And I am a 45 year old male. While driving home from work yesterday, I saw a hawk on a fence post with something in one claw. I slowed down and noticed it was a fuzzy gray kitten. It was still alive, I could tell it was meowing. I stopped and jumped out of my truck hoping the hawk would drop the kitten but it didn’t. It flew off with the kitten in it’s claw. I cried like a baby.
Some of us fall by the wayside,
And some of us soar to the stars.
It’s the ciiircle of liiiife
(come on, you know someone was going to do it)
So you’re trying to deprive a hard-workin’ hawk of a tasty meal?
Oh God, racer, I’m sorry you had to see that.
Rational or not, I would have absolutely lost it.
I don’t even like cats but that is so sad!
Would you cry the same way if you had seen an emaciated mountain lion with a hawk in it’s mouth?
Things gotta eat, dude. Keep gettin’ squishy about things like that and you’ll turn into a vegetarian.
Mr. S and I have a stupid little game we play when we’re out driving and see a hawk on a post, looking out over a field; we talk in a silly voice as if we’re the hawk:
“Hmmm, what should I have for lunch today? . . . Squirrel? . . . Mouse? . . . Chipmunk? . . . Rat? . . . Mole? . . . Rabbit? . . . Cat?”
The other critters vary, but “Cat?” is always last and cracks us up for some reason. Not that we are anti-cat; in fact, we have several outdoor cats that we like having around and they are very affectionate. But yes, we’ve had some cats disappear, and we’re pretty sure that one barn kitten met a fate similar to the one you saw.
It’s hard to think about, but it IS the circle of life, nature, and all that. A few years ago our cats had trapped a baby squirrel in a small tree, and Mr. S and I watched as our elderly springer Emily claimed the prize of getting to grab the squirrel and finish it off – squeaksqueakCRUNCH. I was horrified and fascinated at the same time.
(Emily’s first catch was a live rabbit. Mr. S found her carrying the live but terrified bunny around the yard, exuberant at having caught it. He got her to let it go and it took off. She really loved chasing bunnies after that.)
Bald eagle swoops down, carries off family dachshund.
(PS- the dog’s okay.)
Sensative men are so hard to come by.
As for the OP, I live in the mountains and I had a roommate that use to live with me. She loved cats. She moved in her cat of 10 years. It was an inside cat, but she left the back door open and it got out. The next morning I heard a cat screaming so I look out my window at 5 a.m. in the morning and in this coyotes mouth was her cat. This was the hardest thing I ever had to tell someone. She loved that cat more than her boyfriend. She then went out and got a kitten, and agian left the back door open and the kitten got out. I heard the kitten meow really loud, so again, I look out my bedroom window to see the kitten in another coyotes mouth.
The coyotes had pegged my house as a free for all food joint. She decided that she wouldn’t get another cat after that. A few months later she moved out, because she couldn’t bare to live without a cat. I for one was happy, she never cleaned the cat litter box and it stinked like shit in my house most of the time.
Thats my story…
This reminds me of something that happened to my partner. He was bird watching in Florida. He watched a heron grab a fish out of the water and swallow it alive, and then, moments later, there was a violent splash as an alligator grabbed the heron.
It disturbed him greatly, but the more he thought about it, the more he had to wonder why it disturbed him so much more than the fish being eaten. It was the same thing, after all.
I love cats, kittens, etc. so the OP makes me sad.
But on the bright side, I have a semi-tame/semi-wild lizard who sits outside my sunny front door and does push-ups.
I swear. Nature can make us smile, too.
Damn. I came in here to stalk pezpunk, and I’m coming out crying. I understand that animals need to eat and all, but… I’m a cat person, and the thought of a poor kitten suffering…
shudder
That’d make me cry too! It’s one thing to know everything has to eat, it’s another to have to witness it.
I know it seems brutal but consider this - if the bird caught the kitten, it was outside, unprotected. In danger by disease, by cars, by dogs, by cruel children (and adults), by everything. It was probably a much quicker more humane death at the talons of the hawk. Would it have been better to be taken to the pound, stuck in a cage for a week then killed because no one wanted her? That kitten probably didn’t have much of a future in front of it - so few stray/unplanned babies luck out.
StG
Oh shit, I should NOT have read this!
WAAAAAAHHH!!!
If you don’t like to cry, one thing you don’t ever want to look into is the number of baby birds eaten by pet cats each year. It’s clear that most cat owners don’t, except perhaps to say “Oh I DO wish Freckles wouldn’t bring those nasty birds indoors - such a mess!” as the cat crunches the 27th (and last) Brown Thrasher baby hatched in the vicinity of the back yard.
It may sound hard-hearted, but if a few hawks are working to slightly redress the balance, I for one will not object.
I like cats (despise dogs)
I LOVE raptors.
Go Hawk!!!