When Fluffy Orange Kitty Kills

What creature has a greater hunting instinct than a cat?  A cat could kill for food, but this is not the typical motivation.  Cats love the hunt.  There are other creatures that will play with their prey, torment it, but cats are consistent with this even as adults.  We even have created a phrase for it--cat and mouse.  Another big motivation for cats is to present a gift for its favorite servant (owner).  They are proud of their work, and want you to see it.  It shows that your cat has done an excellent job defending his territory, and he wants to share it with you.  Both of my cats make kills, but this is about Simba (Fluffy Orange Kitty) for he far outshines the other feline in this category.  FOK is a huge but totally cuddly orange tabby with lots of white. He looks a lot like a Main Coon but came from the shelter.  I tried to get a better picture today, but he insisted on hiding under the bed.

If you are a cat owner who has access to land or a yard, you most likely have a much greater variety of prey than a house-bound cat would have.  Just a reminder that cats who go outside need to be prepared for it, with shots up-to-date and flea medicine if required.  I am in Florida where the flea population is great, though probably still outnumbered by roaches and mosquitoes, but my kitties are on Advantage.  I have tried several and this is the only one that works for me.  It is also commonly said that cats who are declawed should not venture outdoors as they cannot defend themselves.  I will leave that to the owner to decide if your cat is defenseless or not.  I've had cats so mean that they were the terror of the neighborhood--even the big dogs stayed away.  Meow.

Any ordinary cat has the ability to kill the normal small prey--bugs, lizards, frogs, and whatever else may happen to have the misfortune to cross their path.  I am amazed that so many lizards can still be found in my yard--Fluffy Orange Kitty must be bored of them.  Quite a few cats have the skills to kill more challenging creatures--some being sneaky and agile enough to catch even birds.  Meanwhile, other house-cats may be too out-of-shape or just not motivated enough to seek out the more difficult targets.  MY FOK (Fluffy Orange Kitty) goes beyond that. 

Sure, he kills the ordinary things.  Many lizards have met their death here.  Many frogs as well, or more precisely, many HALVES of frogs.  I'm thinking that they must taste bad, because he always leaves half behind--the back half.  That seems a shame, because I find frog legs rather tasty, yet my FOK repeatly leaves the best part behind.  I do wish he wouldn't kill the lizards and frogs as they help control the bug population and I'm pretty sure my cat is not getting all the bugs that abound here.  However, those are just the things that he finds on the porch or have wandered into the house.  The real fun is outside.

I do feel bad about the birds--I've put collars on him with bells but FOK turns into Houdini and is able to remove anything I put on, no matter what.  I think he could find his way out of a straight jacket.  I don't feel so bad about rodents--I have to admit that I had no idea there were so many creatures living outside until my cat starting killing them.  I'd commonly heard it said that rats and mice can get into sheds, attics, and even inside walls. I had lived here for 40 years and only ever seen one.  That's right--one--until Fluffy Orange Kitty opened my eyes to the truth.   I still don't know where they live--but he finds them.  He kills them.  He brings them inside the house.  He went through a phase where about 2x a week I found a dead rat under the table.  Always under the table.  Other creatures too.  A mole.  A squirrel. That last one was quite a surprise to me. It was not a baby squirrel.  It was big. He chewed on its head then I guess he realized it was too big to eat.  The mole didn't appear damaged--it was just dead.  Cats would make challenging murder suspects as they can often leave the victim dead but with no apparent signs of trauma.

Perhaps my cat understood my swears and curses about dead things on the carpet and cleaning up spilled guts, because he eventually quit bringing them in the house.  I was happy.  Then I discovered the animal graveyard.  Whoa, I just had a Stephen King flashback (big fan).  I found it in the back yard.  Apparently he was keeping a collection.  It was in the back behind some overgrown grass.  Gross.  He had killed them and then gathered them into one area.  I found (I think) several rats, a rabbit, and some large creature that I couldn't identify.  It wasn't that I couldn't ID it because it was maimed, it was not.  The creature was intact but I had no idea what it was.  No clue.  This Florida native was stumped.  I thought about taking a picture to ID it, but the thought was too morbid.  It was the size of a huge guinea pig, with brown fur tipped with gold.  The face was not long and pointy like a rat's, but more round.  It had round ears and a longish tail also covered with fur.  I did some searches and found some creatures that occur in Florida that might be it, but not sure.  It may have been an escaped exotic pet.

 Well, I don't want to make this too long and lose all your interest--if  I haven't already!  Please leave comments on your pets or my article.  I just started blogging yesterday for the first time ever though I've always enjoyed writing.  Have a purrr-fect day!