I know this is not a garden story exactly, but it's just so strange I have to tell ya'll this.
I came home from work today and went to the kitchen sink to wash my hands. I noticed there was something under the small rug in front of the sink, but I didn't pay any attention to it. I finished washing my hands and as I was drying them, I picked up the corner of the mat with the toe of my shoe and found a dead bird. I was so shocked I just stared at it.
We do have cats that go in and out, but we dont' have a cat door. I don't see how one of them could have gotten in with a bird in their mouth without being seen. I don't even see our lazy cats moving fast enough to catch a bird, unless it was asleep or sick. We do have one cat that likes to wiggle his way under newspapers and stuff, but he's the fatest of them all and very slow. This is really just tooo weird for words.
Mary Lee
now this is bazaare!
Mary Lee,
I don't have a cat door to the outside, but my kitties still manage to carry stuff in unbeknownst to me all the time. I would guess that you and I are just not very observant, but I know that kitties are just good at stealth, lol! One of them obviously tried to present you with a "gift". Ugh!
:-)
The hardest part to believe is that they could ever catch a bird. They are 12 years old and fat.LOL Too well fed.:) Though it wouldn't surprise me that they would pick up a dead bird thinking to claim it as their own prize.
Mary Lee,
Now my two cats are not allowed outdoors, mainly because of Winston's damaged lungs and the danger of picking up another fungal infection. When they were allowed outside, rather than having to rescue them from the top of the screen door everytime they wanted in, I usually propped the door open a bit because In a panic, if they couldn't get in on their first try, they would climp up the screen. Then I'd have to fix the screen.
I've had my share of "gifts." Most were dead and usually left fairly close to the front door. Every once in a while, I'd find a head buried under an area rug. The live or wounded ones were harder to catch. Lucky even brought in a baby cottonmouth once. I had to use a pair of kitchen tongs to pick that one up. The garter snake was harder to catch. You should have seen the upended furniture during that chase.
Silverfluter, I read somewhere that the best fed cats are the most successful! I guess because they are the ones that can afford to wait the longest for an opportunity.
This message was edited Mar 30, 2006 8:47 AM
Bettydee, well I never thought about being well fed being an advantage.:)
The cottonmouth in the house must have been quite a problem! We found a baby snake one day but I think it was a king snake. We caught it and put it under the house. I'm sure there was plenty for it to eat there.
Mary Lee
Veronica,
I never thought about that, either, but it sure makes sense. In fact, I can imagine my fat cat sitting in the grass, and the birds/lizards/etc thinking that the blob couldn't possibly move fast enough to pose a threat. But I've seen Jinx move when she wants to, and she can indeed be very quick on her feet!
When I was in college, one morning one of my kitties very calmly dropped a baby rattlesnake right on my bare feet as I stood at the stove. I woke up in a hurry that morning, no coffee needed, lol!!
I hope my kitties never bring a snake in the house! What an eye-opener that would be! One of my cats lines up dead mice by the garage/laundry room door. Nothing like stepping on a dead mouse first thing in the morning.
Calalily, ewwwww!!! LOL
They used to leave dead mice for us to find, but that was when we had mice living in the house. Having cats in the house finally solved that problem.:) Once we found a mouse in the bath tub. We put the male in the tub and stood by to watch the action. Much to our dismay and surprise, the cat took one look at that grey blur running around the tub in circles and made a beeline for the door! He didn't want any part of that. So we figure it was one of the female cats that was catching the mice.
He will chase defenseless geckos and lizards down though. He gets in trouble for that and his feelings get very hurt.
Mary Lee
No mice in the house, they catch them out in the field and put them right outside the door in the garage. My kitties don't like to stay in the house, so we fixed them a kitty door into the garage and they can come an go as they please.
I tried to make them house cats, but they tore up my curtains and my window screens!
Mary, your cat reminds me of one we had a long time ago. We got her from the shelter and she'd been in the little cage so long she hopped like a rabbit. She was terrified of mice and all other little critters. My parakeets used to walk on her back. She was happy to be a house cat as long as there were no mice around!
One of our cats (the biggest and fattest) brought in a mouse completely hidden inside his mouth and let it out right in the middle of the living room to play with. I caught it in a plastic container when it ran into a compartment in a storage unit. LR was very disappointed about losing his "toy"! I now check the mouth carefully when one of the cats wants in. A closed-mouth, muffled meow is a sign of trouble. I have intercepted them with birds, lizards, bugs. They all love to hunt; the part Manx even catches bunnies and field rats. Yuk! The cats come and go in the daytime, but all are inside at night. Too many bad things can happen to cats outdoors at night here as there are coyotes, foxes, and other varmints all around us.
My kitties had not choice in the matter. They became indoor cats when my DH adopted a Border Collie/Australian Sheepdog with very strong herding instincts. Our vet suggested they not be left alone with the dog, especially an untrained one. A frustrated herding dog is capable of grabbing the wayward "herdee", giving it a good shake and accidently killing it. It took months and months to get Lucky and Winston used to being indoors. Winston was a very sick kitty most of last year. He and I traveled to A & M vet hospital every two weeks for 2-1/2 months while the esophageal tube was in him. Then once a month for the rest of the year. Now going outside could be a death sentence for him. I've provided plenty of comforable window perches and toys.
Betty, what was wrong with him? Did he catch some kind of fungus in his lungs?
I had to make my fat cat Tigger a house cat for three weeks(he had a little accident involving a rose bush) and he was soooooo happy when he got to go back outside.
Winston had histoplasmosis, a fungal infection of the lungs, eyes and brain. The fungus exists wherever bats and high bird populations are found. The fungal spores are found in the soil and can remain dormant for years until it finds its way to a dark, moist and warm environment — usually the lungs. The spores get kicked into the air whenever the soil is disturbed. We live on a cattle ranch. Dusty places. Cats and dogs under 4 years old are more likely to get it than older animals. Humans can get infected also, but it's NOT contagious. Having it once doesn't impart any immunity so Winston can't afford to get it again. Fungal infections take so long to cure. He was diagnosed late last February and was on medication through October.
It took several weeks to determine what was wrong with him. By then, he was down to less than 9 pounds and had to be hydrated every day until I could get him to A & M. He was given a less that 50% chance of surviving. Because his lungs are so scarred, his endurance is limited and may not make it home if he were to be chased by a predator. Last month Winston sneaked out between my DH's legs as was going out to feed Blue (named because she has very pale blue eyes). By the time I got my shoes on to go look for him, Winston was on his way back in.
Wow, there are some really interesting cat stories out there. Patricia, I agree with you about keeping them in at night. We learned that the hard way. We lost two wonderful cats to fast traffic on the street behind us. I think ours have gotten to be 12 years old mostly because we keep them in at night. Also because the neighbor next door died (poor guy, he was very lonely). But he didn't like cats and he put out a trap to catch them, because they were catching his wild birds. The city pound would come by and check it every 2 days or so. He killed one of our cats that way.
Betty, in Tennessee there are a lot of chicken farms(we had a huge chicken farm when I was a child). I know four people who had histoplasmosis. Two of them died from it. The third one had to take medicine for years to get rid of it. The last one, a friend of my husband that has a landscaping service, was working at a house that was built over an old chicken farm. He caught histoplasmosis from the soil and it got in his brain. He was sooooooooo sick for months and is still recovering, probably will never be 100% better. He was in a coma for a while from it.
A long time ago we had a german shepherd named Smoky. He caught blastomycosis. They said it came from chickens. It attacked his brain and made him blind. We went to UT in Tenn. but they couldn't save him.
Oh, these are some really sad stories. I had never heard of these problems.
So, my fat cat Jinx came in earlier this afternoon, and there was just something about the sound of her meow... She had a poor lizard laying on its back and she was just sitting there looking at it and then at me. "See? Pretty neat, huh?"
Didn't see any bite marks, but it didn't run away when I put it in a safe place outside, I wondered if a leg was broken or if it was just too traumatized to move. I checked a little later, it was still there. I checked again just now, and he's gone.
Veronica, I remember that when we did the San Antonio nursery date you were telling us in the van about Winston. I know it was a really long haul for you, but I'm glad he made it.
Until Winston got sick last year, I hadn't know such a disease existed and that it's just as deadly to humans.
Susie, your story makes me doubly thankful that Winston survived.
Mary, many of the "gifts" Lucky brought in reacted much the same way as that little lizzard. The only one that hit the ground running was a baby rabbit. It wasn't hurt at all. I guess that it was used to being carried by its mother and just went limp when caught.
I found a "dead" lizard on the porch right by the back door yesterday afternoon. He looked whole and undamaged, so I nudged him with a stick to see if he was alive. Stiff and gone, it appeared. I left him for DH to move. He came in an hour or so later and told me he had moved a big lizard to a tree to keep the cats from getting him. Evidently the lizard was scared stiff, literally, and faking death for protection. One of our cats must have brought him up, hoping to bring him inside, and became bored when there was no activity. One cat was napping just a few feet from the lizard when I first found him. But with five cats, there's usually no telling who the culprit was unless you catch him/her in the act.
Patricia, the leopard frog will play dead if something scares it, it will strech out stiff like a dead frog and won't liven up for a long time. Maybe the lizard has that same defense.
Scarded stiff, lol.
Yes, exactly! When Lauren was a little girl she found one and caught it. It immediately stiffened up with it's hind legs straight out and it's front legs over its eyes. She started crying because she thought she'd killed it. I thought it had died of a heart attack. We took it out and laid it beside the watergarden. We checked on it from time to time. Finally it uncovered it's eyes, sat there a minute and then jumped in the water.
My cats bring in various critters also...birds not so often but big insects and starting about now there will be baby snakes and lizards. Not much chance of making house cats of them because they were strays when they adopted me, and fully fascinated with the outdoors.
They do prefer to be in at night. Their hunting instincts are so strong that they are always honing their skills. It pains me to see them capture something and then bat it about with their sharp claws. I pick the snakes up by their tails and carry them to the fence line; ditto the lizards if the tails are still there. Fascinating creatures, cats.