Garden tiger - perfect killing machine?
Garden tiger - perfect killing machine?
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Pupp

Original Poster:

12,947 posts

301 months

Monday 31st August 2009
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I'm on my third cat.

Cat one was a floppy bagpuss. Did for the odd lazy mouse but was an indifferent hunter and, on the whole, preferred lolloping on the window-cill.

Cat two; bit more prolific but sporadic in successful kills and tended to confine her butcherous activities to the garden. Did bring a live toad in once and let it go...

Cat three. Different genus, clearly. Four year old, tabby shorthair (with the full 'w' mark on her head). Completely evil, death-dealing killing machine.

Two mice (I think) tonight. At least, I've had two lots of entrails glistening and twitching (yep, twitching) on the floor outside that bathroom. This is the same floor, with the beige carpet, where I've now shampooed blood marks out about nine times in the last three weeks. I've had tails, heads, feathers, feet (and combinations of all of these - once, notably, yellow feathers and three orange feet; anyone lost a pair of canaries?). It's every day when I come in from work, and every morning too. The count includes bats, stoats (yep, really), squirrels, a rabbit, spiders (yuk), shrews, voles, and a fair smattering of avians that will get me in trouble with Central.

And it's not a food thing either. She's fed well but just enjoys killing. And fighting, and killing some more... I think Pol Pot has been reincarnated as my moggie frown


singlecoil

35,830 posts

275 months

Monday 31st August 2009
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So where's the pictures?

Gaspode

4,167 posts

225 months

Monday 31st August 2009
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Ace. Our current Moggie is a ginger short haired wimp who couldn't catch a cold. We use to have a mackerel tabby much as yours, his favourite stunt was to bring whole live rabbits in through the catflap and play with them in the living room. we'd usually find them crouching terrified in the corner once he'd got bored, but often there'd be just and ear or a leg and a large pool of blood...

catso

16,401 posts

296 months

Monday 31st August 2009
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We had a similar cat when I was a kid, killed something every day (night), had a particular penchant for rabbits. Strangely it was the thinnest, scrawniest looking cat you ever saw.

Fittster

20,120 posts

242 months

Monday 31st August 2009
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Collar with a bell, might give the local wild life a sporting chance.




Edited by Fittster on Monday 31st August 22:20

SirClarke

633 posts

205 months

Monday 31st August 2009
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At fittster said get a bell, they don't seem to cause the cats any distress and definitely help the wildlife a bit as it does sound like your cat is slowly destroying every other living thing in your area. frown

Our old cat, many years back, was a burmese and used to attack dogs as well as catching large rats, seagulls, a crow and a few other surprises in his time.

central

16,745 posts

246 months

Monday 31st August 2009
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Pupp said:
...a fair smattering of avians that will get me in trouble with Central.

dudleybloke

20,553 posts

215 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
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next door neighbours tom cat used to chase and fight foxes.
was a massive bloody thing but was saft as anything round people.

AndrewW-G

11,968 posts

246 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
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It could be worse, ours has taken to hunting slugs and leaving them at the bottom of the stairs for my feet to discover!

collateral

7,238 posts

247 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
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Sounds pretty standard.

Let us know when you wake up to a live woodpecker...or a snake...

branflakes

2,039 posts

267 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
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My cat used to regularly bring home these:

http://www.brainkick.com/wabbitseason.jpg

Bearing in mind I lived in a first floor apartment at the time, he had to drag the wabbit up a flight of stairs, onto a wall, then jump across an 8 ft gap to get to my balcony so he could bring it into my apartment, usually with the rabbit still alive and kicking. This is in addition to an average of three mice per night.

Now he's getting a bit older, he's down to one mouse/chipmunk per week.

knight

5,235 posts

308 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
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My cat very kindly brought us in a live bat a few weeks ago!!

Parsnip

3,262 posts

217 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
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SirClarke said:
At fittster said get a bell, they don't seem to cause the cats any distress and definitely help the wildlife a bit as it does sound like your cat is slowly destroying every other living thing in your area. frown
My cat won't wear a collar, let alone a bell - can't catch anything anyway, think i have seen about 5 mice and 5 birds in 11 years.

Surely it is just natural selection - if a cat eats you, the gene pool probably didn't need you anyway?

Don

28,378 posts

313 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
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Fit your cat with a bell.

It will hate it. In three weeks it will be used to it.

Gradually increase size of bell until killing stops.

I've not known any cat require more than, say, a 1Kg bell.

Marf

22,907 posts

270 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
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Parsnip said:
Surely it is just natural selection - if a cat eats you, the gene pool probably didn't need you anyway?
Thats the view the RSPB takes on cats predating birds.

Jasandjules

72,584 posts

258 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
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I ended up fitting two collars with bells on to one of our cats (ensuring that the bells also connect), that has pretty much knackered her chances of catching all the mice in the area (somehow she still nailed a pigeon) but no longer do we have little mice bodies outside the back door. Though I noticed the other day she's managed to shake off one of the collars..

Halb

53,012 posts

212 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
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Don said:
Fit your cat with a bell.

It will hate it. In three weeks it will be used to it.

Gradually increase size of bell until killing stops.

I've not known any cat require more than, say, a 1Kg bell.

mattviatura

2,996 posts

229 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
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When I was small I used to have an innocent looking tabby with a really wild streak. On returning from holiday once my parents were surprised to discover there was no mail, turns out the cat was hiding and attacking the postman - Mum still has an envelope with "UNABLE TO DELIVER, CAT LOOSE" written on it.

Rarefied Brains

847 posts

234 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
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Our ex cat used to bring in all sorts and leave the bits it didn't fancy e.g. liver, entrails etc right at foot 'o' stairs. Most often mice but sometimes whole birds and squirrels frown

branflakes

2,039 posts

267 months

Tuesday 1st September 2009
quotequote all
mattviatura said:
When I was small I used to have an innocent looking tabby with a really wild streak. On returning from holiday once my parents were surprised to discover there was no mail, turns out the cat was hiding and attacking the postman - Mum still has an envelope with "UNABLE TO DELIVER, CAT LOOSE" written on it.
rofl