My three are inside cats, so there are few, if any, opportunities to go hunting. They still earn their keep; two are alarm cats and the third is a combination night watchman and bathroom monitor, making sure we can make it to the bathroom OK.
I’d rather have an alarm cat than a hunter any day.
interestingly, my folks have a dog which is not like this. a couple of years ago, apparently some baby squirrels fell from a nest. he brought one inside- without harming it- set it on the floor, and was just licking it for a while.
Dogs are weird.
I don’t think my doggies are very skilled in the hunting department, but oddly enough, each of them has gifted me with a critter they caught inside the house.
I have a woodsy back yard, and every year, I end up with a field mouse or two that comes inside to escape the summer heat. My little Beagle girl once gave me a live field mouse, imported from the living room. Since I was already in bed, she was nice enough to deliver it–alive–to my bed.
And my little Border Terrier boy just recently presented me with a teeny, tiny baby mouse.
Once I got done freaking out, the reality hit me that somewhere in my house, I have an entire litter of field mice. I guess I can look forward to more presents?
But really, I’ve always wondered what my fur babies expect me to do with the gifts they bring me? Do they think they’re bringing me a tasty snack? :eek:
When my family’s cats came to the summer cottage each year, they had a quota. One mouse per night – pretty good pickin’s here.
They were pretty well fed pets – fed by us, that is. So they only ate the tastiest part of their catch and left the substandard fare for later. Nearly every morning we were greeted by a mouse or shrew – headless.
As I posted before, current science suggests that they aren’t bringing you a snack. They’re trying to demonstrate survival skills, because they’ve never seen you hunting and they suspect you might be kind of a dummy.
I wonder if there’s any correlation between this behavior and the kind of food you feed them. I mean:
“Hmmm, The Two-legged Scritchy-givers only put this nasty crunchy stuff in my bowl. Maybe if I teach them, they’ll feed me better”
versus
“Yummmmmmm. Gooshyfood again. I’ve never actually seen my Two-legged Scritchy-givers hunting, but clearly they’re managing quite well, so I don’t need to teach them anything!”.
My own cats were not good hunters. The first one did bring in a moth or something once, but nothing larger. The later two were full-time indoor cats so never had the chance - though I did offer to lend them to a neighbor who had a mouse infestation :D.
One dog was an amazing rabbit-hunter - a miniature schnauzer who could catch a rabbit quite well and sometimes brought it home to the yard. One time I saw this - it had been disemboweled. I went to get something to clean it up… and when I got back the guts were gone. EWWWWWW.
Another dog caught a mouse in the house once. He left the back half on a rug. Given that he was a shepherd / collie mix, I’m not sure how he managed to just bite off the top half - it’d be like me trying to bite a sesame seed in two: possible, but a bit of a challenge.
We have a neutered marmalade tom. He mostly brings in small birds and mice - 80% of them deal thank god. Largest bird he has killed was a wood pigeon.
My friends told a story of a cat who was left for the weekend with an automated cat feeder and an unlocked cat flat. When they drove back in on the Sunday evening one they saw something odd sticking out of the cat flap.
The cat had killed a pheasant and, attempting to drag it into the house had got it firmly wedged in the cat flat with its arse (and thus tail) in the air and its legs akimbo. Cat was now trapped in the house so attempted to solve the problem by chewing the head, neck and upper body off the bird. Its guts had drained onto the kitchen floor attracting all the world’s flies and bugs. The litter tray was also full to overflowing.
I’m a dog man myself (English Bull Terriers) but await retirement before resuming ownership