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Healthy Outdoor Cats are killers........
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Hi, it's Tambolina here again......putting you over to Jan........
I'm putting this in under 'Cat Health', because a healthy outdoor cat is a killer.....that is its nature.......I AM SO UPSET.....one of my cats has just killed a beautiful little robin. We have had a pair of robins here for some years......but I knew this would happen eventually......I think it was Tambolina....or it may have been Colin who killed it.........I buried it under the flowering cherry tree after kissing it and saying a prayer over it........
I love cats....but they are HORRIBLE......
any thoughts?
ps from Tambolina......'can't help it......a cat's got to do what a cat's got to do........'
I recently got to a parakeet momma had rescued after it escaped from its cage.
Momma was very sad for the 'keet, who was a beautiful and friendly little bird, but she chose to look on the bright side. I am an older kitty who only recently (in the last year) joined the household. Though I can still be grumpy, for a very long time I was very depressed and inactive. The fact that I followed my insticts and caught the bird made momma happy since it was a sign that I am really healthy again, but she isn't any less sad for the bird.
Momma agrees that it is horrible, and very sad, but as you said, cats will be cats.
Yes, everything dies and all that, but what I think is horrible about it is that these birds were not killed for a purpose as a wild animal would kill. Wild animals kill to eat. If a healthy pet kills, it's for recreation.
I agree with Dulci. I have barn cats that are fed and watered twice a day. I also have 4 bird feeders in my yard. The past week everytime I looked out my window, there was at least one cat-watching the feeder(s). I have found one bird that one of them got. It is a fact of life-for each and everyone (thing) of us on Earth, there is a time to live and a time to die.
I feel bad about your robin-but it was it's time.
Most cats don't really understand the concept of "being fed enough not to need to hunt". To us small moving objects are food, and you try and earn your food whenever you can, because you never know when you might need that snack. Therefore the logical thing to do for us is to kill those moving objects and if we're not hungry perhaps bring them back to our humans to say "look, I got some food for us to eat later".
It is not boredom or cruelty, it is pure instinct. Mom's thoughts on it is that if your pet's hunting instincts or the bloody aftermath are not really something you want to deal with, you're better off keeping your kitty indoor so that the only thing they pounce on is kibble.
Letting your cat go out there is telling them that they are responsible for getting their own food, regardless of whether there is an immediate need for it.
We are NOT "horrible" because we kill for our food. It's just what cats do. Cats are carnivores designed that way by millions of years of evolution. It is instinct built deeply into us.
I've been on Catster long enough that I'm starting to repeat myself (at least I'm not so senile that I don't when when I do!), and for those of you with indoor kitties who haven't had the pleasure of Fluffy bringing home a half eviscerated mousie as a gift, please take a look at "What Jeff Killed," which gives all the gory details, illustrated by superb photographs and well wrought descriptions.
http://whatjeffkilled.com/060306.html
Mmm, didn't that just make you want to upchuck your dinner?
And, Tambolina, you naughty thing. So sweet-looking, and yet so deadly!!! But you're just following your instincts, and it shows that you are a healthy cat, physically and mentally (I bet killing wee critters is a great stress-reliever for cats). And your Human was very kind to bury Mr. Robin in a little grave. I think I'm going to cry...
Three things that occurred to me after my last post:
(1) My vet once told me that female cats are said to have a stronger hunting instinct than males. That makes sense, if you think that Momcat has to feed the kittens. But where does that leave old feral Tom Cat? To starve?
(2) I once had a cat (female) whose favorite toys were the little mousies with real fur over a plastic shell. She used to actually EAT the fur, obviously trying to satisfy some instinctual urge to shred and kill. Yet cats in the wild don't eat the fur...
(3) One reason that site on "What Jeff Killed" is educational is that it shows that cats are very methodical about how they dismember, and what they do and do not eat. And some of the kills, even for a cat like Jeff, just seem to be thrill kills...no eating involved.
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