Thanks for the bacon and steak, dad. Here. I brought you a mouse.

Tonka caught a mouse. He called for me from outside, came in, and lay the dead rodent on the floor. I picked it up with a plastic bag, and he went out again.

Love the summer months when the furbutts think they must bring in trophies. Mice, moles, frogs, lizards, snakes, and one rabbit so far.

Usually dead.

I had a big boy who occasionally paid rent. One night, I found a huge dead rat in the middle of the living room. I threw it way out in the yard.

Mistake.

The next morning I had *half *a huge dead rat in the middle of the living room.

Cats.

I’m glad dogs don’t do this. A dog would just eat the critter and come inside. Later, after you finished supper, they’d vomit the thing back up. Then, they’d eat it again for you (so you wouldn’t have to clean it up).

I once caught my cat trotting around the living room triumphantly, clutching a small bird in his jaw. He had previously done well in eradicating the mouse problem my residence at the time had once suffered, so I assumed he’d done the same here. I grabbed a plastic bag, held it under his mouth, and scruffed the back of his neck so he’d release his trophy into the bag whereby I could dispose of it.

Imagine my surprise when the bird turned out not only to be alive, but uninjured, and spent several minutes fluttering around the living room before I opened a sliding glass door and it made its escape. I guess my cat was more interested in showing off that he could catch flying beasties than actually doing anything about it once he did so.

One of ours caught a Humming Bird without damaging it. He got to fly again.,…

I’ve always tried to be gracious about my felines’ offerings. I know it’s their way of saying “Here ya go, mom, I brought you take out!” But the baby birds just break my heart. As long as kitty sticks to rodents or chipmunks/ground squirrels (my current feline’s favorite), I’m good. But I have been brought a frog once and even a tiny garter snake.

My cats are indoors, so they usually don’t the chance to bring me offerings (we will not speak of the rental I lived in for a brief time shudder). My Akita, however brought me all kinds of presents. I wasn’t expecting the half a Koi he brought me from our pond - tail half. He was very proud of himself.

Squirrels, moles, the occasional bird. He never ate the animals. Just brought them to me.

He reserved special hatred for skunks. I became skilled at yelling “drop it” from a distance AND at giving de-skunk ing baths. He was a black dog, but he always looked slightly red in color due to the hydrogen peroxide.

My former girlfriend’s cat gave me a mouse once. I responded by giving him tuna, turkey, bacon, steak, hamburger, some ham, and a cupcake (I was running out of ideas) over the next few hours.

Never got another mouse.

I noticed the cat was swatting at a frog that’d gotten into the house. I have an irrational fear of frogs. I kept encouraging the cat to kill it (sick/wrong, I know). At one point I think I was even shouting “Finish Him” like the announcer from Mortal Kombat. Nope, nothing. She just kept swatting at it and watching it jump.

I wish my cat was a ferocious killer like yours.

Cats chase and catch things by instinct. They have to learn (usually from their mother) what to do after they catch them. Some never learn for one reason or another.

My cat is indoor only so no animals like that but he does stalk and kill bugs that get in. Except for ants, if he sees ants he will point them out and make us deal with them.

Had a cat once who hunted. And then he’d arrange the remaining bird parts on the porch to impress his mommy.

Every Sunday morning when I went out to get the Sunday paper, I had to remember to watch where I stepped, lest I step in cold wet bird guts squishing between my poor toes.

We haven’t seen Tonka eat his catches. Actually, the first one we saw – where he came up to us with the mouse’s head in his mouth – got away. Mrs. L.A. found a mouse on the patio, and assumed it was one of his kills. Creamsicle, on the other hand, does eat hers. You have to be quick to get them away from her. Tonka was a long-timer in a couple of shelters. Creamsicle was a stray in the neighbourhood that had to catch her own food before she adopted us.

Yeah, dogs are good like that.

Yes, my lovely bunch specialize in this. I think the worst encounter was when I trod on something, jumped straight off again (with the reflexes that only a car owner has - sometimes you just know) and looked down to see an eye staring back at me. Just an eye. No idea what creature it was from or what happened to the rest of it. :eek:

My cats, though, are a constant education in local wildlife. The first time I ever saw a shrew was when I found a dead one under the fridge. I never had any idea that moles could scream until one of my little darlings brought one into the kitchen, still very much alive.

In their time, they have brought in mice (hundreds of them!), rabbits, shrews, moles, voles, goldfinches, chaffinches, blackbirds, thrushes, a kestrel, red legged partridges*, a grass snake, plus various other unidentified species, all in various states of alive/dead/dismembered. I can actually tell when two of mine have brought something in, just from the sound of their meows - ‘hey dad, come and have a look at this!’.

Bless 'em. :rolleyes:

*I have to admit, I was kind of impressed by these. They’re not small birds, nearly the same size as the cat.

My indoor cat used to leave the bottom half of crickets on the pillow, next to my head.

What a great sight to wake up to. I tried to appreciate the thought though.

Wait a minute - the mouse escaped without his head? I have a newfound respect for mice!

My dogs have never been much at hunting, apart from the time my chocolate Lab Bessie chased down a fleeing groundhog and gave it a chomp on the butt.

Her biggest triumph was knocking an annoying fly down out of the air (like a WWII fighter trailing smoke). She ate it.

Ideally dead. Used to drive me nuts when the cat would bring vermin into the house.

I won’t apologize for wanting my cat to kill vermin. She was a predator. Vermin were her prey. It was all the web of life.

But she never snagged a rabbit; that’s impressive.