Why don't I get paid for this?

So I am at my parents' house and I see Misty walk into the sunroom with something in her mouth. (They leave the door to the sunroom open in the daytime so she can come and go)...I am always finding something bad out there. Today it was a lizard. Misty drops the lizard when she sees me. It escapes. I put Misty in the house and start chasing this lizard. Fortunately, it was tired out and not too hard to shuffle out the door. He collapses on the deck like he is dead and stays there for a while. Finally, he leaves. Instead of being a nurse and an aspiring writer, I should be a critter catcher. To date, I have dealt with rats, mice, moles, chipmunks, lizards, snakes, and birds. Oh, and worst of all, a bug that screamed. I don't know what it was, but it was big and green and sounded eerily human.

I don't like kitty gifts. We used to have a lovely cat Miss Kitty. She would bring me mice and line there little carcasses up. She was so proud. I am so glad my kitties are indoors. The scream bug would have been enough for me

Originally Posted by nurseangel

Oh, and worst of all, a bug that screamed. I don't know what it was, but it was big and green and sounded eerily human.

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Oh my, that's creepy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by mbjerkness

I don't like kitty gifts. We used to have a lovely cat Miss Kitty. She would bring me mice and line there little carcasses up. She was so proud.

I am so glad my kitties are indoors. The scream bug would have been enough for me

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Cammy hasn't brought me anything yet, thank goodness. But once when I was a kid my mom woke me up in the middle of the night and made go sleep in my brothers room. Turns out my cat had brought me a gift; a live mouse he was letting run all over my bed and me sleeping in it!

I had a cat once that was playing with a big, green beetle type bug on the patio. She bit into it and then spit it out. I guess it was nasty tasting! LOL but she also had an allergic reaction to it! Her pale pink nose was bright pink and her paws against my shirt was very hot! I wrapped her in a soaking wet towel and she just lay there! About 5 minutes later she started to struggle against being held. It was like she was saying.... "Hey! I'm WET!!!!!!" Her paws and nose were back to normal. She never again went after THAT type of bug!!

Originally Posted by nurseangel

Oh, and worst of all, a bug that screamed. I don't know what it was, but it was big and green and sounded eerily human.

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Eww! Kind of reminds me of the movie the fly, the OLD version

Maggie was declawed by a previous owner so she doesn't go outside bringing goodies in. She will find an occasional spider or cricket that gets in the basement. She brings it upstairs and plays with it, then eats it. GROSS! She doesn't believe in leaving goodies for me - thank goodness!

The scream bug was what I have always called a katydid. I conducted a search for them online just now and that's him! It was so pitiful.

Kitty gift are so gross! Thank god Trout is an indoor girl.

Do you mean a katydid, or a cicada? The cicada can make a deafening noise.

Whatever the heck that bug was it sounds freaky!!

Originally Posted by mrblanche

Do you mean a katydid, or a cicada? The cicada can make a deafening noise.

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It was a katydid, judging by the pictures I pulled up online. It was big and green. But I just looked up the cicada and my goodness, those are scary looking. I don't think I would have been brave enough to try to help one of those .

There's only one thing worse than chasing live critters out. It's scooping up half eaten ones. Our late great Gracie was an expert hunter (the only domestic cat I've ever thought would do fine on her own if all the people suddenly disapearred).

She was a good mouse a day, sometimes 2. Caught an adult catbird among other things and a baby rabbit -which she ate about 2/3rds of.

Nothing like opening the front door and stepping in a pile of mouse guts... Eewww!

I have heard it theorized that the reason they present their prey to us is that because we can't hear or see or smell as well as they do, and don't have teeth or claws, and are generally so big and clumsy, they are sure that if they didn't share with us, we'd starve to death, and then who would clean their litterboxes?

Originally Posted by Zane's Pal

I have heard it theorized that the reason they present their prey to us is that because we can't hear or see or smell as well as they do, and don't have teeth or claws, and are generally so big and clumsy, they are sure that if they didn't share with us, we'd starve to death, and then who would clean their litterboxes?

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LOL.. Johnboy brings me bugs: mosquito eaters, ear wigs, flies.. after reading that I'll never think of it the same way again!

"Eat up you big clod! & make haste! There's been a tootsie roll explosion in the litter box."

Originally Posted by Zane's Pal

I have heard it theorized that the reason they present their prey to us is that because we can't hear or see or smell as well as they do, and don't have teeth or claws, and are generally so big and clumsy, they are sure that if they didn't share with us, we'd starve to death, and then who would clean their litterboxes?

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That's a brilliant theory. Given that I trip over an average of about 1.5 cats a day, I can see where they would get that idea.