Conference misery::feline_v1

    I once had a cat named Scamp.  She was the joy of my existence.
     We lived in a Fenway apartment in Boston that was overrun with
    any kind of pest you'd prefer not to admit to knowing.  At the same
    time I had a roommate who moved out, leaving me temporary custody
    of a female rainbow boa-constrictor.  A friend donated a breeding
    trio of rodents to help me keep up with feeding Rikki.
    
    Scamp never learned the difference between the average mouse and
    the expensive rodent, and she viewed the cages and the aquariums
    as mere challenges to her ingenuity.  And no matter how I rigged
    up the cages, weighted and clipped the lids to the tanks, barracaded
    and blocked her access to the little rodents, Scamp would proudly
    present me with trophies at least once a week.  Usually, if I was
    lucky, she'd do it when I was awake enough to make suitable noises.
     Sometimes she left them for me on my pillow.
    
    I learned (quickly) to turn on the lights whenever I enter a room
    in which a cat may have been...
    
    Kim
    (who misses Scamp badly)
    

    
    Growing up I had a long-haired tom named Thomas J. Alleycat, TJ
    for short.  We lived in a very large, old house with a huge field
    out back which was loaded with field mice.
    
    We had a severe hurricane.  The next morning I woke up and went
    to put on my slippers.  There was a dead mouse in each one!  As
    I looked around my room, I found several more under my bed.  I started
    down the stairs (a long, spiral staircase) and found a dead mouse
    on each step and several more on the landing.  It seems they tried
    to get in out of the storm, but TJ was letting them know who was
    boss.  It appeared that he was trying to bring each of his conquests
    to me!  Of course, my mother told me that since my cat made the
    mess, I had to clean it up!!
    
    Janet
    

    These are fantastic..
    
    Can I borrow one of these `mighty hunters'?  My cats will follow
    the noise but have never killed a mouse.  They must believe in
    `live and let live'.
    
    Sandi (Lightning, DejaVu & Thunder's mom)
    
    

    
    sounds like something i could have written myself, except for the nests    
    princess hasn't gone that far yet. my husband had it figured that
    within one 24 hour period she had brought home 5 presents. the worst 
    part is that i have a cat door so everything ends up in the celler, its
    not as bad as it sounds because she informs me of each and every prize
    and then i just discard them, that's usually the case with the rodents
    but the birds are a different story. on numerous occasions i have woken
    up to live birds flying around my house, and boy it's hard to get them
    out. 
    
    my mom's cat buffy, who just passed away at the ripe old age of 19, had
    killed a opposum almost the same size as herself dragged it home to the
    back door and left it there for my mother just last year. she wasn't
    the same after that.
    
    karan
      
    

    The cat that I grew up with, Jet (who incidently lived ot be 16),
    was a great hunter. She used to bring in 2 to 4 mice a day. Usually,
    she left the birds alone, but one day (when whe was around 10), she
    brought home a good sized PHEASANT! There must have been quite a fight
    as the bird looked mauled, and she was missing patches of hair.
    
    
    Deb

    re .4 was it the cat or your mom that was never the same???  I cannot
    imagine walking into a room a finding a possum or a live bird
    flying around.  The latter would be sooooo hard to catch and set
    loose!
    
    r .5  was the pheasant like .4's birds .... flying????
    
    Our cats are strictly indoor, but when we lived in northern maine
    our neighbor's cat was declawed and used to get way up at the top
    of a very large willow after squirrels.  The neightbor was quite
    annoyed the first time I fetched her because her cat was up my tree
    and I was afraid without claws it could not get down.  That cat
    managed somehow.  The same cat would catch squirrels.  Some days
    they would be deceased, some days the cat obviously lost and some
    days we saw squirrels that looked worse for the wear in the yard,
    but that cat (declawed) HAD to be a mighty hunter.
    
    Cathy (Smokey and Bandit)  

         Lucky is a good hunter but not as smart as you might 
    think.  He catches 3 or 4 rabbits a summer and puts the
    remains on the back porch.  He also catches 15-20 mice
    a year which he leaves on the back porch for us.  When he
    was younger he would catch them and play with them in the
    back yard for an hour or two before killing them.  He thinks
    he is a mighty bird hunter also but he only catches 2 or 3
    a year even though we feed at 3 bird feeders.  He thinks birds
    are dumb.  When it snows he will sneak up to one of the bird
    feeders and lay down in the snow right under it and appears to
    to think the birds can't see him.  After laying there for a few
    minutes and no birds show up his tail starts to twitch.  He will
    move back 3-4 feet after a while and hide in the snow again.  
    Now this cat is so smart that he hasn't figured out that he is all
    black and he is laying on white snow!!!  Once he moves the birds
    start comming back, especially the Blue Jays and they will throw
    bird seed down on him just to make him mad!!  It works, his tail
    really gets to whipping around and after a while he will just get
    up and walk away with the Jays laughing at him..
         He brought a live chipmunk in the house once.  It took 2 days
    to get it out the door!!
    
           Let them live free or die
    
       Ken

    RE: .6
    
    yes, pheasants can fly. They are pretty big game birds.
    
    Deb

    About eight years ago my daughter brought home the cutest calico
    kitten ever.  Juliette (the kitten) was a great hunter.  In her
    first year of life she brought home a bat, a snake, several mice,
    2 squirrels, and I don't remember how many moles - all dead,
    fortunately.
    
    The bat was the funniest.  It was the first creature she killed.
    I was a little paranoid about it since bats aren't easy to catch.
    So I figured that this one had to be sick.  I called the vet and
    he said he would send it to the state lab for tests.  I took it
    to him and he said I'd only hear from him if it tested positive
    for rabies.  (Juliette was only a couple of months old and hadn't
    yet had her rabies shots).  Well, the following saturday afternoon
    the phone rang.  A nice young man introduced himself as from the
    state lab...............He had called to tell me that the tests
    were negative and he knew I'd want to know since the vet had told
    him of my concern.  Of course, by the time he told me his message
    I had almost passed out from fright!!!!
    
    Juliette used to kill birds by the dozens - especially in babys
    in the spring.  I always knew when she had killed another - the
    mother would be flying around attacking and Juliette would be running
    from under the car to under the porch to anywhere for safety.....
    
    Ah, cats!!!
    
    Ellen

    Winston once tried to take down the rooster that lived at the ranch
    near our house.  The rooster had wandered up to our fence.  Winston
    was and still is and indoor cat.  He took paw to screen door, and
    was out in a flash.  Went right for the jugular.  Took me a minute
    or two to gather my wits (not an easy task), put on shoes, grab
    a pillow case, and head over the fence after him.  Once I caught
    him and put him in the pillow case, I couldn't get back over the
    fence (of course!).  I was not pleased to have to walk through an
    unkempt field to the road and then all the way around to our street
    and back to the house with Winston kicking and growling inside the
    pillow case.
    
    He is also the indoor cat that went sailing out of the house, caught
    a bird in midair and came running back in with it, only to turn
    it loose in the house!
    
    Never a dull moment at our place.
    
    Jo