Not farm cats anymore

Driving home today a few blocks from the house I spotted a freshly
road-killed young squirrel and decided to stop and see if it was still warm
and not too badly damaged - which was the case - to present to the clowder.

So Dave stopped the car and I ran back to check the squirrel. It had a
fractured skull and was not bloody, cold or stiff. I wrapped it in newspaper
to carry home, where I soaked it in a bucket of hot water for about 10
minutes and then hung it up to drip dry. After wiping the last water out
with paper towels, I brought it in and laid it on some newspaper on the
floor. Immediately, Abelard jumped on it, grabbed it by a leg and started
growling like a jungle cat.

Everyone else gathered around to watch and be growled and hissed at by the
tiny mighty cougar. This went on for about 30 minutes.... At one point it
looked like Aby might have been ready to cruch into a leg but it never
happened; instead he started dancing and jumping and rolling around playing
with the little body on the newspaper. Eventually he fell asleep sitting
next to "his" catch, and one by one, all the other cats came over and
inspected the squirrel. Beatrice almost dragged it off and I thought she
might be going to eat it, but she lost interest. Tommy rolled around playing
with the tail for a long time but declined to take a bite out of it.

Finally I warned them all that they had one hour in which to consume the
squirrel else it would be given to some dogs down the street. They took
turns dragging the squirrel around and especially Abelard treated it like
his very own prey - oh! the hilarity of watching that squirrel which was
probably not more than 5-6 months old yet was still more than half of
Abelard's size as he dragged it around growling like a proud lion!

None of the kitties took as much as a bite out of that poor squirrel. I can
remember a time when they'd have fought over it and it would have been gone
in a matter of minutes. But they're all too domesticated now, I guess.
Spoiled rotten lazy city housecats, will they even still eat mice?

On Mar 6, 12:11*am, "Pat" wrote:
Driving home today a few blocks from the house I spotted a freshly
road-killed young squirrel and decided to stop and see if it was still warm
and not too badly damaged - which was the case - to present to the clowder.

"Sherry" wrote

Ummm....you do know that squirrels are notorious for carrying
fleas and mites.

Yes, and that's why I soaked the squirrel in HOT water for a good 10 minutes
in a bucket outside before bringing it in (and I saw no fleas on it or in
the water - maybe too early in the year? we just had the first semi-warm day
since last fall).

I am scratching my head as I'm writing just remembering the
experience. :-)

And you've got me scratching in sympathy with your memory!

"Pat" wrote in message
et...
Driving home today a few blocks from the house I spotted a freshly
road-killed young squirrel and decided to stop and see if it was still
warm
and not too badly damaged - which was the case - to present to the
clowder.

So Dave stopped the car and I ran back to check the squirrel. It had a
fractured skull and was not bloody, cold or stiff. I wrapped it in
newspaper
to carry home, where I soaked it in a bucket of hot water for about 10
minutes and then hung it up to drip dry. After wiping the last water out
with paper towels, I brought it in and laid it on some newspaper on the
floor. Immediately, Abelard jumped on it, grabbed it by a leg and started
growling like a jungle cat.

Everyone else gathered around to watch and be growled and hissed at by the
tiny mighty cougar. This went on for about 30 minutes.... At one point it
looked like Aby might have been ready to cruch into a leg but it never
happened; instead he started dancing and jumping and rolling around
playing
with the little body on the newspaper. Eventually he fell asleep sitting
next to "his" catch, and one by one, all the other cats came over and
inspected the squirrel. Beatrice almost dragged it off and I thought she
might be going to eat it, but she lost interest. Tommy rolled around
playing
with the tail for a long time but declined to take a bite out of it.

Finally I warned them all that they had one hour in which to consume the
squirrel else it would be given to some dogs down the street. They took
turns dragging the squirrel around and especially Abelard treated it like
his very own prey - oh! the hilarity of watching that squirrel which was
probably not more than 5-6 months old yet was still more than half of
Abelard's size as he dragged it around growling like a proud lion!

None of the kitties took as much as a bite out of that poor squirrel. I
can
remember a time when they'd have fought over it and it would have been
gone
in a matter of minutes. But they're all too domesticated now, I guess.
Spoiled rotten lazy city housecats, will they even still eat mice?



Ah, well, it was a good idea at the time! In her younger days, KFC would
probably have eaten it. She doesn't eat wild food any more, Boyfie has
stopped catching collared doves for her now, they go to waste, but how is he
clever enough to realise that? He does not eat them himself and after he
rushed back to the house with two or three and they were ignored by KFC he
doesn't bother to catch them any more.
Is my boy a genius or what? ;-)

Tweed

Christina Websell wrote:

Ah, well, it was a good idea at the time! In her younger days, KFC would
probably have eaten it. She doesn't eat wild food any more, Boyfie has
stopped catching collared doves for her now, they go to waste, but how is he
clever enough to realise that? He does not eat them himself and after he
rushed back to the house with two or three and they were ignored by KFC he
doesn't bother to catch them any more.
Is my boy a genius or what? ;-)

He's a gallant soul.

--
Joyce ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.

wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:

Ah, well, it was a good idea at the time! In her younger days, KFC
would
probably have eaten it. She doesn't eat wild food any more, Boyfie has
stopped catching collared doves for her now, they go to waste, but how
is he
clever enough to realise that? He does not eat them himself and after
he
rushed back to the house with two or three and they were ignored by KFC
he
doesn't bother to catch them any more.
Is my boy a genius or what? ;-)

He's a gallant soul.

Hmm, he probably is but I am interested to know how how he realised that it
was pointless to catch collared doves for Kitty any more.
Did he watch her eat them and think it was still a good idea when she did,
and decide not to bother when she didn't?
How could he understand that concept? I don't think he could but the fact
remains that after 2 or 3 rejections of his offerings he hasn't brought a
dove or a mousie to the house since.

Tweed

Sherry wrote:

Ummm....I don't want to put a damper on the dead-squirrel party going
on over there,
but you do know that squirrels are notorious for carrying fleas and
mites.

SFAIK, so are rats and mice! (Also feral cats and dogs - anything with
fur, for that matter, unless it undergoes regular bathing or flea-spraying.)

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"Pat" wrote in message
et...
Driving home today a few blocks from the house I spotted a freshly
road-killed young squirrel and decided to stop and see if it was still
warm
and not too badly damaged - which was the case - to present to the
clowder.

So Dave stopped the car and I ran back to check the squirrel. It had a
fractured skull and was not bloody, cold or stiff. I wrapped it in
newspaper
to carry home, where I soaked it in a bucket of hot water for about 10
minutes and then hung it up to drip dry. After wiping the last water out
with paper towels, I brought it in and laid it on some newspaper on the
floor. Immediately, Abelard jumped on it, grabbed it by a leg and started
growling like a jungle cat.

Everyone else gathered around to watch and be growled and hissed at by
the
tiny mighty cougar. This went on for about 30 minutes.... At one point it
looked like Aby might have been ready to cruch into a leg but it never
happened; instead he started dancing and jumping and rolling around
playing
with the little body on the newspaper. Eventually he fell asleep sitting
next to "his" catch, and one by one, all the other cats came over and
inspected the squirrel. Beatrice almost dragged it off and I thought she
might be going to eat it, but she lost interest. Tommy rolled around
playing
with the tail for a long time but declined to take a bite out of it.

Finally I warned them all that they had one hour in which to consume the
squirrel else it would be given to some dogs down the street. They took
turns dragging the squirrel around and especially Abelard treated it like
his very own prey - oh! the hilarity of watching that squirrel which was
probably not more than 5-6 months old yet was still more than half of
Abelard's size as he dragged it around growling like a proud lion!

None of the kitties took as much as a bite out of that poor squirrel. I
can
remember a time when they'd have fought over it and it would have been
gone
in a matter of minutes. But they're all too domesticated now, I guess.
Spoiled rotten lazy city housecats, will they even still eat mice?



Ah, well, it was a good idea at the time! In her younger days, KFC would
probably have eaten it. She doesn't eat wild food any more, Boyfie has
stopped catching collared doves for her now, they go to waste, but how is
he clever enough to realise that? He does not eat them himself and after
he rushed back to the house with two or three and they were ignored by KFC
he doesn't bother to catch them any more.
Is my boy a genius or what? ;-)

Tweed

A genius and a perfect little gentleman to so care for KFC!

Hugs,

CatNipped

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

A genius and a perfect little gentleman to so care for KFC!

But how did he realise and understand that bringing back collared doves was
pointless now?
There are lots of them he could catch if he wanted to but he doesn't any
more, as I said, he does not eat them himself. He's not up to getting the
feathers off. Unlike KFC when she ate them, she ate all the feathers except
for the big wing feathers.
Wonderful for her bowels ;-)

Tweed

Christina Websell wrote:

He's a gallant soul.

Hmm, he probably is but I am interested to know how how he realised that it
was pointless to catch collared doves for Kitty any more.
Did he watch her eat them and think it was still a good idea when she did,
and decide not to bother when she didn't?
How could he understand that concept? I don't think he could but the fact
remains that after 2 or 3 rejections of his offerings he hasn't brought a
dove or a mousie to the house since.

What I meant was that maybe it doesn't take smarts so much as attention
to how one's actions are received. I think every animal that interacts
with other animals has to do that on some level. They might not reflect
on it consciously the same way a human would, but just like a cat learns
that doing a certain behavior will earn them a treat, maybe he learned
that bringing collared doves to KFC earned him the satisfaction of
watching her eat it. And once he stopped getting that reward, maybe he
just didn't have any more motivation to do it?

I don't think the fact that a cat would stop doing something he's no
longer rewarded for is unusual in itself. So to me, the question is, why
was watching KFC eat the doves he brought her so rewarding to him in the
first place? Maybe it's some kind of feline social behavior that most
people aren't aware of. A kind of mothering behavior that maybe Boyfie
learned from his mother? And when he perceived some frailty in KFC
(something all predators are very sensitive to), that triggered a
nurturing response in him? Just an idea.

That's why I think of it more as a character issue than an intelligence
issue (not to say that he's not intelligent). He was nurturing her. And
once she stopped being interested in his mothering activities, he didn't
have any reason to keep doing it. Again, just a thought.

--
Joyce ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.