# Gifts your pets left you **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 2, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100 "2009-05-02T17:18:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/41 "2013-12-23T15:43:10Z")
The late Binkley once brought us a bunny body–on Easter. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/42 "2013-12-23T15:51:00Z")
In the last apartment I lived in, there were occasional gaps in the walls around the sink pipes and the radiators. One of my cats used to catch tiny mice that came in through those openings, play with them a little, then drop them into my shoes. They were usually not quite dead. After the first time it happened, I never put on my shoes without shaking them out first. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/43 "2013-12-23T18:38:01Z")
My Emily is still a gift giver but mostly gives animals or half/animals now. She once brought a very large rabbit. Often she brings them to me unhurt - many mice, a baby squirrel, a vole, lots of baby rabbits, birds. When she was a kitten she trotted two stories down to the basement and brought me up a roll of toilet paper while I was sitting in the bathroom. Spooky smart kitten. In the fall she brought me a series of leaves, never two the same. She brought me some neighbor’s white garden gloves one at a time and when they had apparently replaced them she brought each of those also. She brought me all of Daisy, the dachshund across the alley’s, toys one by one. Saami finds rubber bands and puts them in the food dish when it gets low as a payment/reminder to my husband to refill. He’s the rubber band man. It’s like they have paid attention to things we use or value in their perception. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/44 "2013-12-23T18:42:43Z")
We get the occasional bird, or more often ‘assorted bird parts’. The only interesting part is that the cats have to bring the bird from outside, through the dog flap into the garage, then through the second dog flap into the laundry room, then through the hallway to reach the dining room, which is invariably where we find the remains. I guess they instinctively know that the dining room is the “correct” place for their repast, despite the fact that the majority of our meals are not actually eaten there… ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/45 "2013-12-23T18:53:48Z")
Oh gods, what haven’t they brought in? We’ve seen all manner of rodents, birds, bugs, lizards. One of the most unique, um, installations were from my tiny rescue cat Rasputin who wiped out the mole population in the neighborhood, nightly lining up the heads of her kills on the front doorstep. No idea what she did with the bodies. Best single night was five, but we rarely say fewer than 2-3 per day. The neighbors thought she was the greatest thing - it was really something to watch her play whack-a-mole. Cat didn’t top 5 pounds but had the local dogs terrified of her. She’s been gone 25 years and I still miss her. Several years ago we were adopted by a semi-feral beast called Nijel the Destroyer who did the opposite - crunchy heads are his favorite so he leaves us neatly decapitated bodies in his empty food dish. Usually rats, mice & moles. Once he disappeared for about three months and we were sure he was gone, but one morning a headless mouse was left in his bowl, and about 10 days later he sauntered in, demanded food, and acted like he never left. It was Samurai Cat who dropped a live lizard in my hand early one morning, presumably to watch the fun as I woke up with the poor thing running up my arm and into my hair. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/46 "2013-12-23T19:18:45Z")
> [@PapSett](#): > > Back in the late 60’s, when such things were the fashion, my Great Dane mix (who was actually a stray that adopted my family and came and went as he pleased) brought me home a fringed suede vest. No idea where it came from. And the thing FIT me. I was delighted with it and wore it for several years. I know this is an old post, but this is hilariously awesome. Your dog had good taste! My cat isn’t very good at her job. I thought she would be, given that she was a barn cat for the first year or so of her life. We don’t have mice, but we get lots of spiders when it’s warm out. But she just watches them run around, she never attacks them. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/47 "2013-12-23T19:19:55Z")
> [@Jettboy](#): > > I read in Desmond Morris’ _Catwatching_ that this is pretty typical feline behavior. Mr. Morris’ theorizes that since we force cats into a social setting that they wouldn’t have in the wild, they assume the role of mother/brother/provider for us dumb, ugly kittens who are too inept to hunt and bring us food. > > His alternate theory was that housecats are forced into a life of perpetual kittenhood where we take on the role of mother and they show us the results of their hunt to earn praise. > > Either way, it’s kind of flattering and even sweet in a brutal, feline way. Well, [those aren’t the only theories . . .](http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3214#comic) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/48 "2013-12-24T02:19:26Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > When I was a kid, our golden retriever once brought us a mouthful of baby mice - live, and not injured in the least. > > What a gentle dog. I miss her. Don’t hunters call that soft-mouth retrieving, for which retriever breeds are mostly bred? I don’t hunt or shoot, but I’ve read a little on how sporting dogs work with hunters. It’s little short of amazing how gifted these animals are. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/49 "2013-12-24T03:58:22Z")
zombie or no if you don’t eat it then it’s really bad emotionally for your pet. you are rejecting their hard worked for sign of love. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/50 "2013-12-24T06:10:42Z")
We have three indoor cats, which obviously aren’t bringing us any actual vermin or birds. One of them, however, loves to carry the cat toys from the den, where we usually put them when we gather them up, to other locations in the apartment. When she does, she emits an emphatic meow to let everyone know she’s done something that she’s proud of, and that she expec commensurate praise. It used to be she’d always bring her “kills” into the bedroom, where we can usually be found. Lately, though, she often deposits it in the next room and calls until we come in to see her with her prize. Here she is with a “firecracker” toy, a furry spotted cylinder with feathers coming out either end: [Link](http://www.flickr.com/photos/78538399@N00/11526428523/) As she’s doing here, she usually stays until someone comes in and tells her what a good cat she is. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/51 "2013-12-24T13:55:22Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > [Link](http://www.flickr.com/photos/78538399@N00/11526428523/) > > As she’s doing here, she usually stays until someone comes in and tells her what a good cat she is. Awww :3 I really like that toy! Where did you get it? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/52 "2013-12-24T13:57:11Z")
We moved out to the country about 20 years ago, and indoor kitty Bugs got put outside immediately, much to her delight. My husband and I were sitting at the dining table recovering from the exhausting move when we heard a _ME–owww_ at the back door. There was Bugs with a big, dead quail in her mouth. She was mumbling something that sounded like, “I’ve got dinner-- do we have any white wine?” ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/53 "2013-12-24T14:50:06Z")
Relevant [Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal](http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3214#comic) comic from a few days ago. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/54 "2013-12-24T17:17:18Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Don’t hunters call that soft-mouth retrieving, for which retriever breeds are mostly bred? > > I don’t hunt or shoot, but I’ve read a little on how sporting dogs work with hunters. It’s little short of amazing how gifted these animals are. Yes. You can train them to retrieve eggs that the hens hid and they will bring you back unbroken eggs. Many dogs that are not retrievers can have soft mouths, my wolf hybrid had a soft mouth and loved retrieving eggs and herding the chickens and turkeys. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/55 "2013-12-24T20:40:43Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > As she’s doing here, she usually stays until someone comes in and tells her what a good cat she is. > > Awww :3 I really like that toy! Where did you get it? Don’t remember for sure, but we most likely bought it at Petco. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/56 "2013-12-24T21:59:21Z")
My lab brought me the lovely present of the decomposing leg of a dead calf. Thing was huge. Plonked it down in front of me and then ran round the room in proud circles, she was so pleased with herself. She couldn’t understand why I didn’t roll in it and eat it on the spot! Lucky gracer, stinky dead calf! My cat Tabby used to bring me presents all the time, huge birds, rats, mice etc. She would trot in with her hunting whiskers bristling, she’d make a distinct sound so I would know. I would be required to switch on the light to look at her prize and commend her for it, before she would devour it. Clever Tabby. 😃 I did appreciate the sentiment of those presents. It amazed me that she cared so much for my esteem that she wouldn’t eat it until I had shown approval. How else would you ever know that your cat cares one bit about what you think? ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/57 "2013-12-24T22:12:16Z")
When I was a kid it wasn’t uncommon to find our dog “Rover” (yes that was her name) laying in the front yard with a dead muskrat. She liked to swim in the river across the street at night. Getting rid of the rat was no big deal but it took at least an hour to get all the burrs out of her fur. ---
**Author:** ![SerafinaPekala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SerafinaPekala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SerafinaPekala)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/58 "2013-12-24T22:14:30Z")
When I was a novice cat person I started feeding a stray and she become “my” cat. She repaid me handsomely for my tenderness toward her by lining up as many headless mice, tail-to-headless-neck, every day as the front steps would hold. She really really loved me! ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2013, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/59 "2013-12-25T02:07:58Z")
When my Bonnie (Aussie) was a youngster she brought a limp, wet chicken through the dog door into the living room. One of my chickens, as a matter of fact. She had played with it to the extent that it had decided it was dead, but when put back with the other chickens it immediately came back to life, unhurt save psychologically. A few years later she brought me the rack of an eight-point buck she’d found in the woods. I still have it. One time I was hiking with her and a troop of baby feral pigs crossed our path. Cute and striped! Bonnie thought I might want one to take home so she cut out the last one and herded it toward me despite both the piglet and I strenuously objecting. I did get her to quit before the mom showed up. Which would have been a serious matter, you really do not mess with them. I could go on. ---
**Author:** ![tadtooornamental](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@tadtooornamental](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tadtooornamental)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100/60 "2014-01-08T02:50:52Z")
> [@horsetech](#): > > At least Buddy leaves them in the litter box! I can count on tootsie rolls from The Black Cat (she has a name, but we don’t use it, for some reason) in front of the box most days. Yes, she has been checked out by the vet. It seems to be a territory thing. Feliway spray doesn’t help, nor does having boxes in two different parts of the basement. We just live with it. Exactly this. Ash has decided that he prefers to leave his poops in clear view of all, about a foot to the left of the bathroom litterbox. No medical issues with him either, and he pees in the box(es). But poops demand to be seen! My second kitty, Clio, is the hunter. She’s been indoor only her entire life (unlike Ash, who used to go outside), so her hunting opportunities are a bit limited. My absolute favorite gift from her has been a live giant moth. It was fluttering about my bedroom, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching her spazstalk it. She finally caught it, hopped up on my bed and deposited it proudly into my lap. Upon which it promptly flew away. Anyone who ever says that animals aren’t capable of complex emotion or expression: I really wish you could have seen the look she gave me when her hard-won prize was let so stupidly go by her dufus of a human. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gifts-your-pets-left-you/495100.md?page=2)