Sprackle did. She’s been on a bit of a killing spree.
She killed a robin last night and three sparrows this morning – all of which were brought into the house.
The
robin was taken to the upstairs landing (under the cover of the
Middlesbrough vs. Steaua Bucharest game) and shredded. Blood on the
skirting boards and everything.
The sparrows this morning were accompanied by a mostly unharmed sparrow which we managed to liberate.
I
am very cross with her – not least because the robin was one of a pair
that had been nesting in the back garden for a fortnight or so.
Unfortunately
I have to hide the fact that I’m cross because it’s not her fault that
she’s a predator and she wouldn’t understand.
Nonetheless certain procedures have now been put in place – she doesn’t understand these either:
- An embargo on unsupervised visits upstairs (aided by a door at the foot of our stairs)
- Liberty
of kitchen only during the day (I filled the kitchen with her toys and
things this morning sto try and prevent her getting bored and scaling
the cupboards) - The cat flap will be sjut at dusk and dawn (prime hunting times)
- The back garden has been rearranged to try and create an obstacle course in front of the ivy where the birds seem to nest
In the mean time I think we just have to wait and see.
Bad puddy tat!
18 Comments
April 28, 2006 at 9:45 am
My
cat’s are too clumsy to get birds, they pure mousers, which is useful
cos my house has quite a lot of mice. My mum used to deny their
existance but she can’t any more!
Dan’s mum still seems to be trying to stop their cat eating birds even
though it’s a well established habit now. It’s quite funny lying in bed
and hearing the shreiks of “leave it alone! bad cat!
April 28, 2006 at 9:59 am
I’m going home via Pets at Home to get some sort of cow bell arrangement to weigh her down with.
The delicate tinkling little thing which came on her current collar is clearly not doing the trick!
April 28, 2006 at 12:19 pm
You
can also get some weird ultrasonic bell things for cat collars that are
meant to warn birds away – they’re meant to be quite effective – cats
often work out how to move without making their collars jingle after a
while!
We haven’t had any bird related incidents since my
cat had a mysery illness a couple of years ago and all her teeth fell
out – which has proved to be the most effective deterrent – she could
still catch them, but they mostly just fell out of her mouth and flew
away again!
April 28, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Strangely
since we put the cats on dried Iams cat food they’ve stopped bringing
in things and muching on them. However, this does mean that they bring
in live mice on a Very regular basis.
However, a live mouse that you can catch is better than finding a headless corpse in a pair of shoes….
April 28, 2006 at 1:12 pm
The RSPB say its OK for Sprakle to kill birds: link
May the bloodshed continue!
April 28, 2006 at 1:24 pm
My
dog used to go after anything with wings. One day it caught up with an
injured duck, got confused that it hadn’t flown off, ran infront of it,
sniffed it a bit, and ran off.
April 28, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Thats
a years supply of wildlife for Kelvin, though he has learnt that I
really don’t appreciate them being brought in so now tends to leave
them outside the back door.
Not had anything yet this year
though, probably because the other cats have realised he is smaller
than them and so have started bullying him, rather than the other way
round.
April 29, 2006 at 8:45 am
Cleo
bought us a bird’s egg once. She carried it gently in her mouth so it
wouldn’t break and left it in the conservatory for us. She also once
did an amazing thing where she jumped and caught a bird in mid air.
It’s funny when cats catch something and spit it out at your feet and
look at you with the face that says ‘go on, cook it for dinner then’.
Tho the only things Smudge ever catches are the animals that have laid
down and died first. The cat we used to have, Boris (RIP), caught a
stoat once, and he bought home someone’s roast chicken, and someone’s
pet guinea pig. Ahem…
April 29, 2006 at 3:10 pm
The
bells on our cats never prevented them from being very efficient in
their hunting! Squirrels (alive and difficult to remove from the house
once given as a ‘present’), pigeons, mice, baby rabbits, worms!,
grass–snakes.
You name it, we’ve probably had it caught by one of our cats, including
the next door neighbours rather expensive carp. Would have been fine
had there not been a trail of muddy cat paw prints from their pond to
our garden fence…
I
would say that they often grow out of it with age, but as our 18yr old
has been known to bring in pigeons, it’s not really true! Ours have now
decided however, that it’s much more fun to watch with supposed evil
intentions and wait for the human to become flustered and try to
prevent them doing it.
They never did learn the art of killing though, they just let them go (once indoors) as a sign of their love!
April 29, 2006 at 9:18 pm
… and Casanova syndrome killed Robin Cock
April 30, 2006 at 2:34 am
Gizmo
(my cat) brought in a bird once and hid it behind the sofa, returning
to it every now and again to play with it. Took us a fortnight or so to
work out what the damn smell was…
April 30, 2006 at 12:20 pm
Boris
brought in a mouse once and it was still alive, and it ran behind one
of the large wooden dressers we have in the sitting room, and my dad
had to move the dresser whilst my mum tried to catch it. It took them
ages. Boris helped. My grandmother was there at the time and she
wouldn’t stop screaming. My mum used to have pet mice, actually, but
that was before she had cats.
April 30, 2006 at 2:18 pm
I
used to have a cat called Bobby who was a most excellent hunter– he
used to bring in mice (alive sometimes) which you had to congratuale
him for. In his old age he couldn’t catch them anymore so he moved on
to frogs. Once I came downstairs at about 3am to find a dead frog lying
in the middle of our landing. Needless to say I couldn’t be arsed to do
anything about it and simply got a glass of water and went back to bed
leaving my mother to deal with it in the morning.
May 2, 2006 at 10:40 am
I
spoke too soon – one dead, half munched bird was waiting for me in my
bedroom when I got home yesterday. A welcome home present, I assume….
May 2, 2006 at 11:16 am
Our
neighbour has a patio window/door thing with large (full–height) panes
of glass, which birds don’t seem to be able to spot easily. One of our
cats has learned this, and lies in wait in the bushes until a bird
flies into the window and stuns itself, at which point he simply picks
it up and starts eating it. He’s had 2 pigeons and a thrush this way so
far, the clever sod.
The other cats are mostly bringing in rabbits at the moment, which isn’t great either.
May 2, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Now that story made me laugh! Minimum effort – maximum return. All it requires is cunning and patience.
Obviously it’s far less distressing when it’s not your cat/local bird/house*…
*Delete as appropriate.
May 14, 2006 at 9:32 pm
Poor sprackle. She takes down a garden invader and is punished as a result.
When the teradactyls start invading, you only have yourself to blame.
June 29, 2006 at 9:40 pm
Wow!
How did you come to name her?
I can’t believe this, but I have a cat named Sprackle too! Who would
have thought there’d be two?
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