My girl cat (who is no longer with us) once brought home a bat. She was strutting round the room with it and we thought it was one of her toys at first.
My boy cat is always bringing home ‘presents’ for us. He loves the spring and all the new birds learning to fly We’ve had pigeons, rats, loads of little mouse type things, magpies and the occasional squirrel. In the summer we leave our bedroom window open, well when it’s warm enough anyway. He can get into our room by jumping on the garage roof and then climbing across our bedroom windowsill. His most recent offering was a live frog. In my bedroom. At midnight. Not impressed.
My mother left a window open once when she went to work and when she came home for lunch she found that one of the cats had brought home a live jay. She threw a jacket over it and put it back out. Then she went back to work.
Arriving home in the evening, she found that the cat had turned a live chipmunk loose in the house. She couldn’t catch it and had to enlist the aid of my brother to remove it.
A large dead rat, a gift from the cat, just inside the basement pet door, next to the washing machine. Yuck. I am unable to get near enough to remove it, and neither my teenaged kids nor their burly friend will step up. If we wait too long, the cat will probably bring it upstairs to be properly shown off. I wish I could train the dog to “remove to a faraway place”, the opposite of “fetch”. He can leave it in the Pet Sematary that is on the other side of the back fence.
From the cats, just the usual assortment of small dead rodents.
The best score from the dogs was the chunk of deer skull with broken antlers still attached that they found in the park. Not sure how it got there, but there are both deer and coyotes in the area. That’s still an occasional chew toy and I trip over it in the house regularly. I did let my dog bring home a deer leg, shoulder to hoof, still with hide on it, once, but I won’t do that again because that was really stinky and it was a long ride home in the car with it. He just seemed so proud of it and carried it a long way back to the car that I would have felt really mean taking it away from him.
My Vandy once got a finch and tried to bring it whole into the apartment, crying a strange cry I’d never heard from her before. I dispatched it into the dumpster, mean Mommy me. Now she lives at my parents’ on top of a mountain in North Carolina and has no doubt brought them more ‘gifts’ than I can imagine!
One of my dogs, I’m not sure which, brought me three unbroken wild turkey eggs. Every day, one would be brought and deposited either in the kitchen or beside the kitchen door. That poor turkey must’ve been so frustrated! Finally the bird must’ve moved her nest.
We used to live in an area with lots of little lizards running around outside. Once, one got inside. We didn’t see the carnage, but found lizard pieces all over the living room, and Trudy Cat proudly carrying the bulk of the corpse in her mouth. When she dropped it, we disposed of it, and for about a half hour she wandered around the kill site howling forlornly for her missing trophy.
Not quite the same, but amusing : There were a few ferals around the same house. We had friendly relations with them, but one in particular was extremely friendly. He would literally walk me to my car in the morning. We named him Romeo because he was so sweet. He and our youngest cat Butch would often chatter through the screen door. He even snuck in a few times, but not very far in before I grabbed him. One day, he got as far as the kitchen. When we got to him, Butch was very calmly holding him down by the nape, as if detaining him for us until we kicked him out.
I heard a loud squeaking around the corner, down at the end of the hallway. The noise got closer and I thought “Oh shit, the cat has caught a live mouse for me, and I’ll have to deal with it.”
Then the cat comes around the corner, with the “mouse” angrily flapping it’s wings! It was a bat. I thought it wouldn’t be able to fly, so I whacked at the cat to get him to drop it. The bat starts flying around my living room, just like in the movies.
I got a pillow and timed it as the bat flew in circles, and knocked it out of the air. I got an oven mitt and used it to pick up the bat, which was still alive and began to struggle. Took it outside and tossed it into the air, and it flew awy.
We have adopted a neighborhood feral cat, who refuses to come indoors. She gives us gophers every so often. She doesn’t eat them, but she does kill them dead, and then leaves them on the bottom stair of the back deck, so we’ll see it when we come down to feed her.
We’ve watched her hunting; when she (I guess) hears the gopher digging she will wait patiently for hours (it seems) for it to come up for air, and then pounce!
Roddy
When I was about 10, we had a miniature dachshund who presented us with four or five bunnies, all unharmed. Their eyes were barely open and their faces were pushed in from nursing. Returning them to their den wasn’t an option so we tried to raise them. They only lasted a week or two. It was tough but important lesson for us young folk.
Our first Standard Poodle was allowed to run free in the early days. His favorite prize to bring home was the remains of codfish (heads, mostly) which had been discarded off the boats and washed ashore. The bigger and more putrescent the better. He seemed to like to roll around on them and use them as toys. I don’t think he ate them.
Growing up my beagle used to bring us live baby bunnies. First time we assumed he was just carrying in one of his unstuffed toys,until it ran away once he dropped it. He still managed to get a couple past us after that.
My cats are indoor, so they only hunt socks, feather dusters and such. We did have 2 mice in the basement while our garage doors were being replaced, they caught the mice and left them fully intact, but dead.
Kate, my English Springer, had a talent for hiding things in her mouth. When we had company over in the new house she came inside looking totally innocent, then she dropped a whole, wet squirrel on the rug at my mom’s feet.
Betty brought home a baby cottontail by the scruff of the neck. I was always pleased for her when she killed something but this little guy was alive and howling. My dad took the hose to her and the little fellow made good his escape.
We’ve had pigeons, rats, loads of little mouse type things, magpies and the occasional squirrel. In the summer we leave our bedroom window open, well when it’s warm enough anyway. He can get into our room by jumping on the garage roof and then climbing across our bedroom windowsill. His most recent offering was a live frog. In my bedroom. At midnight. Not impressed.