I love my little guys but this annoys me to no end. It’s the ONE thing they can do to “earn their keep” around here and they don’t do it.
They just catch’em, play with them for a while, and when they get bored, they let the fuckers live!
That’s part of what it means to be a cat. A dead critter is no fun to play with, compared to an almost dead critter. I used to have tiny mice in my NYC apartment, and my cats would disable them, leaving me to finish the job. And I learned not to put my shoes on, without first checking for a “gift” in one of them.
It’s really awesome when they catch 'em outside, bring 'em in, and then leave them alive at the end. :rolleyes:
Yes, I have (and have had) cats. Why do you ask? 
Yep, that too. I forgot to mention that in my OP.
mine eat them and leave me piles of barfy bug parts to clean up
I have a cat and when it spots a bug, it does often play with it (but doesn’t like it). Maybe it’s just that cats like to play and pounce on things to improve their hunting skills? 
Years ago I had a cat who would catch, play with and eat the moth/spider/beetle only to cry forlornly because she’d couldn’t find it anymore.
Cats evolved to be annoying …
A few years ago, I had “the talk” with my clowder … kill the vermints first before you bring them inside the house. I got sick of seeing half eaten mice dragging around. The cats have been very good about it, and getting better about eating the whole animal and not leaving the parts lying around the house.
Now if I could just get them to quit jumping off the dresser and landing on my belly at night …
Mine don’t try to kill the bugs, but usually manage to anyway. They play rough. They especially love the house centipedes. Often I find just the little striped body with zero legs left. I kinda feel bad for the little things.
I had a boston terrier that would catch flies in his mouth, leave them in there a bit, then open his mouth and let them fly out. It was disgusting to watch.
3 in-and-out 7yo cats here,
- Wild, just hunts and eats mice on the spot. Can spare on a cat food.
- Can only hunt butterflies.
- Erratic. Clumsy. But she did have some fun, when at one time she brought the whole mice nest to the porch and other time a live 15 inch nonpoisonous snake.
Mine are currently bringing Jurassic-size grasshoppers IN to the house to play with them.
is it possible that your cats, rather than being fleet or mobile infantry, are actually in games and theory? Yanno, “…in order to kill the bug, we must understand the bug…”
yes, i know where the door is.
My cat is 10. She and I have a nice system going: she finds a bug, gives it a couple of half-hearted swats to dent its armor, then I swoop in with the electrified fly swatter when she gets bored and finish it off. Then she eats the remains.
One of my parents’ cats does the same thing, while the other one affects a bored, baffled expression and watches her make a fool of herself. Then, later on, the creature’s remains will be found in a strewn, mutilated pile from where the second cat quietly murdered it when no one was around.
It’s even more fun when the cat plays catch-outside-and-release-inside with a snake, when one of the humans is ophidiophobic. :rolleyes: