Garage Critter

Just a followup on the "nest" I found in the garage a week or so ago.
It turned out to be a rat. A huge rat. A rat so big he had actually drug yams
into the nest.
DH was out there working on the new cat tree, and the cats were out there. He
said they gathered around a workbench, sniffing under it. The rat ran out face
to face to them.
Bootsie was scrambling after it, in full kill mode.
Yoda looked very interested, but didn't move.
Frank ran like a rabbit and started climbing the screen to get back into the
house.
DH had to intercede on their behalf and kill and dispose of it. I felt kinda
bad about that in a weird way. For tthe rat, I mean. I halfway wished we could
have just relocated it orr something.
I thought it was also funny that Frank was so afraid. He was born & lived his
whole life in cages, I got him at about 4 months old. (he was a kitten mill
rescue). I hear that they are not hunters unless Mama cat teaches them to hunt.
I wonder if that's why he doesn't hunt..

Sherry

"Sherry " wrote in message
...
SNIP I hear that they are not hunters unless Mama cat teaches them to
hunt.
I wonder if that's why he doesn't hunt.. SNIP

Sherry


I was just wondering about the hunting instinct myself since Moogie
definitely exhibits hunting knowledge with this little furry piece of fabric
we have (rabbit fur, but the package had some disclaimer about where they
got the fur from that made me feel it was OK to buy it). The piece of fabric
used to be a mouse. That lasted about five minutes between Moogie and the
Moose! Anyway, when Moogie gets to playing with this piece of fur, he'll
growl and exhibit hunting behavior like crouching over it, protecting it
from other predators (a.k.a The Moose), etc.

I doubt his mom ever taught him to hunt, but maybe it's an unspoken thing
between mom and kitten during the first 6 weeks? Who knows!

Stacey

P.S. He's also a mean bug hunter! The bigger the better.

in article , Sherry at
itty wrote on 10/14/03 9:40 PM:

Just a followup on the "nest" I found in the garage a week or so ago.
It turned out to be a rat. A huge rat. A rat so big he had actually drug yams
into the nest.
DH was out there working on the new cat tree, and the cats were out there. He
said they gathered around a workbench, sniffing under it. The rat ran out face
to face to them.
Bootsie was scrambling after it, in full kill mode.
Yoda looked very interested, but didn't move.
Frank ran like a rabbit and started climbing the screen to get back into the
house.
DH had to intercede on their behalf and kill and dispose of it. I felt kinda
bad about that in a weird way. For tthe rat, I mean. I halfway wished we could
have just relocated it orr something.
I thought it was also funny that Frank was so afraid. He was born & lived his
whole life in cages, I got him at about 4 months old. (he was a kitten mill
rescue). I hear that they are not hunters unless Mama cat teaches them to
hunt.
I wonder if that's why he doesn't hunt..

Sherry

Egad!

in article , Stacey at
wrote on 10/14/03 10:36 PM:


"Sherry " wrote in message
...
SNIP I hear that they are not hunters unless Mama cat teaches them to
hunt.
I wonder if that's why he doesn't hunt.. SNIP

Sherry


I was just wondering about the hunting instinct myself since Moogie
definitely exhibits hunting knowledge with this little furry piece of fabric
we have (rabbit fur, but the package had some disclaimer about where they
got the fur from that made me feel it was OK to buy it). The piece of fabric
used to be a mouse. That lasted about five minutes between Moogie and the
Moose! Anyway, when Moogie gets to playing with this piece of fur, he'll
growl and exhibit hunting behavior like crouching over it, protecting it
from other predators (a.k.a The Moose), etc.

I doubt his mom ever taught him to hunt, but maybe it's an unspoken thing
between mom and kitten during the first 6 weeks? Who knows!

Stacey

P.S. He's also a mean bug hunter! The bigger the better.


Are you going to go visit Sherry?

Karen

"Sherry " wrote
Just a followup on the "nest" I found in the garage a week or so ago.
It turned out to be a rat. A huge rat. A rat so big he had actually drug
yams
into the nest.
DH was out there working on the new cat tree, and the cats were out there.
He
said they gathered around a workbench, sniffing under it. The rat ran out
face
to face to them.
Bootsie was scrambling after it, in full kill mode.
Yoda looked very interested, but didn't move.
Frank ran like a rabbit and started climbing the screen to get back into
the
house.
DH had to intercede on their behalf and kill and dispose of it. I felt
kinda
bad about that in a weird way. For tthe rat, I mean. I halfway wished we
could
have just relocated it orr something.
I thought it was also funny that Frank was so afraid. He was born & lived
his
whole life in cages, I got him at about 4 months old. (he was a kitten
mill
rescue). I hear that they are not hunters unless Mama cat teaches them to
hunt.
I wonder if that's why he doesn't hunt..

Aww, purrs to your Frank from mine. My Frank didn't learn to hunt until he
was ten years old, after Nikki had worked really hard on teaching him for
all that time. Frank was born as an inside kitty, in the city, so his Mum
never had a chance to teach him.

When he finally caught his first vole, my sister, who didn't think much of
his prowess, said it must have committed suicide by throwing itself in front
of Frank and saying, "Take me, take me."

--
Marina

Sherry wrote:

I hear that they are not hunters unless Mama cat teaches them to hunt.
I wonder if that's why he doesn't hunt..

I've heard that, too. They do have a *chase* instinct, which does not
need to be taught. Which is why they all get really interested in bugs,
birds, cat dancers, and other moving objects. However, that doesn't mean
they know what to do with something once they've caught it. That part
has to be taught. They also don't necessarily understand that their prey
is food unless it's taught to them.

It seems that Smudge was taught to hunt - she knows how to kill prey and
she knows it's food. Roxy, on the other hand, seems a bit clueless about
that. She'll catch a spider in her mouth, drop it out again, chase it
again (once it recovers and starts running), hold it in her mouth, spit
it out again, etc. Eventually, most bugs get away from her, though I have
occasionally seen her eating one. Usually she'll just stare at a bug within
her reach, though she's not sure what comes next. They're both equally
interested in chasing things, though!

Joyce

Aww, purrs to your Frank from mine. My Frank didn't learn to hunt until he
was ten years old, after Nikki had worked really hard on teaching him for
all that time. Frank was born as an inside kitty, in the city, so his Mum
never had a chance to teach him.

When he finally caught his first vole, my sister, who didn't think much of
his prowess, said it must have committed suicide by throwing itself in front
of Frank and saying, "Take me, take me."

--
Marina

ROFL! My Frank is such a baby, too. He's not even like a cat. He's dependant
and needy, and really not as smart as the others. OTOH, he might have been the
smart one, and *knew* that the rat was too big for him to be messing with.
Bootsie, on the other hand, was chattering away at a *chicken hawk* the other
day. I grabbed her up and gave her a talk about picking on chicken hawks.

Sherry

When he finally caught his first vole, my sister, who didn't think much of
his prowess, said it must have committed suicide by throwing itself in front
of Frank and saying, "Take me, take me."

Excuse Me!!! The *only* living creature to throw *herself* in front of Frank
and say "Take me, take me." is *Me*.... and we aren't talking hunting!!! My
Frank is a lover - I'll do the hunting for us both.

Humph!

Waffles.
This is an invalid email adress to thwart spammers
To get my correct email remove the dependency on fame & fortune from
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"Marina" wrote:
When he finally caught his first vole, my sister, who didn't think much of
his prowess, said it must have committed suicide by throwing itself in front
of Frank and saying, "Take me, take me."

I like your sister's sense of humor! I also like Frank and Nikki as
"Rabbit and Rat".

Voles are lemmings, right? So it's very possible that they're
committing suicide.

"Sherry " wrote


ROFL! My Frank is such a baby, too. He's not even like a cat. He's
dependant
and needy, and really not as smart as the others. OTOH, he might have been
the
smart one, and *knew* that the rat was too big for him to be messing
with.
Bootsie, on the other hand, was chattering away at a *chicken hawk* the
other
day. I grabbed her up and gave her a talk about picking on chicken hawks.

Ah, that's Nikki all over. She is such a tiny girl, but she thinks she can
take anything on. I've had her stalking pheasants that are twice her size,
and once she brought home a baby rabbit who was the same size as her.
Goodness knows how she managed to snatch it from its Mummy.

--
Marina