Cat instincts and the 'gifts' they bring us.

I am no fan of mice when they are running about loose in my home, but thankfully don't have any particular fear of them as my boy finally passed that rite of passage to fully fledged proper cat last night.  Yes, Mouse caught his first mouse.

He duly deposited it right next to my pillow and scratched and pawed until he woke me up to show me his gift, beautifully layed out on my bed sheet.  Once I was awake enough to realize what the small, warm, furry thing next to my head was (yes, I did touch it, I was very sleepy  )  I took one look at the ecstatic look on my boy's face and knew I had to reward him for being a natural cat, and for gifting me with his first ever kill.  

A couple of minutes of Mouse head butts, snuggles, petting and praising talk later and he sat beside me as I picked his little present up in a tissue to conduct close inspection.  No signs of tooth or claw marks, still warm but definitely not still alive. Could his prize have died of a heart attack as a result of his relentless chasing and pawing?      I guess it doesn't really matter, the end result was the same, and my boy was pleased as punch with himself.  He may be a pedigree cat with a regal expression  on his face and apparently no idea what his claws are for but just days before his 3rd birthday he has shown at least one natural cat behaviour.  Well done Mouse.   (I do of course feel sad for little rodents).

A little later I had a horrible recollection of  Mouse running and jumping about on my bed and pawing under the fleece blanket I have over the top of my duvet and thinking in my barely awake state that this was unlike him......   I would prefer not to have that memory.

What was the first 'gift' your cat brought to you, and how did you react? 

Oh that's great!  Well done, Mouse!!!    And well done to not freak out but instead praise his accomplishment!  

Our Three Amigos started bringing rodents from the time we got them--I don't really remember a specific one.  I always pet them, tell them "Good kitty, you're such a good hunter but mousie has to go bye-bye now...." before I dispose of the thing.  LOL  

But the most memorable kill was by my first cat, Skittles.  She was just a kitten.  Hubby and I were in the kitchen--she came trotting in, and dropped an EARTHWORM at our feet!  She looked so proud, her first kill.  It was adorable and we laughed our butts off.  We praised her profusely but then told her she'd better start working up the food chain a bit or the other neighborhood cats were going to laugh at her if an earthworm was all she could bring down!  

Skittles ended up being a mighty hunter.  She passed at 17-1/2 years and hunted clear up until the last year.  

My Casper is the 'great white hunter' and for a male I'm impressed with the number of mice he finds in a day (field mice) Of course I almost cry when he brings rabbits or birds home, but he quit 'offering' me his prey when I made him let several of them go. Now he runs with it when he sees me coming. When he brings the hated MOLE home I always praise him for a long time, but he still hasn't  learned to bring more of them! He never eats them either, but eats everything else. My Chrissy would bring me straws when she would find them, and she would always be calling loudly to announce it! It was a totally different kind of noise, I often thought that it was the sound she would make if she was ever bringing food to a litter. She was always so proud of herself to bring me those straws.

betsygee said:

 
But the most memorable kill was by my first cat, Skittles.  She was just a kitten.  Hubby and I were in the kitchen--she came trotting in, and dropped an EARTHWORM at our feet!  She looked so proud, her first kill.  It was adorable and we laughed our butts off.  We praised her profusely but then told her she'd better start working up the food chain a bit or the other neighborhood cats were going to laugh at her if an earthworm was all she could bring down!  

Skittles ended up being a mighty hunter.  She passed at 17-1/2 years and hunted clear up until the last year.  

Click to expand...

     I'm pleased to hear your laughter didn't deter her from perfecting her skills and keeping going until a sound pensionable age.       Eugh, I think I prefer the mouse to an earthworm if I'm going to have a bed partner!  

Di and Bob said:

 
My Casper is the 'great white hunter' and for a male I'm impressed with the number of mice he finds in a day (field mice) ......  but he quit 'offering' me his prey when I made him let several of them go. Now he runs with it when he sees me coming. When he brings the hated MOLE home I always praise him for a long time, but he still hasn't  learned to bring more of them! ....

Click to expand...

   He's probably helping those moles to make hidey holes for his kills in case you find them and take more of them away.....   (I did put mousey in the bin but I showed Mouse his prize lots of times and patted him before I did).

Was it drinking straws Chrissy used to bring you as gifts? 

MServant said:

 

     I'm pleased to hear your laughter didn't deter her from perfecting her skills and keeping going until a sound pensionable age. 

     Eugh, I think I prefer the mouse to an earthworm if I'm going to have a bed partner!  

Click to expand...

I was thinking about your experience.  I admire your composure!  It's one thing to have them dropped at your feet but to wake up to one right by your head?!  Yikes!

Yes, I found out cats LOVE to pay with them. I got the 'bendable' kind and would put a kink in it. You should try one with yours.My two boys just bat them around, but she would actually throw them around and carry them.

I would have completely freaked out! :lol3:

I really don't think Abby has brought me anything.

The more I think about the the more impressed I am at how I kept my cool and did the proud mom thing.     Thinking of posting it  in the I know I'm a cat parent because thread....

My first cat, Skitters, was the cat who adopted me. I opened the door one day to go to work and there was a dead rabbit on the doorstep laid out beautifully with Skitters sitting proudly nearby. I don't think I gave the full praise that Mouse received as I was trying to figure out how to get rid of it while being extremely squeamish. I did get it into the dumpster and rushed off to work.

Another cat at another time, Petunia. I am very nearsighted. One night I woke up, turned on the light, and saw a tiny grey blur run around the room followed by a bigger grey blur. All of the scenarios played through my head - A present on the pillow as MServant received or a cat kicked out of the bedroom and a live mouse running around on the bed. Unfortunately for Petunia, I chose the latter. :uuh: Where the mouse ended up, is only known by him.

Now I am totally mouse-free and very glad of it, because we have the great mouse migration every night. Kiefer loves the Zanies mice which look real. In the morning there are at least 2-3 mice on the bed and another 5 scattered around the bedroom. In the morning we take them back downstairs. If there were real mice in the house, it is obvious where they would end up.

katachtig said:

My first cat, Skitters, was the cat who adopted me. I opened the door one day to go to work and there was a dead rabbit on the doorstep laid out beautifully with Skitters sitting proudly nearby. I don't think I gave the full praise that Mouse received as I was trying to figure out how to get rid of it while being extremely squeamish. I did get it into the dumpster and rushed off to work.

Another cat at another time, Petunia. I am very nearsighted. One night I woke up, turned on the light, and saw a tiny grey blur run around the room followed by a bigger grey blur. All of the scenarios played through my head - A present on the pillow as MServant received or a cat kicked out of the bedroom and a live mouse running around on the bed. Unfortunately for Petunia, I chose the latter.

Where the mouse ended up, is only known by him.

Now I am totally mouse-free and very glad of it, because we have the great mouse migration every night. Kiefer loves the Zanies mice which look real. In the morning there are at least 2-3 mice on the bed and another 5 scattered around the bedroom. In the morning we take them back downstairs. If there were real mice in the house, it is obvious where they would end up.

Click to expand...

   I'm with you on the rabit front - that is way to big to cope with calmly.    Sounds like your crew would definitely be bringing you loads of lovely gifts.     With the Petunia scenarios - how come I had the cat IN the bedroom and STILL got the live mouse followed by the cat running about on my bed???   I don't think I'll ever be mouse free with this boy around, my resident rodents will likely die of old age or exhaustion after lengthy chases.    At least I am now reassured he does know what he's supposed to do with them and isn't trying to make friends with them:-D

Oh my, MServent, on your pillow.... truly, you exhibited super-human calm and restraint!

Susank521 said:

 
Oh my, MServent, on your pillow.... truly, you exhibited super-human calm and restraint!

Click to expand...

Oh no, not quite that brave: Mouse must know me well as he put it just under the edge of the pillow so I didn't wake up with his tiny prize right in front of my eyes. If he'd done that I would have screamed!     He had to 'point' to it so I knew to lift the edge of the pillow and find it all nicely layed out.   

Funny thread! Jamie was quite the hunter and would bring me anything but garter snakes and dragon flies, which he ate. His greatest feat was dropping a big brown rat into my lap - alive. The poor thing was petrified.

Mogli doesn't have much opportunity to hunt, but his biggest thrill to date was catching a bat out on the balcony and bringing it to bed, also alive.

Pierre just brought me a twitching mosquito, killed it and then ate it. 

They're pretty common in this kind of weather, but boy it was huge and disgusting- barely alive and its legs were twitching! I almost screamed when he came over with this proud look in his eyes and then immediately pounced on it, backed away, and then slowly crawled up on it and gobbled it down. He's still licking his lips right now.   

Otherwise, they haven't ever brought me "gifts" before (thank God), but I just had a major paranoid-drama-insect session.   

Silcat said:

 
Pierre just brought me a twitching mosquito, killed it and then ate it. 

They're pretty common in this kind of weather, but boy it was huge and disgusting- barely alive and its legs were twitching! I almost screamed when he came over with this proud look in his eyes and then immediately pounced on it, backed away, and then slowly crawled up on it and gobbled it down. He's still licking his lips right now. 

 

Otherwise, they haven't ever brought me "gifts" before (thank God), but I just had a major paranoid-drama-insect session. 

 

Click to expand...

       Well done Pierre, well done!    Mouse attempted to catch many a spider and moth before his finally chomping in to one, but the mouse was strangely intact (so much so I think it was exhaustion or a heart attack that really killed it).  I have a lovely image of Pierre licking his lips and looking all victorious.     Is he a Russian boy too? It looks like 2 blue kitties in your avatar.

For Miuku and Tiger that must be common shrew, for Mouku it was a bat and he did caught that at indoors one hot summer night as I had windows open.

For Panther that would be an adult rat and Panther is quite small cat, but he is a true hunter that is not afraid anything that moves and has a tail or feathers. He did look bit silly when dragging that big rat and attempting to hide his precious.

Little iita has caught lot of flies and butterflies, but she eats them and does not bring them to me.

Mauku has perhaps not brought anything, but I'm not sure about that as once I found common shrew in a puddle of water, she might have brought that as I gave her sausages evening before.

We do have too many common shrew around, also here next to farms there are some rats and other vermins that are causing damage to house insulation so cat or few patrolling about is a must to have really.

I'm not sure which one of them brought small rabbit once, but it must of been Panther, I doubt any of other ones would have ability to get such large prey.

JTbo said:

For Miuku and Tiger that must be common shrew, for Mouku it was a bat and he did caught that at indoors one hot summer night as I had windows open.

For Panther that would be an adult rat and Panther is quite small cat, but he is a true hunter that is not afraid anything that moves and has a tail or feathers. He did look bit silly when dragging that big rat and attempting to hide his precious.

.....

Click to expand...

Oh no, I feel sorry for those little shrew, but I know I shouldn't as you say you have too many.   But eeuw, I don't like the idea of a bat being deposited next to me! No no no.

Now Panther, there is a kitty that has ideas in line with his name and not his size.    What a great picture I have in my mind with this one!   Good boy Panther.    I do worry a little as I know there are a lot of rats around here and they are bound to be somewhere behind the walls and under the floors as well as outdoors...  hopefully Mouse will not attempt to catch a rat and bring that to me. 

  Maia just caught a baby mouse !!!!!!!  

   She started going crazy in my studio, I thought maybe it was a silver fish or other bug. But then she really got into it, was repositioning herself under the table, I moved a few things to clear her path........Sure enough, a couple minutes later she came out with a baby mouse in her mouth! I was praising her, begging her not to drop it as I went to grab a dish cloth. I called her out and she came running to me and did not release it till I had a firm hold...........So proud of my Queen Maia!

    Maia and I have a history of hunting baby mice together, the adult mice always outsmart us both . Victory Maia and Chey tonight!

cheylink said:

 
  Maia just caught a baby mouse

!!!!!!!  

   She started going crazy in my studio, I thought maybe it was a silver fish or other bug. But then she really got into it, was repositioning herself under the table, I moved a few things to clear her path........Sure enough, a couple minutes later she came out with a baby mouse in her mouth! I was praising her, begging her not to drop it as I went to grab a dish cloth. I called her out and she came running to me and did not release it till I had a firm hold...........So proud of my Queen Maia!

    Maia and I have a history of hunting baby mice together, the adult mice always outsmart us both

. Victory Maia and Chey tonight!

Click to expand...

                  Well done Queen Maia and Chey.   RIP baby mouse. I'm not sure I would like Mouse bringing me live mice but then I prefer to know mice are not running free about my home so congratulations are always going to be in order so well done you for managing to carry out the necessary reward for Queen Maia's gift to you.     Mouse hasn't brought me any more gifts recently but he has started to spend a lot of time keeping watch over the gap under the washing machine again so I think there may still me rodent action under there....