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Overachiever cat
Jul. 2nd, 2012 12:57 pmMiss Chloe has been honing her hunting skills. And/or, the excessive dry hot weather we've had has been making the prey animals stupid.
She's proudly brought freshly-killed squirrels to the kitchen door- more than a couple of times. She's brought a rat, and mice. She did bring a bird, once, but that's more Dash's specialty. These past couple of weeks, though, she's had a meadow vole (yes I looked it up because it looks different enough from the usual house mice that I couldn't decide if it was a vole or a mole), a field mouse, and just now she captured a chipmunk.
I say captured, because we (two of the cats and I) heard it go down out on the patio. They were looking to the left, by the garage door, one standing up to look out the lower part of the screen door, the other in the window. I got up and went to the door to find Chloe on the top step, with what was clearly a large chipmunk hanging from her mouth. She was trying to meow around it, and was obviously wanting me to open the door so she could bring it inside. I told her she was a mighty hunter, but that all chipmunks needed to stay outside. She was not putting it down, was sure I would change my mind.
Finally she did set it down- whereupon it leaped off the steps into the mess of old moldy leaves that I can never get all the way rid of beside the steps (breezes just blow more stuff in when I clear it out). She was unwilling to jump into the moldy leaves herself, but she was right there beside the pile. I went ahead and let Corrigan out so she could attempt a teaching moment for him.
I wonder if the squirrels were just too boring for her, so she's decided to expand her kills to encompass a variety of animals? Does she have a list, or is it more a matter of, 'ooh, I haven't killed one of THESE before! Let's go!'
She's proudly brought freshly-killed squirrels to the kitchen door- more than a couple of times. She's brought a rat, and mice. She did bring a bird, once, but that's more Dash's specialty. These past couple of weeks, though, she's had a meadow vole (yes I looked it up because it looks different enough from the usual house mice that I couldn't decide if it was a vole or a mole), a field mouse, and just now she captured a chipmunk.
I say captured, because we (two of the cats and I) heard it go down out on the patio. They were looking to the left, by the garage door, one standing up to look out the lower part of the screen door, the other in the window. I got up and went to the door to find Chloe on the top step, with what was clearly a large chipmunk hanging from her mouth. She was trying to meow around it, and was obviously wanting me to open the door so she could bring it inside. I told her she was a mighty hunter, but that all chipmunks needed to stay outside. She was not putting it down, was sure I would change my mind.
Finally she did set it down- whereupon it leaped off the steps into the mess of old moldy leaves that I can never get all the way rid of beside the steps (breezes just blow more stuff in when I clear it out). She was unwilling to jump into the moldy leaves herself, but she was right there beside the pile. I went ahead and let Corrigan out so she could attempt a teaching moment for him.
I wonder if the squirrels were just too boring for her, so she's decided to expand her kills to encompass a variety of animals? Does she have a list, or is it more a matter of, 'ooh, I haven't killed one of THESE before! Let's go!'
