# So I found a live half-eaten bird in my basement this morning... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 21, 2003, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943 "2003-04-21T00:05:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/1 "2003-04-21T00:05:12Z")
Guess my kitty-cat decided to go for the fast food today. Upon entering the basement, I happened to see a bird. A Mourning Dove, to be precise. My cat had brought it in through the pet door. There were feathers all over the basement floor. I picked up the bird and noticed that my [sweet little kitty](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid58/pb6d29c425233cd3ff54a73e574106290/fc601785.jpg)had eaten most of its back :eek:. It was nasty. So I took it outdise and set it on the ground, expecting it to die right then and there. I was also prepared to humanely end his misery, because sometimes these things have to be done. Nope, he actually got up and flew off! Well, he flew over the fence then went down. Good luck, little bird, and Godspeed. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/2 "2003-04-21T01:30:43Z")
I don’t know why we let the little sadists into our lives and on to our laps… your story reminds me of the time that one of our cats chewed a **back** leg off a tree frog, and it managed to hop away before anything could be done for it. Poor frog, now 1/4th deaf:( [sub] ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/3 "2003-04-21T02:56:50Z")
Love the pic. Kitty’s licking his lips, perhaps thinking of his next quarry. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![modro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@modro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/modro)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/4 "2003-04-21T03:01:18Z")
Our cat has a tendency to, not just kill the animals, but rip them to pieces. Since she never really grasped the concept of a quick kill, she instead will slowly torture the animal by ripping it to shreds. Nothing nicer, than finding little bits of fur, with small chunks of flesh attached to them, sitting on the basement floor. Then trying to figure out what the hell it was that she killed. We have to identify animal remains by guessing what it might be, based on the color of the fur, and the rough volume the formerly living matter might take up. Sick, sick kitty. She’s so sweet otherwise. _sighs_ ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/5 "2003-04-21T03:26:34Z")
My cat is strictly catch and release. I don’t think he has killed anything ever. He plays with things, then looks away and they escape. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/6 "2003-04-21T03:47:02Z")
The only things any of my cats have ever killed are Junebugs, which are apparently the kittycat equivalent of Cheet-os. (Crunch crunch crunch.) They’re all wildly entertained by clickbugs, but I’ve never seen them kill one. They will spend hours flipping on onto its back, watching it “click” itself upright, then catching it and flipping it back onto its obverse. Weird cats. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/7 "2003-04-21T04:04:08Z")
Oh why did I open this? I oughta know better. If you find out what happened to the bird, let us know, please? Our cat went through a whole litter of very young rats a few months ago. Well, except for one. :rolleyes: I hope she never discovers her name, “Chewy”, actually stands for “Chewtoy”… ---
**Author:** ![Kallisti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@Kallisti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kallisti)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/8 "2003-04-21T04:55:25Z")
I once released twenty crickets into the basement with the idea that they would provide cool ambient cricket noises, and what with crickets being lucky and all. My cats ate every last one. The slaughter rivaled the fall of Troy. The silence of the crickets… ---
**Author:** ![Oicu812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f475e1/32.png) [@Oicu812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oicu812)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/9 "2003-04-21T12:20:11Z")
Our cat, Tucker, is the Torquemada of lizards. Living in Florida, there are an incredible variety of lizards living around our house, and he catches three or four a DAY. Brings them in the house before dismantling. So we find pieces all over the place. Occasionally, some bits are self mobile. Otherwise, there are bits. And you find dehydrated ones. Must be a kitty freeze drying processor somewhere in the house. O ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/10 "2003-04-21T13:24:49Z")
My parents own several cats who frequently haul their prey into the house–over the years they’ve encountered rats, bats, birds and snakes, all alive and trying to find a way out. One day my Mom left a window open so the cats could go in and out of the house while she was at work. She came home for lunch to find a live blue jay in my bedroom. She threw a coat over it and put it back outside, then returned to work. When she came home in the evening she found a chipmunk in the room; it moved too fast for her to catch it so she had to call my brother and his friends to come get it. After that she closed the window. When the bat got in my Dad was going to smash it with a broom, but fortunately my mother stopped him (he probably would have just broken all the furniture while trying to nail the bat.) The bat flew into the bathroom and landed on a towel; Mom put a large salad dish over it and made my Dad open the bathroom window so she could throw the bowl, the bat, and the towel out into the yard. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/11 "2003-04-21T15:27:31Z")
Please put a bell around your cat’s neck. Tens of Millions of birds are killed a year by house cats. Or better yet, keep it [inside](http://www.pinery.org/wildlife.htm). > [@](#): > > According to the National Audubon Society, cats kill hundreds of millions of native birds and other small animals annually in the United States. They have contributed to the decline and extinction of numerous bird species worldwide. Due to such alarming statistics, the Audubon Society has recently adopted a resolution urging that all cats be kept inside. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/12 "2003-04-21T15:51:48Z")
Belling my cats didn’t work - they actually got MORE stealthy and sneeky by learning to keep the bell quiet. So now, indoor only - except for short supervised visits to the “Sand Bath” where they roll in the dirt. ---
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-found-a-live-half-eaten-bird-in-my-basement-this-morning/169943/13 "2003-04-21T21:10:23Z")
Belling didn’t work for ours either. And I refuse to keep my cat inside. Anyway, this is the first bird she has gotten in a couple years.