwards that one was male and the other female. I guess she was thinking she might want a fresh snack late at night, and since she hadn't grown opposable thumbs in order to get into the fridge, she'd just have to farm them.

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21 Jul 02 - 12:46 AM (#751886)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Blackcatter

A girlfriend's cat once ate the mylar "string" that was attached to a helium mylar balloon. The string must have been 5 feet long and unfortunately, something that long and undigestible pretty much got stuck somewheres inside the cat (named Differ - because we found it under a car sitting on the differential). Differ stopped eating and was getting listless. We too her to the vet, but he could find nothing wrong. a day later, my girlfriend noticed Differ coughing occasionally and caught sight of the end of the mylar strip hanging out of her mouth. Mt girlfriend pulled it gently and eventually got the whole thing out. Thank goodness it started coming out in THAT direction...

pax yall

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21 Jul 02 - 11:47 AM (#751965)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: GUEST,Sonja

 
These Feline Things
Words by Sonja W. Oates © 2002
Tune:  "These Foolish Things"

A hapless pigeon torn to shreds in th' parlor;
A mangled houseplant where I shed my collar;,
A moth that's missing both wings--
These feline things just say "I love you."

Under the couch, a headless mole or gopher;
A special present in your brand new loafer--
A jellyfish that still stings!--
These feline things just say "I love you."

You looked, you bought,
You house-broke me.
At least that's how it seemed,
But the tiger's still inside of me.

A stash of mice to show I'm still a killer;
'Perfume' bestowed upon your fav'rite pillow;
I chase your tennis shoe strings--
These feline things just say "I love you."

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21 Jul 02 - 12:27 PM (#751979)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Little Hawk

Then there are the fastidious cats who try hard NOT to leave undesirable "gifts". We had one such. He was very proper about doing his "business" outside and ONLY outside. Very proper.

One time we went on a trip for a week, thinking he WAS outside when we left, but it turned out that he wasn't! There was plenty of food and water put out for him in bowls on the back porch...but this did him no good, since he was inside the house, and growing more desperate day by day.

Fortunately, he had the toilet to drink out of. He managed to find dry cat food in the kitchen cupboard. But there was the little problem of where to go to relieve himself.

That cat must have gone through hell trying to figure it out, but eventually he came up with a solution. There was a knothole in the floor in one of the second floor bedrooms, so he did everything through that somehow.

The knothole was located directly above our kitchen stove, with no ceiling material in between (it was an old farmhouse).

By the time we got home the stove was an incredible mess...and the cat was ready for a feline psychiatrist!

The poor fellow did his best, under the circumstances.

- LH

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21 Jul 02 - 01:46 PM (#752010)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Genie

Fantastic story, LH! I've had some cats who would 'save it' until they could go outside to potty (and some that would 'save it' until they could come IN to use their litterbox), but nothing quite like your disciplined cat. (He must've been a Lutheran.)

Genie

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21 Jul 02 - 02:48 PM (#752035)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Liz the Squeak

Amber the tortoishell will do No.1's inside and outside, No.2's she will only do inside.... yum. Shadow has been known to use the odd plant pot when the tray is full....

LTS

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21 Jul 02 - 03:16 PM (#752046)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Bat Goddess

Well, last Monday one of the first things I did was to step barefoot in a pile of cat barf. I had noted its existence earlier, but entirely forgot about it while racing to get to the phone.

And the very next day THIS happened:

My big orange guy Mortimer is NOT a hunter. I'd like to point that out. Bugs are about the only critters that interest him. Tuesday I had proof that he had, indeed, caught a mouse. But I think he probably had his mouth open when he was sleeping and a less-than-bright mouse ran in and Mortimer woke up with a start , closed his mouth and munched the mouse.

How I knew something like this had happened was Mort, after spending the night by choice in the cellar, came bounding onto the bed to say good morning. But he had something hanging from the corner of his mouth that turned out on closer inspection to be mouse guts.

Ol' Mouse Breath did seem a bit happier when I wiped his mouth with a kleenex and quickly disposed of it.

I guess he didn't have the experience to leave all those interesting parts at the foot of the stairs or someplace like that.

Linn

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21 Jul 02 - 03:44 PM (#752060)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Liz the Squeak

BatGoddess, thank heaven I wasn't drinking when I read that!!

Spider legs were bad enough but mouse guts looped out the gob - euurrrghhh!!

LTS

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21 Jul 02 - 05:47 PM (#752112)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Catherine Jayne

Merlyn will only use her cat tray, thank god coz she's an indoor cat the thing is she won't go if anyone is in the vacinity and she thinks she is being watched, believe me we DONT watch the cat on loo she's just a wee bit paranoid and like her privacey soooooooo, we bought her one of those cat trays (KittyLoo) that has a lid....it looks like a cat house, well she likes it and we cant get her out of it!!!! She comes out to purr along to the singing on PalTalk occassionally walking accross the keyboard to have her say!!!!

cat

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21 Jul 02 - 05:49 PM (#752115)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Liz the Squeak

Why did you start this thread? I've had no problems with my little darlings for days, and now I've got one with a stomach upset and furballs.... I'm sure she reads these threads!

LTS

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21 Jul 02 - 05:55 PM (#752117)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Catherine Jayne

Don't shout that too loud Merlyn will want a few!!! At the moment she is sat listening peacefully to a Jake Thackray CD!!!

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21 Jul 02 - 05:59 PM (#752118)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Genie

Sorry if I've contributed to the delinquency of a moggy, Liz.

Genie

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21 Jul 02 - 07:01 PM (#752131)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: McGrath of Harlow

Now our cat Tabitha is a much more helpful person than these delinquents. If she notices someone isn't wearing socks, she'll go upstairs and bring them down and present them, with a reproachful miaow.

I think the idea is that naked feet are a bit improper to Tabitha's refined and bluestockingish mind. Cat's are decently covered in hair, but humans are sadly deficient in that respect, and need to wrap up in order to approach felkine respectability.

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21 Jul 02 - 07:49 PM (#752150)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Bat Goddess

Sabine gets nervous and starts licking her fur off -- like she did when I visited my mother in Milwaukee. Her belly is a bit shy of its normal rich black covering right now, but not as bad as it was this winter when she had hair midway down her flank and then naked to her furry socks.

They're all odd ones, they are. Every last ne of 'em different. I feel like I've spent my life being a cat shrink.

And then there's the shy little ferals -- Banjo and Creamsicle. They're in the house but not OF it. I'd love to catch 'em and get them to the vet to be, ah, "repaired". Creamsicle is so much more refined and discrete in her yowling than Banjo (who is probably more likely to be caught one of these days, probably when the weather gets cooler and she'll sit on the bed).

But I guess Mort and Sabine, at least, keep me from needing a shrink.

Linn

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21 Jul 02 - 08:25 PM (#752168)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: McGrath of Harlow

"Mort and Sabine, at least, keep me from needing a shrink." Sounds as if you've got two living in the house already. Cats can be far better psychotherapists than most humans.

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21 Jul 02 - 08:48 PM (#752186)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Bullfrog Jones

We've had the usual -- birds, mice, shrews etc, building up to a full grown squirrel, but does anyone have a cat like one of ours that gets off on chewing plastic bags? Of course, they're easier to catch!
Jonathan Ross on BBC Radio 2 had me in tears of laughter a few weeks ago describing a cat that used to eat the tinsel off the Christmas tree (on one occasion pulling the tree over on top of itself). The cat would then gradually extrude the tinsel from its other end over a period of time, so a festive trail would follow it around the house!
BJ

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21 Jul 02 - 10:41 PM (#752214)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: GUEST,King of Heeba

The cat next door left my dog a rat.
Spud wasn't interested. - Insufficient decomposition I expect.

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22 Jul 02 - 02:59 AM (#752258)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Genie

Bullfrog, I share a condo in Seattle occasionally with 2 Angora female cats. One of them, Chloe, thinks any plastic bag is quarry to be stalked and chewed. Must be kin to your moggies.

Genie

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22 Jul 02 - 04:38 AM (#752278)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Catherine Jayne

Merlyn has a habbit of sitting in any type of bag especially plastic bags. If you try to take to bag off her she WILL bite you and claw you, so, there is always a plastic bag somewhere in the lounge for the cat to play with. However we are quite worried that we will throw her out with the rubbish one day because she is only a small cat! If I am playing my fiddle the cat is straight in the case!!

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22 Jul 02 - 05:31 AM (#752288)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: nickp

We live very close to a canal - fortunately more interesting to our 4 cats than a fast main road 50 yards away. However, it is a never ending larder - which perhaps accounts for the interest.

One classic 'present' was one of many large rats which appear with regular monotony. This was one of the few that was live although in this case not very. I collected it in a strong plastic bag, completed its demise by swinging said bag very hard against a garden wall several times (apologies to those as squeamish as me) and launched said bag and contents into the aforementioned canal. Yes I appreciate the ecological issues here - I apologise!

About 4 weeks later I can downstairs early one morning - half asleep as usual - to see a wet and most certainly well-dead body on the hall mat. Beside it a small chunk of plastic sheet ... and further on in the next room the remains of The Plastic Bag!!!!

So one of our little delights (we wouldn't be without them) had rescued this bag from the canal (it must have drifted to the edge) dragged it up a steep overgrown bank, about 100 yards down the back lane, over several high fences, through the cat flap in the back door and then removed said offensive object!! To this day we don't know which of them it was. Needless to say, the rat went back in another bag and in the bin this time!

And then there was being woken up one morning by a large duck quacking in the back garden... it had a broken neck and had to be put down by the vet. The perpetrator (a cat called 'Dog' - a story not worth telling) is no longer with us, having, some years later, left for the Happy Catching Ground.

And then there was the time one peed in my open (empty) mandolin case... they still sniff at it as they go past, even after 5 years! The plush lining took ages to dry out. It stays shut now.

Nick

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22 Jul 02 - 07:45 AM (#752310)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Bat Goddess

Nature's Miracle, an enzyme product, works wonders on cat pee. (See previous thread.) I'm off to replenish my supply today since one of the little ferals (all of the cats live in the house -- but the still feral after 2 years despite living in the house little girls won't be allowed to go outside until they're spayed) peed on the couch. And Tom has invited a stranger (musician) to sleep on that couch next Friday. (It's okay -- the guest room bed is available and I'll steer her to that after I put the piles of stuff on top of it away and vacuum the room.)

Linn

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22 Jul 02 - 09:11 AM (#752343)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: KateG

My old cat, Bramble, used to sit on the roof of our car when it was parked in the barn and swipe bats out of the air. I'd regularly come down to go to work and find the roof littered with four or five decapitated bats. Gave a new meaning to the term "batmobile." He also wiped out a thriving colony of chipmunks that inhabited the stone wall between the veggie garden and our neighbors cow pasture. Two to four a day over a six week period till they were all gone...and it took about 6 years after his passing before I saw one again. Once when I scolded him for catching a cardinal (sparrows are OK, but cardinals are off limits), he went away and came back about in about a half hour with a half grown rat. Some apology.

One of current cats, Friday, used to hunt in partnership with our old dog. She would bring small critters into the yard and then the two of them would take turns playing with it until the dog got bored and ate the victim. They would also sleep together.

KateG

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22 Jul 02 - 09:27 AM (#752351)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Bullfrog Jones

Nice to hear that Bramble understands the cardinal rules!
BJ

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22 Jul 02 - 12:05 PM (#752432)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: catspaw49

Well....I guess it's time to fess up.......Hawk mentioned Weimaraners. Well I have two of them as well as 3 cats. No worries over anyone being eaten as they get along. Over the years, my many cats have brought me the usual assortment of critters but now let me tell you another story..............

CONFESSION TIME

Cleigh O'Possum, being a Mudcat Icon and all, does NOT like this tale and in truth he hasn't spoken to me in weeks since the following happened.

One night Jaeger and Sissy (Pictures of them are HERE) came back in through the dog door. Jaeger I noticed had something in his mouth which I thought to be an old shank bone. Sissy was prancing around him and quite excited. I told Jaeger to "Drop It" and found a freshly dead possum on the floor. He was quite proud of himself and Sissy acted as though he were St.George who slew the "dragon" just for her!

Cleigh is not pleased. I think I'm in trouble with him..........Big Trouble!

Spaw

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22 Jul 02 - 12:11 PM (#752436)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie

Buddy Cat was hanging around in our driveway, crying to beat the band. I said, "here, kitty," thinking he would probably run away. Much to my surprise, he came right to me, talking the whole time.

Of course I felt bad for him, so I took some kitty food WAY out from the house and put it under a tree, thinking he might eat and go on. Surely such a friendly boy had a family somewhere.

He never left.

We placed an ad in the paper, but no one was looking for a yellow-eyed, beige kitty. He had been neutered, so was obviously someone's pet. He knew all the soft places to curl up, once we let him in the house. Thumper Kitty wasn't so sure about it at first, but they got along fine.

The landlady liked Buddy so well, she offered to pay half of his vet expenses. We had joint custody, I guess you could say.

He stayed out most of the time. Now, before anyone gets upset that I let a cat run wild in the neighbors' yards, understand that I live on a couple of acres, which at that time had woods all around, and Buddy never wandered far. Just in the backyard alone, he had his own private Buddy Cat Paradise. We brought him in at night, and when it was cold out, he stayed in more. We also got him a collar with a bell.

He was a sweet, sweet pet, but a ruthless hunter. He raided a bunny nest, killing one, and leaving three others. The mama was nowhere to be found, so we took the babies in. The local wildlife rescuer wouldn't help me, so I took matters in my own hands. I came home every day at lunch to bottle-feed the babies. One more died, but two lived, and grew strong and feisty. A few weeks later, we took them back to the woods.

There were more bunnies, and birds, and mice. Buddy ate the mice, and left the little green gall-bladder thingy behind. One time I caught him eating a mouse, and I was amazed that his little kitty jaws could break mousie bones.

One evening he came up to the door with an odd little animal in his mouth. Paul and I made him drop it. It was a flying squirrel. I had never seen one before - we figured that it was probably sick and had fallen out of a tree. Once we made Buddy drop his quarry, Mister tried to get him away from the squirrel, which was still alive. But Buddy was too fast. In a blink he grabbed the squirrel by the neck, killing it. We didn't really want him eating it, so Paul wrestled it away from him, and buried it.

After a few years, Buddy wasn't so active anymore. The squirmy kitty that didn't want to be held or carried much, didn't fuss about it as often. One afternoon we came home to find him panting under the truck. Two days later, he had a kitty stroke. The vet said it was because of a heart condition fairly common in cats. If he lived, he would be paralyzed in the back legs.

So we made the only choice we could make. We said goodbye to Buddy Cat, the Fearless Hunter, who enjoyed the pennywhistle. The landlady buried him in the back yard.

And the very next day, we had birds in the yard again.

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22 Jul 02 - 06:05 PM (#752661)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: GUEST,toribw who should be working

Doorknob used to bring me gifts of fish heads he found in the garbage. Goober (when he used to have a cat door) frequently caught little birds and other critters and bring them in the house.

Luckily for us, he chose the guest room bathtub to use as his private abattoir. I'd look and there would be some streaks of blood and a couple feathers. Strange thing was I never found feet, beaks or anything else.

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22 Jul 02 - 08:21 PM (#752731)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: GUEST,Charlotte Gilmour

I have many *trophy stories* but perhaps the most unusual, and funny one would be once when I had slept in over the weekend.

We have about seven cats (mainly due to the fact that some of them are rescue cats that people have dumped; we try and try, but it's hard to find homes for adult cats as many of you know) anyway . . . as you can imagine, some of these cats don't get along at all, but I had the door of my bedroom cracked and I could see a flit of movement here and there through the crack of the door now and again, with an peek from various members of the *cat household* as if they were checking to see if I were up yet, I peeked out carefully and to my utter amazement (and I do mean UTTER) the cats were sitting here and there, where they could find a spot, in as close to a semi-circle they could get around my bedroom door entryway, as if they were waiting for something . . . looking at me, I looked down and there was a bird, smack dab in the front-middle of my bedroom doorway - I know it sounds odd, but it's almost like they thought it was some sort of holiday for me and *pooled their resources to get me a gift* (of course I'm really not into dead birds, lol, I like birds). It was certainly an unusual situation. I petted them all (with the concept, "It's the thought that counts" in mind).

Charlotte (aka: Celticharper1)

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22 Jul 02 - 11:23 PM (#752811)
Subject: RE: BS: Presents from your cat
From: Genie

Spaw, don't tell Cleigh, but sometimes I wish my jaeger katzen would bring me a dead possum or two. Otherwise, the posssums just crap on my back porch and/or die somewhere inconvenient and I have to discover them by the "aroma" and deal with week-old possum carcasses. (Not fun.)

Re your photo album, I've known grandparents to have scads of snapshots of all the grandkids, but you folks take this to a whole new dimension!

Great stories, folks!

Genie

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