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| Zinni with another victim |
Apparently, there is nothing you can do to really stop this behavior. Outside cats are natural hunters. Sometimes they eat their catches, but it seems they leave most of their victims for us to enjoy. They appear to take great pains to place the “treats” where we will either step on them on the way out the door or at least notice them. They seem to arrange them in an almost artful way at times. Occasionally, they even stand by the door and meow until we go look and they can show off their skills. We are supposed to make a big fuss over every tiny animal corpse. “Oh, thank you, kitties!" we say, "Mmm…delicious!” Then we have to dispose of the nasty things without the cats seeing us and before they start to smell and attract flies.
This is getting old.
I mean, mice are pests. I think they are kind of cute, but they are also problematic. They have destroyed many things of ours. For instance, we lost a good sweet potato crop last year to mice, and our air mattress, which we had stored in the basement, had an inch-wide hole chewed in the side for a mouse nest. We are fine with the cats getting rid of mice. We don’t even care if they eat them. We just don’t really want whole mice and mice parts (such as a lovely pile of mouse guts) to greet us nearly every day as we walk out the door.
This past weekend, they killed five rodents and two birds. I threw them all out in the field by our house. This morning, I found two more mice placed side by side. I muttered “Gee, thanks again, kitties” as I rushed to my car, late for work. When I came home, there were two more small moles added to the carnage. I am not sure if they were the same ones that I had thrown out in the field or new ones, but I had four gross tokens of gratitude to dispose of after a long day of work. Then I reached the step by the back door and saw the final touch…a bloody, severed mouse head. “Kitties!” I yelled, “This is getting out of hand! Enough is enough. I don’t want any more treats! This is disgusting!” I don’t know if I hurt their feelings. I don’t even care at this point. It is beyond disturbing.
What makes their killing sprees even more disturbing is when I see the way they kill things sometimes. I have seen them catch a mouse or a mole, only to let it go so they can chase it again and torture it. “For crying out loud, kitties, just kill it or let it go; don’t traumatize it for an hour.” They don’t seem to comprehend my words of advice.
If I ever see one of them with a bird, I chase them and make them let it go, and so does Kevin. We have saved a few birds’ lives this way. I even tried using collars with little bells on them. This is supposed to scare the birds and let them know the cats are coming. My cats are so stealthy, however, that this did not stop anything. Then they both lost the collars (along with the engraved metal tags with our information). “Safety collar” just means “your cat will lose this collar within a week or so.” Perhaps the cats didn’t really lose them, but took turns taking them off of each other so they could be better killers.
I guess I will have to get used to this unpleasant display of affection, as it shows no signs of slowing. I can’t believe they find so many mice, but we do live out in the country, with plenty of places for small rodents to hide. I’ll just have to remember that they love us and want to feed us like we feed them. That almost makes up for the feeling of nausea every day.
So, how about you? Any serial killer pet stories to share? I’d love to hear them.
