[warning: BIRD DEATH]

[deird1]

Elf brought me a bird today.


My first cat, Koko, arrived when I was about 7. He was there to solve our mice problem - and solve it he did. He was an astonishingly effective killer of small, cute animals.

Although I'd read many storybooks about cats, and knew about the mouse-killing in advance, no-one had mentioned the other thing about cats: when they kill things, they bring them to you as presents.

Koko showed up, started killing mice right on schedule... and started proudly depositing their ravaged corpses at my parents' bedroom door.


So far I had avoided such morbid displays of affection - since Elf is a total wuss, and completely incompetant at killing anything.

But, today, he killed his first bird.


[Let me insert a short pause here, for cries of horror.]

[And a second pause for me to be a proud mummy. MY LOVELY BOY KILLED A BIRD. SO PROUD.]


And he duly came back home, and gave it to me.

The thing is - it really was a PRESENT. And my first response of running off to fetch
a) lots of paper towel
and
b) my camera
left my cat sitting there, indignantly meowing at my lack of gratitude.

...so I came back, patted him, praised him enthusiastically, and then ran off to get the paper towel so I could get the corpsified bird off my nice clean floor.





Cats are slightly strange...

Comments

[velvetwhip]

Before we turned her into an indoor-only cat, my Clara was a voracious birder - including ducks, much to my chagrin - but her brother Ike was more a lover than a killer...as evidenced by the time he brought me a bird on my birthday... and it was alive and completely uninjured. I knocked the screen out of my mother's bedroom window and it flew away. Clara looked at Ike with stony contempt. I, on the other hand, was overjoyed that the pretty little thing was alive and flying.


Gabrielle

[owenthurman]

1. Cats hunt for the sheer pleasure of it, but they need to be taught how to carve up and eat creatures with their teeth. If they don't get trained how by their mom cat, they mostly just bring presents to the alpha cat of the household. If you put out cat food in the mornings, you're probably the alpha cat.

2. Congratulations on your little one's achievements. I think he deserves tuna.

3. My cat once caught me a mouse, but he eated it. The only part that he deposited in the center of the kitchen floor was the tail. It took me a while to figure out what it was.

[smurasaki]

That's cats, all right.

My cat is an indoor only, since he's FIV positive and doesn't need to be sharing that. (Though, in truth, my anxiety issues wouldn't let me be an indoor/outdoor kitty parent anyway. I'd have gray hair in a week.) But I'm sure he'd bring me presents if he could. He is a great slayer of ping pong balls.

I knew a cat who seemed to want her presents cooked, though. She (and three other cats) belonged to the family of a guy I gamed with, but whenever she had a successful hunt, she'd bring it to the kitchen and meow meaningfully at whatever family member was there and then at the stove.

[verity]

Thus far, I have escaped being the recipient of the gifts of the kitty Magi.

(1) Gross.

(2) Good job, Elf!

[a2zmom]

My sister's cat once deposited the head of a mouse in her bed. It was kind of a tiny version of the Godfather movie.

[immer_am_lesen]

Oh, that's sad. What kind of bird was it? I'll be slightly less sad if it's an introduced pest like a blackbird or sparrow, but still, cats aren't usually about mercy-killing, so I hate to think what the poor thing went through before it died. :-(

[vass]

My cat's indoor-only, so she slays bugs. She enjoys bugs. Also she likes to kill cat toys, and occasionally my toes (five food groups on each foot!)

I read in Catwatching that the presenting it to you thing is what adult cats do to kittens, to teach them how to hunt. Maybe Elf thinks you're lacking in important life skills?

[curiouswombat]

Well done that cat. I have a friend whose cat once presented her with a recently killed parrot that he had managed to get through the cat-flap and u to her bed especially. The worrying thing was that she lived in Watford at the time - where the only parrots were expensive and valued pets....

[next_to_normal]

Hee! Also, ew.

Chelsea is an indoor-only cat, so she just leaves toy mice in my bed. :)

[rahirah]

I've never had a cat who would bring me anything, mainly because most of ours have not been very good hunters, but the one who was a good hunter was all KILL YOUR OWN DAMN PIGEON, THIS ONE IS MINE MINE MINE! about it.

I've heard that cats who bring you dead things regard you as a kitten who has to be provided for, but I'm not sure how accurate that is!