So it's really late here and I'm sitting here on the bed watching TV and the cat hops up here, and curls up next to me...... Then I feel something wet next to my leg... whut the??? It's a mouse and the cat's still playing with it. yeah I love my pets. Considering this is the first one that I'm aware of that's she's got I'm kinda proud of her, still a bit gross though. The Rat terriers on the other hand have brought me more than a few of the little buggers. Now before you judge me for having mice, I live in the middle of nowhere out on 48 acres, surrounded by 40+ acres on all sides, yeah inevitably they get in. It seems the breeds of little dogs my wife prefers is more prone to getting into mouse traps than mice, so I don't put em out, but then again, they catch more mice than the traps. The cat was a rescue that was supposed to grow up and become a barn cat, she just never got big, with all the hawks, owl's, and eagles around here I don't feel safe putting her out, so she's the chiuaua's favorite play buddy, yeah the chiuaua is bigger than the cat. It's late, the pain meds are finally kicking in, I'm off to bed. Sorry bout the wierd post.
ddavidv
SuperDork
7/25/09 6:21 a.m.
We get mice here in suburbia too. We have a cornfield right behind us. Black Dog has killed many times, though never mice. A couple Voles, and she eradicated a groundhog all by herself, which is no small task. We joke that she doesn't kill us in our sleep only because we feed her well.
I once read a very funny story about a guy who bought an old farm and got several cats to eradicate the vermin. The cats didn't do anything but lie around waiting to be fed, so he got a Jack Russel terrier. Vermin problem instantly gone.
Lesley
SuperDork
7/25/09 7:36 a.m.
Mine leaves pens, q-tips, socks, rubber bands etc. on my pillow for me. No live stuff fortunately.
Growing up our cats used to leave us half eaten frogs-between the desk and the counter top-right where you would run to answer the phone
I don't have much property (my house in a typical 'burb) but our old cat (Einstein) still brought home a damn BIRD one day. He laid it out on the back porch. Big one, too. Blood and feathers everywhere! The girlfriend made me bury the sucker. When she wasn't looking I gave the cat a can of meat (he normally only gets dry food) as a reward. Damn good cat.
Nibbler, our cat that got hit, used to catch bugs. Spiders, dragonflies, flies, she'd nab them all.
Porsche, the new kitten, only goes for wasps and bees. She's got a screw loose but she's still a good cat.
Growing up we had cats that were allowed indoors and outdoors, and they used to leave all kinds of "presents" on the porch. The weirdest? A Cockatiel.
Now I have two dogs. One is a 10 year old pure mutt, with possible German Shepard and Husky in the mix, and she wants to go after and eat ever animal she sees. Loves people to death, but pretty much hates every animal. We were letting her run out in a field once, and she started sniffing the ground. All of a sudden, she shoves her face into the dirt and her head pretty much disappeared. When she pulled her head out of the ground, she lifted her head straight up (like the howling wolf pose) and started chomping. That mole was gone before I ever saw it.
The other dog is a Pitt Bull/Black Lab mix that looks like a monster but is the biggest baby ever. She just wants to play with everyone and everything. She once saw a squirrel go down a tree across the street and bolted after it. I have no idea how but she actually caught it. After she caught it, she just threw it around so she could chase and catch it again. That was fun trying to separate her from a REALLY pissed off squirrel.
our cat, helen Keller, caught and killed, i kid you not, a squirrel.
My girl cats are what I call "watchers". They will watch a mouse or spider from across the room. Now Friday, my tom, kills and leaves me presents all the time. One of the many reasons the cats are not allowed in the bedroom anymore.
I get free fertilizer pellets from my rabbits all the time. Usually, they are neatly piled in the littlerbox, but occasionally I get some strategically-placed 'berries' underfoot.
Ok I feel better now, thanks. The rat terriers are great at catching squirrels and rabbits, don't have many that hang out in the yard. Had one rabbit that insisted on hanging out in the yard, I would shoo him off every day when I got home for weeks, only thing is he would only go out to just the edge of the woods and stop, I literally could walk within about 8 feet of him before he would bolt. Of coarse as soon as I let the dogs out when I got home they would scent him out and chase him, somehow always got away, but still left me chasing dogs through the woods to get them back in a timely manner. One day I got home from playing paintball with some friends, a buddy of mine had sent home his tourney marker with me for me to do some work on, approx 20 balls per second, chrono'd at 280 feet per second right before I left the field. Yeah, I wanted REALLY BAD to paint the little bugger green but I settled for running him outta the yard at full tilt with a crap load of paint right behind his butt. I didn't hear him stop running till he was well beyond the property line, and for some reason haven't seen him back.
Edit* Before some smart person deems to comment of the improper use of paintball markers. I've had more than my fair share of bruises and welts, well as bled from taking point blank shots to the neck, from playing paintball, I missed him on purpose, didn't want to take the chance of tagging him in the head or eyes, so I settled for about 12 inches off his butt.
My old Springer would bring me birds that were still alive, her mouth was that soft.
Now there is one squirrel that sits ON my parents porch and drives their dog nuts, will literally sit there and stare at the dog through the screen door. Dog comes out and squirrel hits the big grandaddy oak in the front yard. Had a couple of close calls when they let her out the back door instead of the front but she's caught more than her fair share of them. Those and moles, she likes bringing those to us for some reason.
Our old cat used to catch squirrels, eat them, then bring mom the tail.
Our new cat catches rats from the yard. Sometimes, when you walk into a room, you'll find her quickly shoving something under the rug. If you look, it is almost always a rat she was playing with.
ddavidv
SuperDork
7/25/09 3:43 p.m.
Oh yeah, Black Dog catches flies. While they are in-flight. It's pretty awesome.
Wife's cat brings in bullfrogs from the pond. How in the hell he catches them I have no idea, but they are big ones.
My britney spaniel brings me all kinds of things. The most common are moles. Sadly, she will destroy any part of the yard that the mole is in to get to it. She also loves lizards and skinks and eats them right after showing them too me.
Lesley
SuperDork
7/25/09 7:19 p.m.
It's funny, my cats will chase the heck out of some insects, but just look at others. I'm surmising those are the ones that taste like ka-ka. They go crazy over moths, I almost wonder what they taste like to produce such frenzy. Almost.
I have this weird urge to eat a moth now.
Binky is one of those sissy indoor cats but he's still cool and still my bud. I forget which comic said this, but it's true. A cat bringing you dead creatures can mean one of two things:
I love you. Here is a token of my affection for you. I will continue to protect you from things like this.
OR
Here's a little warning for you. Next time you are late with my bowl or slow to let me in or out, remember what happened to this.
My sisters Siamese when we were kids brought in. Three baby squirels that didnt even have their eyes open yet, we raised and set them free. A full grown opposom also alive. More snakes, lizards and frogs than could be counted. You never knew what you would find in the house in the AM.
She lived to be about 18 years old and when she got too old to hunt she would hunt my sisters stuffed animals. Whenever she brought a "gift" to the family she would walk thru the house yowling in the typical Siamese meow.
Lesley
SuperDork
7/25/09 9:15 p.m.
Awwww - I love siamese.
I brought home a baby cottontail that I saved from the barn cats at my sister's farm. It used to snuggle up to my female siamese, who would lick it.
I had an 85-lbs black lab mix that would bring me presents. Lot's of moles, small `possums, ground hogs and once jumped into a bush and came out with a bird. Was interesting to watch her hunt moles, she would dig out the hole and lay down next to it waiting for one to pass by, sometimes for hours then pounce on it. Once she got a big possum that she couldn't carry to me, she ran back and forth between me and the dead possum to let me know. She never lost a fight, even against a loose pit bull once although she never started it. And she simply adored kids and would take any kind af abuse a kid could dish out. She slowed up with arthritis and passed away a few years ago at 13 years old. Now the toy poodle my wife rescued last year is just noisy, doesn't know what to do if they don't run when she yaps and runs towards them. If they don't run when she runs up to them, she just quiets down and just stands there trembling. It's amusing to have her snuggle up to me when I get her out of that mess. 6-lbs of all bark and no bite.
My dad used to breed Labrador Retrivers, back in the 1970s. We lived in Louisiana back then, and most of the dogs were actually put to work retriving ducks & geese for hunters (ourselves included).
Our favorite one really liked to swim in the river in front of the house, and would occasionally bring us a fish. Would have been cool if it were Bass or Perch...but all she ever brought us was Gar. We may have been poor back then, but we were never desperate enough to eat Gar.
My Husky used to like to surprise us with his gifts...like he would sneakily hide something in his belly he just ate, and usually it was not food. Then when he would come into the bedroom, and hop up on the bed, out would come the sock/hat/glove/grass/hunk of plastic etc that he just and he would look at us like "SURPRISE". Yeah, Ive seen some amazing things get eaten and come out, and not always the way they came in. The wife and I have gotten VERY careful about whats left out, and we make very sure hes got plenty of real toys to play with these days
had a 7-lb black cat named Fitch who caught all sorts of stuff, eat most of it, and leave some remains on the floor in the pole barn for me. I saw her catch a squirrel once, out in the back yard, and I found her with an adult mole in her mouth once. crazy.
Fitch's fat-ass brother Abercrombie (my wife had them before we met, so don't look at me) couldn't catch a cold, and had no interest in trying.
Here they are, in all their glory: