The new place we are in has 2 cats. One is a tortoise shell, and she's very much a homebody. Loves to sleep in the same room as you, and if she's in the mood she'll always try to sleep on top of you. Literally. She fell asleep on my side one night, which made for a very uncomfortable sleep (until she moved). The second cat (Frodo) is orange, and is A Hunter. All cats will chase something shiny, or made of string if given enough time to get excited. Not all cats are A Hunter. Let me explain.
While Cara has been off work, she's been busy keeping the cats company. Frodo, one day, came home with his latest kill. Sticking true to form, it was a mouse. After being yelled at, Frodo ran out of the house, and then dismembered the poor thing in the front yard. On the driveway. You should have seen the size of the slugs that attracted.....
Anyway, that was the end of the mouse. The next day, he brought home a goldfish. I have no independent verification of this mind you, just Cara's word for it as it had been removed by the time I got home.
When she let the owner of the cats know about this, not only was he not surprised, he was just glad it wasn't like last year when Frodo brought home a fish a day. It's worth pointing out that these were not small fish, these (apparently) were more the size of 'the one that got away'. I'm far more interested in where on earth these giant gold fish live, as they're certainly not taken from your standard suburban fish tank. And if a cat could catch it, why on earth has some sort of hawk not gotten them before they got to that size? It's all very mysterious if you ask me.
This weekend, I headed down the stairs for a drink. Before getting there though, I saw Frodo at the top of the stairs. He gave a very self-satisfied meow, which I thought meant he was hungry. But no, down at the foot of the stairs was a fish. A gold fish. A very dead gold fish. A fish the size of my foot.
I had no idea gold fish grew that big, but it's true, they do. Now, thinking quickly I decided to praise Frodo instead of yelling at him. I read somewhere that that is a good thing to do, so they don't try and bring you more of there kills.
And just for reference, a dead fish is a slimy fish. You cannot pick it up by it's tail.
Fast-forward several hours. We live in a fairly well treed area, and there are plenty of birds around. They're often down the back of the yard digging for worms, or whatever it is they do, so you hear a lot of bird sounds. It's gotten to the stage that I ignore them. We (Cara and I) heard what sounded like a bird downstairs, but we decided that it must have been one of the cats. Until Cara headed downstairs and then required my assistance.
Somehow the bird had gotten it's feet stuck up on our clothes hanger, so it was hanging upside down bat like. This bird was bigger then Frodo. And still alive. Frodo is very much a believer of playing with his food. I'd love to know how he got it through the cat flap. All I can say is thank you to the RSPCA for coming and taking away our distressed bird.
I'm taking 2 things away from this.
1) All cats need a collar, whether they like it or not.
2) Praising a cat doesn't work. I'm going to yell in the future.
I wonder if he'll still like me once I put the collar on him .....
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